Meridian Canine Rescue

We Can Help with Your Dog's Behavior!

Our staff trainer and behavior consultant is waiting and available to help you with easy to follow, accessible advice about your dog's behavior! She can also point you in the direction of additional resources or vetted in-person help when necessary. Schedule your consultation today! https://calendly.com/meridian-canine-rescue/behavior-consultation-paywhatyoucan

Thank you all for following us this year. See ya next year!! 🎉 #newyear #happynewyear #2024 #2025

We can help improve your dog's behavior!

We offer Pay-What-You-Can video consultations with our staff trainer and behavior consultant. We can help with everything from nuisance behaviors to things like reactivity and aggression issues and turn you in the direction of additional resources or qualified in-person help when necessary. Schedule your session today! https://calendly.com/meridian-canine-rescue/behavior-consultation-paywhatyoucan

Such a big year for our organization!! We moved to a 15+ acre property, began a program for abandoned rabbits, started the process of changing our name and rebranding, created new partnerships, welcomed new volunteers and fosters, added certifications to our prison program, provided new behavior and training services for our community, and so much more. Thank you to everyone who supported us every step of the way. 2024 was a big year for us, and we are so excited about our plans for 2025. 🎉

Ellie’s training loop looks like this: 1. Ellie approaches 2. Cue chin rest 3. Mark and reward chin rest behavior 4. Give release cue and toss cookie behind her 5. Repeat Wanna give it a try? If your dog doesn’t have the chin rest behavior, you can simply mark and reward them for the approach, eye contact, sit, etc.

Rocky, one of our EPIC dogs at the Idaho State Correctional Center, really appreciated his recent challenge. He is so smart and has already breezed through the other puzzles at the prison. Thank you to Kimberly for donating this toy!!

Two weeks ago, we received a call from our rescue partner, Lake Lowell Animal Rescue. They were contacted about a female rabbit who had been trapped and needed a place to go. There was a vet willing to perform a spay that day, and LLAR was willing to hold until we got ready. Could we take her? We are slowly growing our rabbit program, and there’s a lot of work to be done still. We debated the pros and cons of bringing in another rabbit and ultimately decided to help her. The problem was that she was soooo scared. LLAR decided to move two other female rabbits in with her to see if they would help. The other girls were also domestic bunnies who had been abandoned and then trapped at the same site. All three got along well, and the black bunny started to do much better. So… could we take all three? 🐰 🐰🐰

Our last popup of the year! If you are close to Panera in Ustick we will be from 11-1 accepting donations and selling our last hoodies/sweatshirts for $35! What you see is what we have left!

Little Finney is now at the age of biting all the things, ferociously, and playing hard — until he abruptly falls into a deep sleep. 😂 Watch out for your fingers and toes when he wakes up, though.

Training plans are, much to our dismay, not a one size fits all kind of thing. Animals are individuals. Situations vary. We must remain flexible. That said, there are principles that we can and should apply to treat each animal with respect and minimize any discomfort during care tasks, like administering meds. We do this for our dogs, and we’re doing this for our bunnies. Our basic approach is: 1. Prep and plan 2. Minimize stress 3. End on a good note The theory behind all of this is well researched. But the application often looks different from animal to animal. In this video, you see two bunnies, Grumpy (gray) and Noodle (brown). We had gotten lucky with Pickles, who quickly learned to drink meds from a syringe and was calm while being held, or Sirius, who doesn’t want to be held but will readily take an offered syringe of liquid medicine. Grumpy and Noodle are different. They have their own preferences, and while the future will look different as we continue to train them, these clips show how we’re administering medication to them now, which they need to take even though they don’t enjoy the process. Just because we can grab bunnies and force the meds certainly doesn’t mean that we should. We prefer a more cooperative care approach.

Mattie is doing soooo well in her foster home. She’s a smart one — loves training with her foster mom, Stephanie. Mattie will be available for adoption very soon. 💕 Stay tuned for more about this sweetheart!

It’s a fairly simple concept: people = food. But approaching people? Taking food from their hands? Those are much harder, depending on the bunny. We want the rabbits in our care to feel comfortable around the people who work and visit our rescue. So we’re spending the winter testing out strategies and teaching the bunnies to actively participate in certain care tasks. Like eating food, taking medicine, hopping into a carrier, etc. For some bunnies, approaching people and taking food wasn’t an issue after the first week or so. Others, like Grumpy, will take longer. But we are seeing a significant reduction in the avoidance behaviors and an increase in approach and affiliative behaviors. For anyone who’s experienced working with feral animals, this probably seems pretty familiar — a slow, quiet building of trust.