Ozarks Kat and K9 Shelter: Play Group Training Grant Report

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

Money was used to send Debbie Cook to training in Austin. She attended a four-day class with Dogs Playing for Life.

Debbie received and passed on much-needed additional knowledge on group size and make-up, as well as general guidelines for dog playgroups.

How many pets did this grant help?

Short-term, 28. Long-term, undetermined

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

Fernando was a sad story. He was surrendered to us because the family lived in a very cold area in South Dakota and their vet said Fernando’s feet had been injured to the point that he could no longer be in that severe winter environment. Fernando just couldn’t understand why his family had left him. His behavior changed for the worse. We introduced him to playgroups. Initially, he didn’t interact with or want to be a part of the group, but we did not give up. On his fourth day, the light switch came on and he started to pick friends and even become somewhat of a play leader with the other dogs. His previous family had such high hopes for him, even writing a letter to his future new family members. Finally, the day we’d all hoped for happened and the perfect family came along looking for big playful house dog! Fernando had struck gold!