Perfect Paired Pitties: Dog Enrichment Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The Dog Enrichment Grant allowed us to hire a fear-free trainer for Arlo.
How many pets did this grant help?
1
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Arlo was pulled from a high[-intake] shelter when he was 5 months old and listed for euthanasia after being in isolation for over a month because he was fear-reactive.
Arlo didn’t know how to be a dog: He didn’t trust anyone, and he was afraid of everyone and everything. Arlo showed his fear through lunging, snapping, snarling, growling, and acting like he was going to bite. He hadn’t received any early socialization or training and he had a VERY low threshold of tolerance for being told no and having expectations placed on him.
The Dog Enrichment Grant allowed us to start working with a fear-free trainer at Arlo’s pace. In the beginning, Arlo could only handle about five minutes of work/training before he would lose his temper and have “meltdown”: growling, snarling, and lunging.
Arlo not only had no patience, he had learned that the way to get people to leave him alone, not place expectations on him, give him what he wanted, and not hurt him was to try and intimidate them.
Arlo being fearful of everything, would have over-the-top reactions to normal things, and would again lunge, growl and snap. He is now safely able to work on training for 30 minutes, his reactivity is reduced, and things that used to cause extreme reactions either don’t or cause limited reactions (he will jump or run away versus becoming defensive). Most importantly, when Arlo does become reactive, his recovery time has significantly decreased.
Arlo is still not ready to meet new people, but he did have a successful outing to PetSmart, where he was able to make it across the parking lot and walk into the store over the course of an hour and then sniff for about two minutes before reaching his threshold and wanting to leave.
Arlo has not yet been able to be adopted as he is still under the care of a behaviorist and a trainer. While he has made a lot of progress, he still has a lot of things to work through and overcome before he can safely be adopted.
