Humane Society of Elmore County: Purina and Amazon Treats for the Holidays Grant Report

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

The Purina Beggin' Strips dog treats are used in our shelter to enhance our dogs' daily lives as we interact with them and teach many of them things like leash-walking, sitting and just acting with more manners around potential adopters. We also sent some of these out with dog adopters so they can continue working with their new charges and giving them wonderful treats when they do great!

As with any shelter, not having to go out and purchase something helps us use our limited funds for veterinary bills, spay/neuter, vaccines and other medical expenses so that we can save even more lives. Having yummy treats helps with assessments of dogs' personalities and helps with teaching them things they may need to learn before appealing to an adopter.

How many pets did this grant help?

The 50-70 adoptable dogs in our adoption center!

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

Dapper was one cute but very high-energy young dog who needed some work to help her learn some manners and not be the “wild child” she started as. She appeared to be a cattle dog mix and was definitely wide-open most of the time. Working with her using these treats helped her associate good things with people so that she would focus on us and realize that she got more goodies when she was calmer and more settled. She became more adoptable after working with us and found her loving home in late March 2016.