Kristina’s Critters

01/14/2025

If someone can please foster this boy - he goes back to a kennel today and has kennel stress and happy tail. This boy needs to be in a home.

Getting ready to pick up this boy from the comfort of a home and bring him back to the kennel. 😫
My heart is breaking for him (and tbh for me a little too bc I have to do it).

Last call-anyone want to stop his return???? 🙏🏡

Once he’s back today, if he has to go, we ARE STILL hoping to get him out of there ASAP so you can still help him by fostering!!!! 🙏💙🩵

DM us, comment or text me if you have my #!! 📱

Let’s work together to help this sweet young boy-who has just gotten his first taste of the good life-stay in a home environment.

We would really like to dog test him, but we need him to decompress in a home for at least 3 days first to give him a fair chance to enjoy the interaction. (Then we can know if he could be fostered or adopted with another dog.) 🐶🐶

THANK YOU ALL FOR SHARING AND HELPING US HELP JESSE!!!

01/14/2025

🐾🌿 Let’s transform your life with your dog with one of three programs: Foundations, Stranger Danger, and Reactive Rover. We can work together in person and online via zoom! Drop a comment below to find out how to get started working together regardless of location! 🐾🌿 kristinascritters.com 🤍

01/07/2025

01/03/2025

We have played with the predatory sequence in our dogs to make certain parts more or less prominent, so they could perform certain jobs for us.
When we look at breed traits and which part of this sequence our dogs like to perform best, we can then look at ways to better fulfil them.

Full video of this just released in the comic membership. Find the link and special offer in my stories and bio.

01/03/2025

When strangers touch our dogs without consent, it can be unsettling for them—much like an unexpected touch feels to us. Dogs deserve respect and agency over their bodies. Politely guiding others to wait for the dog’s signals, like approaching willingly or leaning in, helps ensure interactions are safe and comfortable.

12/24/2024

Adoptable Loki is waiting for you at the Attleboro Animal Shelter! 🎄🐾 Email [email protected] to inquire about this sweet, sensitive, smart, and adventurous boy! ✨🎄 Loki comes with pre and post adoption training support with Kristina’s Critters! 🤍

12/21/2024

Training methods are not just a “difference of opinion”. They’re a matter of animal wellbeing and ethics.

In my recent posts, I’ve talked about how shelter dogs inherently experience a lot of stress in their lives and don’t often get their needs met.

On top of that, pain in dogs can go unnoticed in shelters since shelter dogs aren’t being supervised as much as dogs in homes might be, or undiagnosed due to limited resources.

Aversive control also very much removes much needed agency and opportunities to exhibit natural behaviours from dogs who already have so little choice and control in their lives.

In knowing this, subjecting dogs in rescues and shelters to aversive training tools and methods that cause pain, fear, and stress on dogs is detrimental to the dogs’ wellbeing, unethical, unnecessary, and counter-productive.

It is also dangerous for staff, volunteers, potential adopters, and the general public since it is well-documented that increased aggressive behaviours is a fallout of aversive and punishment-based methods. Exacerbating pain through aversive tools and methods on dogs already experiencing pain can also certainly lead to the display of aggressive behaviours.

Sure, there can be situations in shelters and rescues where emergency handling and tools like slipleashes may be needed. However, emergencies aren’t training, and slipleashes should be seen as a temporary safety measure, not a tool for punishing dogs and forcing them into compliance.

And understandably, trying to help dogs find homes asap is important, but finding adopters who prioritise a dog’s wellbeing over how well they comply out of fear is even more important.

It is no longer “rescuing” when the wellbeing of animals is not prioritised.

It is no longer “animal welfare” when needs-deprived animals are deliberately and unnecessarily subjected to more pain, fear, and stress.

As says: “If an animal rescue claims to care about animal welfare, but promotes the use of aversive training, then they actually don’t care about animal welfare.”

I hope in time we will see more rescues and shelters adopt humane and ethical care for dogs because shelter dogs deserve better.

ID: The text says “It should be a bare minimum for rescues to refrain from aversive tools and methods.” On the right is an old photo of Dave, a brown Singapore Special dog with pointy ears, sitting with his mouth slightly open.

12/16/2024

12/16/2024

Mama is an incredibly sweet dog who is looking for an only animal home! 🌿🐾🤍 SHARE and let’s help her get home!

12/08/2024

kristinascritters.com 🐾🤍🌿

11/27/2024

Mama is an incredible dog with so much love to give! If you are interested in adopting her as your only fur baby, message me and I will connect you with her foster, or contact A Good Dog Rescue directly! 🤍🐾🌿

11/23/2024

🍁🐾🍁🐾