Debbie Fan – Page 3 – Downtown Dog Rescue

DEB’S DOG OF THE WEEK: COCO Puff

Ready to go: Coco Puff

Coco Puff is a DDR dog that spent the first few years of his life as a guard dog in a pallet yard, only to be abandoned on a four foot chain. When Lori rescued him from his horrible situation, he wasn’t exactly what you’d call “family pet” ready. He was friendly towards people, but barely knew how to walk without thinking he was tethered to a four foot pole. He also had to learn what other dogs were and that interacting and playing could be an enjoyable experience.

If Coco had ended up in a shelter, like so many other dogs in his situation do, chances are he wouldn’t have made it out alive and if he did get adopted it probably wouldn’t have been successful and he’d be returned. But as fate would have it, he ended up in Lori’s care and into the hands of someone that understands that some dogs need a little more time before they’re ready to be adopted out to the general public. It’s been two years that Coco has been living and learning downtown with Lori’s pack. He loves playing with female dogs and could do without any male competition. Coco hasn’t gotten much attention from adopters, probably because he’s a big, burly dog with a checkered past, but if you give him a chance, you’ll see that he’s left his past behind and he’s ready for his forever home!

DEB’S DOG OF THE WEEK: Building a Relationship: Edwina

Last month I had the pleasure of attending dog behavior seminars from two very different experts in the field. While their methodologies are different, I found a similarity in their thoughts about RELATIONSHIP. What sort of relationship do you have with your dog and could this be one of the reasons your dog exhibits certain behaviors? Good or Bad? Obviously the bad behaviors are the ones that cause trouble and get dogs turned into shelters or euthanized. Most pet dog/human relationships are centered on lots of love and affection and not as much leadership and guidance. We tend to treat them like innocent children when often their behavior is more like unruly teenagers. This sort of relationship might be fine for some people and dogs out there, but for those dogs that have been or will potentially end up in the shelter for behavior problems, they need a clear relationship built on human leadership and trust FIRST, before love and affection. Without this, they might start making their own “bad” decisions because there isn’t a leader to look up to. Mostly, we get this backwards when we bring a new dog home because we make emotional decisions based on our image of the dog behind a cage. It’s natural that all we want to do is hug and kiss the dog. But believe me, if you can hold off on the love and affection and be a leader first, your dog is going to be much happier in the long run and you will have a long lasting relationship!

Edwina is a dog that exemplifies the idea of relationship. Lori spotlighted her in one of her first blog posts. Edwina faces a challenge to a new adopter because of her leash aggression, but if you set up the right relationship in the beginning, she will understand and respond immediately. I like Edwina because she reminds me a lot of my dog Josie. Super smart, loves to play with other dogs, but on a leash her emotions take control and she’d rather react first and ask questions later. It’s taken me two years to figure out Josie and my relationship issues (sounds like an episode of Dr. Phil) but once I understood, she understood almost instantly and she’s a happier dog because of it. Luckily, with Edwina you won’t have to wait two years to figure out your relationship. She’s had the benefit of having Lori as a leader and that can easily be transferred to other people. Please don’t let all this talk about relationship scare you away from Edwina, while she might not be the right dog for a new dog owner, […]

DEB’S DOG OF THE WEEK: Puppy Love: Travis!

4 months old

Puppies! Who doesn’t love puppies? They’re cute, cuddly, and oh so innocent! When we get a litter of puppies turned into the shelter it can be a blessing in disguise. I know they will be adopted within a day or two of being available. That’s great, right? Well, not necessarily. Many people make a quick emotional decision to get a puppy without really thinking about what that puppy is going turn into as an adult. Sometimes I just cross my fingers and hope we don’t see that same puppy come back to the shelter before it’s one or two years old. Believe me, it happens. Just this week a dog was returned to the shelter after 10 months. His original intake picture was as an 8 week old puppy and now he’s a 65 lb adolescent dog. The adopter was a 70 year old man who said the dog was now too big and he couldn’t walk him. I wish he had thought about this 10 months ago…for the dog’s sake!

If you’re thinking about getting a puppy do some research first. (A good book to read is “Before You Get Your Puppy” by Ian Dunbar.) All puppies are not created equal. Some are shy, some are bold and some start out shy and then become bold! Think about your lifestyle and try to choose a dog that matches it. If you adopt a pup from Downtown Dog Rescue, the dog generally has the benefit of learning how to play and interact with the other dogs in the pack. Travis is a great example of this. DDR got him after he was attacked by a house full of Chihuahuas. As you may have read in Mia’s blog post last week, she nursed him back to health and now he’s benefiting from being socialized with the pack downtown. It’s a good thing too because Travis is a bold little puppy that isn’t afraid to take on the big dogs. Travis needs a strong, experienced adopter, but until he finds his forever home, he will continue to learn from Lori, Clancy and the rest of the pack. Exactly what every young pit bull needs!

If you would like to meet Travis, please contact lori@modernica.net

LORI’S CORNER: Monthly Spay/Neuter Clinic – The Community Responds

Last Saturday was our monthly free dog clinic in Compton at East Rancho Dominguez Park. There are always too many dogs needing service and not enough cage space and time to do all the dogs that come out. We ended our day spaying/neutering 33 dogs.

Each dog is also vaccinated and micro chipped all at no charge. Ivania and I signed up an additional 50 people, some with two, three and four dogs at home that need the free service at a future clinic. There is always a waiting list and we always end up turning people away which proves my theory, MOST dog owners want to do the “right thing”. They want to spay/neuter and vaccinate their dogs. They don’t always know what the surgery is called but they know, they don’t want any litters of puppies.

Too many people in power, the same people who make the financial decisions for city, county, state budgets believe that “poor dog owners” in areas like Compton don’t care about getting their dogs fixed and that they want puppies to make money. When in reality, most dog owners don’t want puppies, even if their dog has an accidental litter. They either don’t know where to get an affordable surgery or have poor information on spay/neuter. I can’t tell you how many people think that their dog is too young to have puppies at a year, or they are worried that their dog’s personality will change overnight after the surgery, or that their dog might die while being sterilized. Some dog owners are so nervous that they wait with us in the park while their pet is being sterilized.

Ivania and Rosalie are my two dedicated Compton Clinic volunteers who help me process paperwork, sign clients up for future clinics, and trouble answer health and behavioral problems that come up. In some cases, we are the only resource for accurate information on dog care for Compton Dog Owners who may not be able to afford to go to a vet or sign up for an obedience training class. Debbie came out to help answer training questions and Edgar and Gerardo, both Sunday Pit bull school classmates came out to help make our day very successful. Edgar took the photo above of Laurie’s little dog and his sister created the Adopt Me graphics. We passed out dog treats, dog toys, collars and leashes, as well as information on low cost vaccinations and other […]

FRIDAY SHOUT OUTS – Giving Thanks!

Our Thank You’s from DDR this week is all about the “look!”

Of course essential “look” elements that help
change a dog like this:

to a happier version of THIS:

is a safe environment, good food, lots of love from Lori, Josie, the DDR show team in PETCO AND of course a good dental cleaning. DDR would like to thank HOUNDSTOOTH DENTAL, Non-Anesthestic Veterinary Dental Services for their help in making this big smile happen. Our newly adopted dog with the great smile is of course LUCY from the now “only a distant memory” 61st Street Kennels! She would like to thank her Houndstooth technician (non-anesthetic! at that) for the awesome dental cleaning she got this week (and her new adoptive family thanks you as well!)

Lucy would like to continue by thanking the DDR volunteers responsible for creating the look and feel of what we love in dog rescue land, the wonderful gift of “second chances.” A staple of effective rescue work involves (especially in the social networking age) having great photographs that make our dog’s come to life, revealing their best inner and outer dog. This is part of an effort to make them irresistable in the PETCO adoption event every Saturday, the DDR PETFINDER pages, the DDR blog, PITStop & even Facebook shared pages. If the dogs are irresistable, you have to take them home right? YES!

Downtown Dog Rescue is thankful and very lucky to have the following talented and amazing professional quality photographers help us in this area through the years:

Douglas Hill took a lot of the earlier pictures of DOWNTOWN DOGS that have came through the gates of DDR. His amazing photographs of DDR dogs were used for many of the magazine articles written about Lori and Downtown Dog Rescue. Many of them are also the photographs that have graced the yearly DDR fundraising calendar. Watch out for a feature on PITStop on the book Downtown Dogs featuring the first wave DDR dogs and their guardians with stories written by Lori. Wonderful work Douglas…thank you!

Grace Chon of SHINE PET PHOTOS for creating marketing materials and documenting our past events!Stacy Broadwell from THE DAWG SQUAD for taking fabulous photos of our […]

DEB’S DOG OF THE WEEK: Shelter Dog Spotlight: Tiger (Animal ID: A1079663)

From time to time I’d like to feature some of the dogs that are in the L.A. shelter system. If a dog ends up at South L.A. shelter, it’s a pretty grim fate. There are just too many dogs and not enough people. Many well-tempered, healthy animals get euthanized because there just isn’t enough room to keep all of them. A dedicated South LA volunteer once told me that she witnessed over 50 dogs get turned into the shelter in ONE day! That’s a sobering reality. If you’ve never had a chance to go to the South LA shelter, I encourage you to visit. I won’t lie…it’s not easy to see all the animals crowded into cages, vying for your attention, but L.A. has a pet overpopulation problem and if we never experience the outcome of the problem we’ll never be motivated to act!

But I digress…this feature is about a dog, TIGER, that would have ended up at the South LA shelter but was fortuitous enough to be brought to the West LA shelter instead. Rumor has it that Tiger was left behind in the backyard when his owners abandoned their house in South Central. A caring neighbor knew he would not make it at the South LA and brought him to West LA as a stray. Tiger is a dog that more than likely would not have made it out of the South LA shelter. He’s a 2yr old Shar-pei/Pit bull mix and when I first met him in early December he was hardened, aloof and seemed to have no need for humans. I kept working with him and each time I took him out I could sense his hard shell cracking. I joked that he was definitely living up to his Shar-pei roots and I was bound and determined to find his inner goofy Pitty!

I’m proud to say that I’ve found it (or at least tapped the surface)! Tiger now looks at me with soft, eager eyes when I walk into the shelter, in hopes that it’s his turn to get out of his kennel. I can get a goofy smile out of him and have developed a connection where he wants to work and train. And this is only after a couple months of taking him out once, maybe twice a week. Just think what he could become if he were actually in a home! My favorite thing with Tiger is to see him play with dogs. Talk about a hard shell cracking! We’ve introduced him to several female dogs and he is a big, giant flirt! I’d say he’s a bit too macho (still needs to be neutered) to be with other male dogs […]

DEB’S DOG OF THE WEEK: When rescue goes wrong: Amanda

There are many rescue groups and well-intentioned private citizens that work tirelessly everyday to help save the lives of animals living in the city and county shelters. Pleas are posted on Craigslist and yahoo groups; donations are raised; and people rally behind animals to save them from death, just in the nick of time. It can be inspiring to see a dog that is up against the odds make it out of the shelter,but sometimes there are unintended consequences. A rescue might take a dog, but then what happens to that dog? I would like to believe that 100% of the time the dog is taken care of and finds a nice forever home where it lives out the remainder of it’s days. That’s the Disney version. In reality, sometimes dogs, especially pit bulls, have a heard time finding a permanent home. It can take months and even years. What happens to them during this time? Well, if a dog ends up with Lori and a place like Downtown Dog Rescue, they are super lucky and get to run around, play, go on field trips and be dogs! If they end up in a place like Amanda did, they are barely fed, barely taken care of, and forced to live in unsanitary conditions. Worse than a shelter…and all in the name of “rescue”.

Amanda was brought to Lori because the rescue she ended up at become overwhelmed with too many dogs. Clearly, Amanda was not taken care of. She has scars all over her face because she had to fight for her food. Her left eye is “dead” and should probably be removed. She has another scab on the top of her head from who knows what. But despite all of it, Amanda is a sweet, gentle girl. She is new to DDR so we are finding out more about her, but if you spend just a little bit of time with her, you will see what a sweet gentle soul she has. Amanda is a young dog and could use a home where she can get healthy and gain confidence.

If you would like to adopt or foster her, please contact lori@modernica.net.

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