Fetch 4 Life, Inc.: KONG Toys Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

The products were used for training, dog interaction, enrichment and encouragement to play, and to stimulate dogs' minds and ease boredom.

We are a relatively "new" rescue and do not have adequate funding, so this helped us by providing toys, training tools and interactive enrichment items to our dogs.

How many pets did this grant help?

17

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Gaspar came to us as an adoption failure from another rescue. He was already labeled “aggressive,” primarily due to his resource-guarding of toys and food and his adopters’ lack of understanding. Gaspar was just a dog who didn’t like to be confined and, as stress relief, he held a toy in his mouth. We gave him a Kong when he arrived here as a stress-reliever. For the first few days, he would just play on his own with the Kong, and we were patient and waited for him to come to us for interaction. Within the first week, he was coming up to us with his Kong and asking for interaction. We slowly played with him to build trust and he would enjoy the game of fetch for a while and then go on his own. He loved his Kong (size extra large). Eventually he would come up to us with his Kong and give it to us as he desired the attention. He quickly figured out that, when we play with him and his Kong, he gets lots of personal attention. We have now formed a very trusting bond with him and he readily releases his Kong and other toys on command. He is no longer a dog who resource-guards and he is available for adoption. Meet Gaspar here.