Deadlines for adoption dogs

Kelley left an interesting comment - that TLAC's director just signed something at the most recent Austin Advisory Commission meeting stating that animals who make it into the adoption program will get to stay there until they are adopted, regardless of how much time it takes.

I don't know about this recent action, but I have to assume it's the same thing that they've been telling volunteers for a long time. Their policy has been that an adoption dog gets to stay in adoption until he's adopted, unless his behavior deterioriates to a level that makes him a danger to the public or it's inhumane to keep him in a cage any longer because he's losing it.

All it takes is for staff to note in a dog's file that the dog was too rough (a danger to the public) or have the behaviorist observe his cage behavior and find that it's not good (losing it) for them to justify killing him.

Staff have made many comments to us about how it's not fair that a dog gets to stay in adoption for 100 days, or whatever it takes, when other dogs, who may be better behaved, don't get the chance to make it to the adoption side because of lack of space.

Frustratingly, very little effort seems to go into enriching the dogs' lives at the shelter to avoid behavior deterioration. Volunteers, with very little training or experience, try to work with the dogs, but are usually totally ineffective for dogs who have or develop issues. The volunteer base at TLAC is a revolving door. It's mindboggling how many new volunteers we get each month, yet how few stay active for more than a month. But TLAC cites national averages on volunteer retention at shelters, which are just as poor, and decides that they must be doing a good enough job if they're just like everyone else.

Because of the lack of volunteers, most dogs really only get out of their cages for 15 minutes a day, if that.

And, by the way, the puzzle toys for feeding has still not been implemented. They did a pilot program for about 3 weeks a few months ago, which worked very well for those dogs, but now they're still working out the logistics on how they can do it for all of the dogs, so the program is still on hold.

And they've definitely backed off of their promise to give us a week's notice before euthanizing an adoption dog. They also haven't brought in any professional trainers. Because I was out of town, I missed some meetings with Dorinda, so unfortunately, I can't write as much as I'd like to about this right now.

On a positive note, the APA! program is starting to take some of our adoption dogs to off-site adoption events to help get them more exposure. Also, the group has pulled out a few dogs from the adoption side who weren't doing well and put them in foster homes to get them training and find them new homes.

I believe that the key to getting Austin to no-kill is with this new APA! initiative and not by trying to change TLAC. I have already started putting more of my time into the new program and have been spending less time at TLAC and assume it will stay that way. I'd still like to be a volunteer at TLAC, to know what's going on there and help coordinate the program with APA!, but banging my head against the wall with TLAC is a waste of time.

I hope that soon, APA! will be helping and saving all of the animals and we can leave TLAC to their job of protecting the public from dangerous animals (the italics is supposed to denote irony).

Gabe is back

I received an email on Saturday from the woman who adopted Gabe that they returned him to TLAC. I had to give myself a few days to cool off before I could write about it or talk about it.

She sent me multiple emails while I was away with pictures, going on and on about how much she loved him and what a great dog he is. When I got back last week, I sent her an email thanking her for the updates and the work she had done with him. Her reply was not as positive. I asked her if everything was still ok and reminded her that she still hadn't used the private lessons we set up for her at a huge discount ($20). She said that everything was still ok, she'd had a health issue and they hadn't done the private lessons because their new apartment required a higher deposit for him than they had originally thought. I offered to find the money for her because I knew that Gabe really, really needs those lessons. He is still quite reactive and those lessons are the only way that I can see him learning to relax instead of bark in stressful situations. He'd made a lot of progress in his first 3 lessons and he really should have had the next 3 as soon as she adopted him. She took me up on the offer to pay for the lessons and assured me that everything was ok, it was just difficult.

That was Friday. On Saturday, she sent the email that she'd taken him back to TLAC. I couldn't have been more clear with her that if things didn't work out, that she needed to give him back to me and NOT take him to TLAC. She said that he'd damaged their new apartment and they couldn't afford it. It sounds like they left him unattended, uncrated in a their brand new apartment. I suppose I should at least be relieved that she told me and I was able to work on getting him out of there.

Not surprisingly, TLAC wouldn't give him back to me. I had to find a rescue group to pull him. Thanks to GSD rescue and lots of awesome people in Austin, I was able to get him on Tuesday night.

I've since learned from the trainer that she was doing really well in the group class we arranged for them. The husband, however, seemed to really not like the dog and was very critical of her and the dog during the most recent class. I think that her health issue, Gabe's challenges, and her husband's dislike of the dog were just too much.

His behavior isn't too bad right now. I can tell that she was working with him. So, even though the situation is incredibly disappointing, I had to leave town anyway, so I'm going to look at it as free foster care for him while I was gone and try to learn something from this.

So, what have I learned? What would I do differently? First, I would ensure that all adults in the household understand the dog's issues. I told her about them, but he wasn't around for that conversation. It would be impossible for one person to handle all of the burden of a dog with issues, especially if the other person is so unsupportive.

I would also do more follow-up with the training. I wish I'd asked sooner about the private lessons and found help for them.

But the main issue is that he just wasn't ready. He'd made a lot of progress, but ideally, I should have had him for at least another month and gotten his reactivity down even more before sending him off with someone with very little experience. I'm happy that I'll get that chance now. It feels really good to have him back.

More happy news for Arlo

Sorry for the long break, I just got back in town. There has been a lot going on in the last month, I look forward to posting a lot in the coming weeks. Austin Pets Alive! has started a new initiative, which is really exciting. There's going to be a lot more in the coming months.

Arlo was evaluated by a trainer at Lee Mannix's facility. She said that he is not fearful or aggressive, but highly insecure. With some training, she believes that that he could quickly become a great, "thinking" dog, instead of a reactive one.

Arlo's foster dad took him to daycare at Taurus Training. They loved him there and one of the staff decided to adopt him. He'll get all the training he needs. Arlo is a very lucky dog.