The Rise Rescue Alliance

11/13/2024

Happy Tails!
Our goofy, sweet guy Twitch made his way to his forever family this week.
He'd been with us for a while...
Because finding the perfect home for a Belgian Malinois, especially one like Twitch isn't easy.
We were determined to find him someone who understood the breed...
Who had experience with them, and who understood how to give Twitch what he needs to feel fulfilled and happy.
This wasn't something we wanted to rush.
While he waited for his perfect people, he lived with one of our staff members...
Learning what it means to live in a home...
And getting exposure to the outside world...
All while adventuring and hiking all over the beautiful Olympic Peninsula.
This past weekend, Twitch's perfect people arrived.
This was what we were all waiting for.
His new family has breed experience, and they have all sorts of great things planned for him. I hear daily training and agility work are in store, and they even have a balance beam and a purpose built doggy ladder for him - Twitch has his own personal doggy playground.
On his arrival, his new humans dumped a box of 120 tennis balls in the yard for him, and he was "so excited, you would have thought he just drank 100 shots of espresso". He thinks he's hit the doggy lottery for sure.
Twitch's future is looking so, so bright...
And we are so happy for him.
Be the best boy Twitch. We can't wait to hear about all of your adventures.

11/06/2024

***Foster or Adopter Needed ASAP***

If you remember, a while back we took over the remaining dogs at the humane society when they made the decision to temporarily close the Barkhouse. These were their more challenging to adopt dogs - the ones who had been at the Shelter for a long time.

Little by little, we moved them out. They went to foster, were adopted, and the rest came to stay with us at our place. But as the kennels at the shelter began to empty, we found ourselves in a pickle.

The quieter it got at the shelter, the more isolated and alone this guy became. Pops didn't do well as all of the dogs left but him.

As he became more anxious at the shelter, we made the decision to move him to our place, where there were more people, and he'd get more exercise and attention.

He did awesome...he loved being with the people and checking out the new place...

But when we had to leave him alone, he struggled.

Because we have to confine him in a kennel during downtime for safety, which he's anxious about...

And because he's stressed at the shelter now that the other dogs are gone...

We are looking for an immediate foster or adopter for Pops.

Pops is a 9-10 year old husky, and he LOVES people. He's so sweet, and so affectionate. He does well with friendly, female dogs, and needs someone that is home more than not. A home with no cats is a must. Pops doesn't like to be left alone, and he especially hates being confined when he is - the crate isn't his favorite just yet (we're working on it!).

He does great in the vehicle however - he's ridden around with our head trainer all day as she ran her errands, and he's more relaxed than ever. He just wants to go with you, wherever that might be.

If you are home more than not and you want to give this dapper dude a soft place to lay his head, even if just for a short while - please email [email protected].

We appreciate you!

11/04/2024

How awesome is this? A huge thank you to Mary Kniskern and Sonny's Spaw and Self Wash for putting this together, and thank you to everyone who donated. We appreciate you all so very much (and the dogs do too!) ❤️

We raised $400 for The Rise Rescue Alliance!! The big winner was Corrine Erly with dogs Max and Bear!! Thank you all for helping with this.

11/03/2024

How great is that smile?
Meet new kid on the block, Otis - he’s a total dream.
When his previous family brought him home, they were told he was a Border Collie X Australian Cattle Dog X Australian Shepherd - all of the herders rolled into an extra adorable package.
Otis is a pretty active guy…
His favorite pastime is playing chase with his doggy pals …and outrunning them! He is so fast!
He’s searching for a home with another playful pup to spend time with…
And humans who want to do fun things with him - he thinks hiking sounds amazing. And he’d absolutely be down to go camping with you, hit the beach or check out the local parks. He wants to do all the things.
Otis is wonderful with other dogs, crate trained, housebroken, and the absolute best snuggler. As a bonus, he has perfected the "sit for treats so I can take photos of you" trick. So my camera roll is currently filled with his cute face...and yours could be too!
Regular exercise is a must for him, and short neighborhood walks won’t cut it - he needs to run.
If you want the perfect adventure buddy, Otis is your guy.
Apply to adopt at https://j163jarsr1t.typeform.com/to/YvgcEVPA

11/01/2024

This perfect little nugget earns the award for most likely to elicit smiles and belly laughs from every...single... person she meets.
She absolutely adores people and is so much fun.
She loves toys, loves treats, and loves to learn. That means training is an absolute blast - since hanging with us, she's learned all sorts of cool things.
But more than anything, she loves to play.
Stevie is an active party girl who needs daily playtime, and who wants to do all the things with you.
She gets along great with other dogs of similar play style with a proper introduction - but she's VERY rough and tumble so her ideal friends need to match her energy.
Daily neighborhood walks are a little lame for Stevie - she'd much prefer to run and romp in nature, or play tug of war with you.
She's never met a stranger and she will dive into your arms with reckless abandon. She's snuggly, and sweet and a fan favorite at our rescue.
If you'd like to adopt our perfect party girl Stevie (we'll all cry like babies when she goes but she deserves a home of her own!), apply at https://j163jarsr1t.typeform.com/to/YvgcEVPA?typeform-source=riserescue.org

10/30/2024

Our sweet little (absolutely gorgeous 🤩) Lacey girl has always been on the shy side...

The first time her litter ventured into the yard, Lacey said a big fat "NOPE". She firmly tucked herself back inside, taking a hard pass on this new adventure in favor of staying in her comfort zone. Change has always been hard for her...

When it came to meeting new people, she usually kept her distance. She was never the dog who would run up to greet strangers that came to visit. It took time for her to show her sweet, adventurous, sassy side.

But when Lacey's new family came to meet her, she ran right up to Mom, and after sussing out Dad for a few minutes, ran between his legs, and then leaned her entire body up against him for snuggles. She loved them more than we'd seen her love any new people that came into her world. She knew right then that they were hers.

Sweet little Lacey left that day with her amazing new family, and with their patience, guidance and love she has begun to venture out of her shell. She's getting braver every day. In fact, we've gotten reports that she is having fun playing in the yard with her new brother Ernest, and she loves sleeping in bed with Mom and Dad.

Be the best our bravest little Lacey girl. We love you and we are sooooo happy you landed your perfect happily ever after.

10/30/2024

Selfishly, we don't want our perfect girl Stormy to leave...
She's EVERYONE'S best friend and she does an incredible job keeping all of the dogs at our place well exercised and happy.
But this party girl deserves a home of her own and we want to give it to her.
Stormy is just barely a year old, and she loves everyone. She's never met a stranger, and loves playing with other dogs.
She is an active girl, and needs a home where she gets good exercise daily - she'd be an amazing hiking partner!
If you are interested in giving our perfect girl Stormy the home she's been searching for, apply to adopt at https://j163jarsr1t.typeform.com/to/YvgcEVPA?typeform-source=riserescue.org
Located in Port Angeles, WA

10/29/2024

Got an extra dog crate or kennel lying around? Consider donating it to the dogs!

We are on the hunt for Large or XL Wire Dogs Crates. Plastic, Airline style crates will do as well. If you have an extra crate that you aren’t using, consider gifting it to the dogs.

Used crates/kennels can be dropped off anytime at our facility at 2751 Old Olympic Hwy in Port Angeles. Just follow the signs and leave your donation in the marked area. You can also order crates or kennels and have them shipped directly. And if you want to donate, but your crate won’t fit in your car, or you struggle to lift it and need help, just send us a message - we’ll send a volunteer to pick it up!

We appreciate you so much! And the dogs do too!

10/29/2024

Oh Happy Day!

Our sweetest guy Atlas landed himself the BEST storybook ending. Thanks to the help of our resident puppy peddler 😂 (Aka Atlas’ Auntie Mary who told EVERYONE at her work how wonderful he is) Atlas found the perfect human to do life with.

There are talks of hiking, backpacking and lots of sofa snuggles in Atlas’ future.

Be the best boy little bean. We miss you already but we are so excited for all of your adventures!

10/27/2024

Rise pups Marvin and Niko hung out with our trainer, who happens to be a dog photographer, the other day and had a mini photo shoot. How great are these photos? 🤩

These perfect pups were born in the Spring, and while they hadn't had much socialization prior to their arrival, they've been coming out of their shells more every day. They are so much fun! They love other dogs, are crate trained (they picked it up fast!) and are currently learning how to walk on a leash, and that counters aren't for surfing. 😂

They still need their neuters, and we are going to give them one more round of vaccines, but if you'd like to apply to adopt, here's the link to do it. https://j163jarsr1t.typeform.com/to/YvgcEVPA?typeform-source=riserescue.org

They'll be ready to go to their new homes very soon.

Photos compliments of Brianna Johnson at Olympic Dog Photography

10/25/2024

***Earl and Lenny have arrived! (Their Mama Mocha is still on site and needs a foster!)***

If you saw my post a while back (it made the rounds) about 2 German Shepherd puppies…we went over and scooped them up today. 🎉

These two 8 month old German Shepherds were the remaining puppies from an accidental litter bred by a neighbor to us.

We pulled them out today, and got them vaccinated and assessed. We will get them vetted and neutered very soon.

In the meantime, Mom is still on site (photos included) - she is just under 2 years old. She was very nervous - she didn’t want to come near us - but was entirely non aggressive and seemed very sweet. She just kept her distance and when she investigated us, she was ready to bolt and run if we reached for her or tried to engage. If we can find a suitable foster, we’ll go back and get her too. (If you’re interested in fostering, please let us know ASAP).

If you’d like to support these pups - they will need exams and likely Xrays in addition to their neuter/vaccines/chips - click here: https://givebutter.com/GmL6pl

You can also donate by PayPal [email protected] or venmo @ riserescue

Welcome Earl and Lenny! We are so happy you’re here.

10/25/2024

***FOSTER OR ADOPTER NEEDED***

This is Byrd (if you've been to our place lately, you've probably met her). Look at that face (and that underbite!!!). How cute is she?

Byrd is searching for an immediate foster or adopter. But she needs something special.

Byrd has considerable anxiety when left at home alone. So she needs you to be home with her, or make arrangements for her if you leave - you can bring her to our place anytime and we’ll doggy sit if you have errands to run, appointments, or need to travel.

We can walk you through how to manage her anxiety, but right now, it needs considerable management for her to feel okay and not become destructive when left at home alone.

Byrd is very mild mannered, totally housebroken, and fine with our cats. She needs to be an only dog.

She is not a RISE dog. We know our limitations and we can’t accept dogs with severe separation anxiety into our program, as, with our schedules we are unable to give them the support that they need and it’s not fair to anyone. But we’ve been helping her as we’ve been able.

Unfortunately, we’ve run out of capacity, so we are looking for immediate placement for her - she’s staying with our head trainer but if you’ve met her, you know she works 47 hours per day 😉 and isn’t available enough for a dog who really needs her own person, and a consistent routine to feel safe. So while the anxiety is pretty well managed at the moment, and she's able to successfully leave her while she works, Byrd really needs someone who can be more available for her.

Byrd currently helps with farm chores and does well toddling around with her temporary human. Once she gets to know you, she’ll never leave your side and will pretty much follow you everywhere (interestingly enough, she’s not a velcro dog - she’s pretty independent around the house.)

She’s a Netflix and chill sorta girl. She is incredibly easy to manage around the house - you almost don’t know she’s there. She’s quiet, isn’t rambunctious, and has earned herself the title of “professional napper” (and professional beggar 😂). She’s housebroken and not destructive (unless you leave her alone and she has anxiety). She loves big, puffy beds, to be wrapped up in blankets, or to burrow in and make a fort out of her dog beds and pillows.

If you feel you have a good environment for Byrd and are interested in fostering or adopting, please let us know ASAP. You can DM or email [email protected] . We’ll help every step of the way.

We appreciate you!

P.S. When she puts her ears up (we'll try to get a photo), she looks just like Sprocket from the old muppet show "Fraggle Rock". If you know, you know. But most of you probably don't. 😂 For those that do, it gives her total bonus points 😉

10/24/2024

Prior to the temporary closure of our local humane society’s dog program, most people hadn’t heard of RISE.

We were a support structure for shelters and rescue organizations…

We worked with them to take their behavior cases - the dogs struggling to shine in the often stressful shelter environment…

Pairing them with an intern studying dog behavior so they could get training, and the intern could get hands on experience.

But with the closure of the OPHS BarkHouse, we stepped onto the front lines…

To help the remaining dogs there…

To support the major rescue organizations in our community who were now scrambling to pick up the slack, by taking dogs off their plate and bringing them into our program…

And to try to find a way to get our shelter back open for the dogs of Clallam County.

So we thought this would be a good time to formally introduce ourselves.

We are RISE Rescue Alliance.

We formed our organization in 2021.

We serve Clallam County and surrounding communities.

We currently have 41 dogs in care, between our place, the dogs at OPHS, and our amazing foster homes.

All dogs that enter our program receive an intake exam, vaccines, microchip and are spayed/neutered. They receive daily exercise, training and enrichment.

We focus on perfect matches - we want the dog to be a good fit for their new family, and if for some reason it doesn’t work out, we will always take the dog back - no questions asked.

When dogs are adopted from us, we provide lifetime training support - we will consult on any behavior challenges that pop up, anytime and we have a library of video training resources available for free to all adopters.

We have 3 (AMAZING) part time staff members (one is a certified trainer), whose responsibilities are cleaning, dog care, exercise, and training, and we contract with an additional certified trainer, and multiple veterinarians as needed. The rest of the work that gets done, including dog walking, socialization, training, administrative work, etc is done by volunteers. Our volunteers put in over 120 hours per week, combined.

Our “Executive Director” (she hates that phrase and much prefers "Resident Dog Geek") receives no compensation from the organization (despite being a total workaholic). She has 25 years of experience, and often consults for other organizations to help them improve safety, decrease stress and better support the dogs in their care. She goes hands on with the dogs in our program every day.

Our training center is super cool (we’ll give you a tour soon) - it used to be a summer camp complete with dorm rooms. Now, it looks like a giant house so the dogs get used to hanging in a home type environment.

In addition to saving dogs, we provide education to rescues, shelters and other professionals. We teach them about behavior, training, handling, how to improve safety, and how to increase adoption and retention rates.

We are working on bringing low cost training to the community and plan to launch monthly classes so everyone can access behavior support.

We’ve teamed up with multiple vets and are working on a free and low cost spay/neuter clinic for qualifying Clallam County residents, and are excited to share it with you very soon.

We are so incredibly proud of this organization we’ve built. And we are so excited to finally share it with you.

Want to get involved? Head on over to our website. You can apply to volunteer, make a donation, or send gifts to the dogs.

And stay tuned - we’ll be inviting you all out to get to know us very soon.

10/23/2024

A few weeks back we put out a plea…

We needed dog food - we only had a few bags left.

And you guys came together for us in a big way.

Within only a few hours, cars began pulling up, unloading bag after bag…

Fedex brought us an entire truckload (their first of several visits)…

Other rescues reached out, offering food from their supplies…

Local businesses called asking how they could help…

And just yesterday, our good friends at Kitsap Humane, along with Bremerton Foodline and Greater Goods Charities gifted us with an entire truckload.

THIS is community.

THIS is how we work together for the animals. (And it's such an inspiring and beautiful thing to witness)

You have moved us to tears. And we are so, so grateful.

Helping the animals takes a village - and we are so grateful for ours.

A huge thank you to those who donated.

Here are just a few of you that sent food, or made monetary contributions to help us help these dogs.

Nik, Kirsten and Norman S. , Joanne J., Anna N. , Diane M. , Paulette M. , Sandy C. Mary at Sonny’s Spaw (who teamed up with Best Friend Nutrition to host a raffle for RISE), Terri D. , Wendy L., Tammi. H, Emily R. , Michael McAleer/Team McAleer Remax Realty, Vicki N. , Allie B. , Jennifer P., Kate B. , Terrie L. , Sandra M. , Monica R. , John B. , Lisa I. , Karen S. , Sherri M. , Suzanne A., Marcedes B. , Cristy K. , Linda F. , Theresa N. , Deborah H. , Heather W. , Denise C. , Henny B. , Joyce N. , Heather F. , Lauren V. , Kaitlyn C. , Shyliah G., Nikhila K. , Vicky P. , Christine C. , Janice P. , Kitsap Humane Society, Bremerton Foodline, Greater Goods Charities

We appreciate you all more than you know.

(If you sent food directly, THANK YOU! They don’t tell us who the food is from, but just know, your generosity means the world to us.)

If you’d like to support the work we are doing, we’ve got food covered for a good while (thank you! We will put every ounce of it to good use. You'll be surprised at how quickly we burn through it). Other items that help, that we are always in need of are durable toys for large dogs, and bully sticks or other long lasting chews. Monetary donations can be made at: https://givebutter.com/GmL6pl You can also send them through PayPal ([email protected]) or venmo - these donations help us spay/neuter/vaccinate and microchip the animals in our care, and get them the daily care and any medical care they need.