They’re all so cute and wonderful! Let’s get them homes! Message us and fill out an app!!
Working with these sweet shepherds has been such a rewarding experience. This sweet lady has been living at my house since we took them all in, and this past week after sending her last puppy out the door we’ve been diving in on confidence building in various ways. She went from too terrified to leave the kennel she came in, to too terrified to leave the shed where she and her babies have been making their homes in to now wanting to cautiously discover the world with a human she trusts to be near her. Once she’s fully vetted she will be someone’s constant companion and sidekick through life as long as they understand they will have to build a relationship with her. She’s worth every bit of effort!! Send in your apps and tell us all of the things so we can hopefully get one of these sweet pups or kitties in your arms!!
Update - Coy and Spice have been taken in by other rescue partners!
Look at Coy and Spice down at Pups & Paws Pound absolutely loving life!! These were two more of 29 recently removed from a neglect case, and they’ve come so far with tons of TLC from Ashleigh and Jan and friends down at the pound! Just like many of the others, they were terrified and shut down, severely underweight and in desperate need of help, but look at them now!! It’s amazing what good food, water, a clean environment, vet care and TLC can do to bring out the best in these sweet dogs! Let’s get them either homes or a spot in rescue so we can get Ashleigh back to normal in the pound again!! If we can get any of our pups adopted out in the shelter we can bring these in so let’s get those apps in so we can match make to find your next best friend!!
Willow has done a total 180 since the day she came in! Willow is an absolute JOY to be around! Her happiness is infectious in a way that makes it impossible not to smile when you see her. Willow was part of the 29 GSDs recently rescued and she used to curl up in a ball in the corner of the kennel and urinate out of fear when anyone got near her. With a lot of love, patience, empathy and sooooooooo many super good treats this is where we’re at today! Willow would love for someone to scoop her up and finish what we’ve started. Sometimes she’s not totally sure about wanting to be touched but once you get to the point that she knows you’re safe she can’t get enough!! She’s phenomenal and overcome so much in such a short time! Who is ready for this lady?! No cats and we haven’t been able to see her around small dogs. If you have an open mind and open heart we hope you fill out an app!!
Skittles is ready to start a band or join yours! Get yourself a new lead singer, she’ll be available after tomorrow when her stray hold is up!
The No Longer Scared Littles!
The formerly scared little ladies that were left at the Poky vet have settled in with Aunt Kathy and are feeling so much better about the world! Now we wait for babies!!
The Magic of Play
One of the ways we help our dogs become more adoptable is by forming play groups. This helps us observe their behaviors among other dogs and it also gives the dogs time to teach each other how to be dogs. This is something we never thought we would see with Mama P! Mama P (white pitty) came in VERY emaciated and pregnant and hyper protective of her kennel and everything in it. She’s one of the reasons why we don’t let “strangers” go back by the dogs. We’ve built trust with her so she doesn’t feel the need to protect her kennel space or try to scare us away when she’s in her kennel when we’re back in the kennel area doing chores. We don’t want her to regress, and we don’t want her to feel the need to protect her important things. We want her to feel safe in the shelter. This is not an uncommon behavior for dogs that have gone without or had things they feel are important taken or withheld from them. In this vid you’ll see Floody (who has been harassing Mama P to play nonstop since they met a few weeks ago) playing tug and actually taking her toy from her without a fight. She then gets up and goes and gets it back and taunts him to come back over where they were to do it all over again. This probably seems like nothing to most people when you don’t actually understand how possession aggression works. Since they’re able to have this back and forth and actually have fun it’s obvious she no longer has a fear of losing that “important” toy and it won’t become a life or death fight over it. This very simple behavior can actually mean the difference between a home with other dogs or a home with no other dogs and even the difference between life or death if the behavior became too violent. She’s grown so much since she came to us and now our fear went from “we don’t want anyone to ever hurt her again” to “we don’t want anyone to ruin this massive progress she’s made”. She’s such an amazing and resilient lady wh
I know kittens are pretty great but we got some great hunks hanging around STILL for some reason. Look at these big handsome examples of PURRFECTION!
Day One …Again
UPDATE: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=810722044521291&set=a.506054814988017
Bubba was in our first group of pups we took in to help out Storm Lake since they don’t have a shelter over there and the vet sort of plays that role for unclaimed strays. He was adopted out several years ago and living what we thought was his best life. Fast forward to today when a 1 yr old was playing near his food bowl. Can you guess what happened? There was a warning given to the unsupervised baby, and Bubba lost his home because of it. Initially it was reported as a bite. When you report to us that a dog actually truly bit we have no choice but to euthanize because you’re telling us the dog is not safe especially when it bites its own family members. Do not do that if they didn’t REALLY bite!! Bubba could have died today unnecessarily if Ashleigh didn’t ask further questions when the call came in. It turned out what really happened was Bubba did what dogs do when they think their resources are in danger, and he did the good dog thing to do which is warn…there was a snapping of teeth and a sound made which can seem scary but dogs can’t say, “Please get yourself out of my food,” like you would if someone put their hands in your supper as a human. I mean honestly I’d probably actually bite someone if they stuck their hands in my food, but I digress. There was no skin broken today, but Bubba lost his home. This is how he’s taking it, and this is heartbreaking for us. He’s not panting and slobbering because he’s hot. He’s doing that because he’s scared, nervous, confused and sad. His whole world just fell apart. He was really happy to see me again when I grabbed him from the pound in Fort Dodge, but once he stepped inside the shelter his whole body stiffened up. He ran to every door crying trying to get to the other side like maybe that’s where his home or his people would be. They weren’t. I took him outside in the backyard when
Behind the scenes - when we let the backyard crew out they all go out one at a time to avoid chaos and possible fights from being overly excited. Letting them back in is a whole different story! Trying to do one at a time is almost impossible, but we work with them on a routine to make sure everyone is happy and loves going back into their kennels. There’s always fun surprises waiting for them thanks to donations from you guys!
No one sits in their kennel all day long without interactions. The shelter is not a prison. Observing them with each other and working with them individually helps us learn what kinds of homes would be best for our good girls and boys too as we understand the personalities of every animal we care for. It takes some dogs a lot longer to adjust and be able to go out safely with the backyard crew, but we never give up trying!! Dogs learn so much from one another, and it’s great for their mental health. If you ever go by and notice dogs out and no one is around, don’t worry! We check on them frequently and can see them on camera. It’s far better than sitting all alone in a kennel all day when it’s nice out.
