Danbury Animal Welfare Society: Play Group Training Grant Report

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

The grant funds were used to cover tuition costs to send Gina Riccio for training at the Dogs Playing for Life mentorship in Austin, Texas.

The program helped teach DAWS staff and volunteers better and quicker ways of getting dogs adopted and in turn enabled the shelter to rescue more dogs and save more lives.

How many pets did this grant help?

Approximately 150 dogs

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

We took in an owner-surrender in October. His name is Onyx and he is a 60-lb., 7-year-old male pit bull. He was traumatized after living in a home for his entire seven years of life and was now put in a shelter environment. He was extremely depressed and upset and it took him some time to come around to new people. I slowly introduced him to other dogs and people. He loved playing in a yard with them and enjoying walks, etc. Sometimes I even felt bad for him, because he played so nicely with any dog of any size that it appeared that they were almost beating up him. He thrived after these play dates and took so well to the loose-leash walking, it was amazing. Initially when he came in, it was very hard to hold him on a leash, but with a few sessions of loose-leash training, he did wonderfully and became a pleasure to walk. Shortly thereafter, I was able to take him to any adoption event. Since then, he has gone foster-to-adopt with a lovely couple and been introduced to his doggie in-laws and has been absolutely perfect! I will be finalizing his adoption this week!