McCracken County Humane Society: Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The money was used for training and interactive toys for animal behavior. In a shelter situation, some animals stress out and exhibit poor behavior and do not show well to potential adopters. With this training, we were able to train four staff members, who in turn will train volunteers, inmates and new team members. This experience also allowed us to create a new Volunteer Handbook that allows different levels of training for youth and adults and different stages of animal training.
$1,536.00 was used for the training of four staff members for eight sessions. Interactive toys were $411.80.
Two staff members are doing orientation and training every Wednesday for six weeks with volunteers and inmates to start the program which they will oversee until the class is complete: $477.00.
The total comes to $2,424.80.
We started with dogs who were at risk, showing circular behavior in kennels, lunging at fencing and with a prolonged length of stay. Once that was accomplished, we started with dogs and puppies on intake. This allowed our staff to work with the dogs and teach them to tolerate a leash and collar, then start with basic obedience training, play groups if tolerable, and interactive toys and games. Several of our dogs who had never been looked at were being checked out by adopters and taken to adoption events; their behavior in the kennels changed, making their first impressions more appealing.
How many pets did this grant help?
So far, six dogs, and more to come
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Chewy was adopted. She had been at our shelter since Dec. 3, 2014, and was approximately 4 years old. She had a lot of energy. In fact, when you tried to walk her, she walked you, with the leash in her mouth and you hanging on. She always sat calmly in her kennel, but when she walked you, she was in charge. The training allowed us to help her understand boundaries and basic obedience. We had taken her to several adoption events, but her barking and pacing were not working, so we would have to take her back to the shelter. She became a much happier dog and was adopted on Sept. 9, 2015. It was almost like she knew it was her turn to find a lifelong home. The staff were so excited about her accomplishments.
