East Alabama Humane Society: Orvis Dog Enrichment Grant Report

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

To maintain and improve the health of our dogs and puppies, as well as providing basic obedience training for individual dogs. We had three dogs who had teeth pulled, and made them happier puppies because of that. We also have four dogs who were treated for mange and have been adopted because of their excellent care.

This grant helped our organization continue to provide the high standard of care that we strive every day to maintain. It also helped us seek behavior modification for three particular dogs who had barrier aggression. They had been in our kennels for an extended period, and only because of this grant were they able to over come that aggression. I am happy to report all three have since been adopted and are doing well. We truly could not have done this without the Petfinder Foundation's assistance, and could not tell you how thankful we all are.

How many pets did this grant help?

10

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

Mila is the most profound story. She came to us from Animal Control in the fall of 2015. She was pulled out from someone’s shed the night before a very cold evening. She was almost euthanized because of her aggression. They discovered puppies the next morning and brought them to her at Animal Control. She was protective, but much calmer with her babies. We were notified that she and babies were at the shelter and immediately left to pick them up. She did not exhibit aggression toward our staff, but was very observant of what we were doing as we unloaded her and puppies. We made the family of nine comfortable and warm. We estimated the puppies were about two weeks old. They developed upper respiratory infections that were treated and they all recovered.

Mila grew more trusting of our staff every day. When her puppies were old enough to be weaned and adopted, she watched each one leave. They are in wonderful homes and doing fantastic. They are wonderful additions to each family and have been great pets.

Mila became available for adoption but started exhibiting barrier aggression if anyone walked past her kennel. It makes it extremely difficult to adopt out a dog who looks like it would attack someone. Mila is a sweet, gentle, and playful dog. She does well with other dogs, even small ones. With the Orvis grant we were able to not only start Mila with basic obedience, but help her get over her barrier aggression. Two weeks ago, Mila was adopted. She has been doing great in her new home and is able to run around the family farm. She could not be in a better spot.