Lori Weise – Page 5 – Downtown Dog Rescue

FRIDAY SHOUT OUTS – Giving Thanks!

thanks to Josie Gavieres for this awesome picture!

WE WANT TO DO A SPECIAL FRIDAY

THANKS TO A VERY SPECIAL LADY
FROM ALL OF US VOLUNTEERS &
FRIENDS OF DDR! (THE DOGGIES TOO!)

Lori & Petey!

Yesterday was Lori Weise’s birthday,
Founder of Downtown Dog Rescue!

To thank you, here are your 3 newly adopted dogs from DDR! TRAVIS (now TYSON), HORTENSIA (from the 61st Kennels!)
& MAGICK (from Karma Rescue) assigned with the fun task!

TRAVIS *NOW TYSON*

HORTENSIA

Karma Rescue’s MAGICK

Ready boys and girl, set, GO!

–*–

HELLO LORI, WE WOULD SOOOO LIKE
TO THANK YOU FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL WORK
YOU’VE DONE TO MAKE THE LIVES OF DOG AND PEOPLE
IN LOS ANGELES BETTER!
You’ve impacted so many people and dogs
in a positive way
and Los Angeles is a much better place
with you around!

Lori with Clancy!

YOU’RE THE BEST LORI!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU
AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

See everyone next week?!!!?
RESCUING DOWNTOWN DOGS,
(in Lori’s case
1,000 at a time)
with
YOUR help!

LORI’S CORNER: DDR Pack Video Spotlight

On Sunday, I had a USC Journalism graduate student shadow me to do her senior thesis on Downtown Dog Rescue. Adrianna came out to our Sunday Pit bull School at the Coliseum, and filmed the dogs running the agility course. walking the line, which was all good! Next Sunday she is coming back to film some of the dog owners in class, Jordan, Michael, Edgar, Coach and of course Dog Man, to name a few. However, the real excitement started when she arrived at our kennel at feeding time.

Larry

Edwina

Because the energy was different with extra people and a camera, plus I started the whole feeding process an hour later than usual, a fight broke out, inside the kennel. Edwina, went nuts and went after Bertha who was in her run, Larry who was on his way into his run, double backed and started attacking Edwina. The fight was over before it started and all the dogs calmed down faster than I calmed down so that Adrianna could start filming the dogs in the play yard. I set her up behind a fence and of course the dogs were all curious. Dogs that I never thought would care about the camera, like Sasha, wouldn’t stop barking, others like Bruno and Askim actually liked being filmed and really showed off all their play skills for the taping. The energy level was high, so I released half as many dogs as I normally put out together. Curtis never recovered from new people and a camera watching him, but Majick could care less and enjoyed his time out playing.

The DDR Pack

When Adrianna went inside the kennel area to film, it got really crazy, all the dogs were barking, some lunging at her, others just curious about the camera. Once we were outside of the runs, where we could talk, I asked her, I told her, “Now you see why adult pit bulls don’t get adopted out of the City shelters when they are shown in a caged environment’. The same dogs that she had seen playing in a pack, enjoying themselves, wrestling with other dogs and climbing on the ramps and tables looked like they were dog and people aggressive “behind bars” of their runs. When anyone evaluates a dog in a caged environment like a kennel or a shelter, one isn’t really seeing the “real dog”, in most […]

LORI’S CORNER: Sandman + Hollywood

Every Sunday, we offer a free Pit bull walking class at the Coliseum from 9:30 – 11:30. Notice that I didn’t use the word training? It’s really not about training the dogs to sit, stay and down, which are really just tricks in the dogs’ minds. We emphasis socialization, deal with common challenges that many of us pit bull owners experience such as dog aggression, as well as offer support for students who are struggling with their dogs, perhaps even contemplating taking the dogs to the shelter or worse. Sometimes, our class is the last stop for a dog before an owner just gives up! There are often 30+ dogs in the class, there is no sign up, you can drop in or drop out, there are always new students and lots of new puppies any given week. Many of the puppies, grow up in our class like Queenie, JJ, Pretty, Big Boy, and now Handsome and Ripley.

Sunday was a really special day, Hollywood, a very famous bully who has won numerous prizes at the Atomic Dogg shows, made a grand appearance for our photo shoot with rapper Sandman Negus and his crew. Hollywood is so dog aggressive that he has to be wheeled into the park in a customized crate on wheels. I doubt anyone reading this story has ever seen something so tricked out as his “chariot”, with the metallic bronze paint job to the custom rims. Hollywood came into the park in style.

Sandman posed for some photos with Hollywood as well as some of the other class members’ dogs. These photos will be used in our 2011 calendar as well as our dog clinic flyers. Sandman has also agreed to help us put out a special message against dog fighting and protecting our breed, the American Pit bull Terrier, composing a special song about pit bulls.

LORI’S CORNER: BRUNO

I get lots of e-mails and phone calls from people who have adopted Pit bull Terriers from a shelter. The main challenge for most of these new dog owners is dog on dog aggression. The message usually starts out something like this, “When my dog was in the shelter, he was in a run with other dogs, and wasn’t fighting, so why is he aggressive when he meets a new dog now?” No one adopting a shelter dog should assume that just because a dog is OK in a run with other dogs at the shelter, it’s going to be a breeze to introduce and allow your new pit bull to play with dogs. Sometimes, it works out this way, especially if you have a trusted shelter volunteer as we do, Debbie Fan at West LA shelter and Andrea Franks at the South LA shelter, but no one is perfect, no me, not Billy and especially not the dogs that we rescue!

This was the case for our boy Bruno, a beautiful young Pit bull Terrier, who was red listed at the South LA shelter. He was in a run with a couple other intact male dogs and did fine day after day. No fights. No aggression. When Andrea sent me his plea, Billy and I decided to check him out. At the shelter, Billy took him out of the run, walked him in front of lots of barking dogs. He saw no leash aggression, and no aggression towards the dogs going back into the run. In fact, he seemed submissive. We rescued him. Then everything changed when Billy entered our Vet’s waiting room. Not only did Bruno growl, he snapped, challenged on leash and went crazy at every dog in the waiting room. The staff was even concerned. Billy called his change in behavior a “180” meaning he went from being a scared submissive shelter dog to a scared out of control rescue dog in less than an hour.

The first day at our kennel was also not good. He literally barked for an entire day. He didn’t connect with me and wouldn’t listen. I could tell that he was fearful and very leash aggressive when walking past all of the dogs in their runs. Billy started running him on his bike, taking him on correction walks and dominating him until one day he was ready to meet some dogs out in the yard. The big day that we had all been waiting […]

LORI’S CORNER: 100 Pits & Chihuahua’s? Yes, with Amanda Foundation and LA Animal Services “Pits & Pals”

Saturday, I volunteered with the Amanda Foundation Team and LA Animal Services, to do another 100 Dog Day called “Pits and Pals”. The event took place at the North Central Animal Shelter. In the pouring rain, dog owners still showed up and we had a great day. Free spay and neutering is so necessary and these 100 dog days type event, which focus on the two breeds that are most often in the City shelters, Pit bulls and Chihuahuas, help to get the word out about the mobile clinic program.

The Amanda Foundation’s mobile spay/neuter clinic is the most successful in the nation. We are very fortunate to have such a great program in the City of Los Angeles. To donate please visit AMANDA FOUNDATION.

To volunteer for a DDR spay/neuter clinic, please contact me directly Lori@Modernica.net We always need volunteers and product donations.

Check out the photos and the commentary about the clinic written by Teri Austin, president of the Amanda Foundation:

Vets at work

Lots of happy clients

Grateful client and PitX

This Pit pup wont be having pups of her own

Good people who luv their dog

Lots of Pitbulls

120 lbs. Mastiff X

Lots of senior’s pets

It was a family day

LORI’S CORNER: Introducing New Dogs into our pack

AMANDA

ASKIM
When we take in a new dog, it’s always a week or two, before we introduce the new dog into our pack of dogs at the kennel. For some dogs, the introduction moves very quickly, in the case of Danity, it was clear immediately, she loves all dogs. In other cases, it’s more of what Clancy has already told me, as in Askim’s case, he is already cool and I have nothing to worry about. More often, we take in dogs like Precious or Amanda, clearly abused + neglected, underweight, requiring medical attention before we can start with any dog introductions.

One of the most common questions that I get e-mailed to me or asked in our Sunday Pit bull class is, “How do I know that my pit bull won’t fight if I let him go off leash with a dog(s) that I don’t know?” My answer is always the same, how well do you know your dog? When we introduce a pit bull, or really any new dog into our existing pack, we put a few trusted dogs that we know really well. My dog Clancy usually serves as the initial evaluator of the new dog, often conducted on leash, then when we do decide to test the new dog with a few dogs, we usually select a dog like Chasui because he is not playful and can co-exist with just about any dog in the yard and absolutely knows when to back away from a dog who is nervous and might become aggressive. Another dog that we use a lot if Cookie, who is often the first dog that most of our new dogs meet. Cookie is wonderful at greeting a dog slowly and understanding the new dog’s play style. Cookie can also just co-exist in the yard without playing, allowing the new dog to investigate and relax before the play begins.

DANITY

Now that Danity has been in our rescue for a while, we also use her to try out new dogs. She is more high energy, like Sasha and enjoys chasing. My young pit bull Curtis who is very dog friendly but almost feral with people is the best, he is a pusher. He likes to do a lot of investigating which can stress a new dog out and lead to a some aggression but Curtis always knows when enough is enough and he will back away from the new dog, opening up some space. When we want to move to the next level, we bring out Edwina, Freeway, and eventually […]

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 […]

LORI’S CORNER: Downtown Dog Rescue Kennels

One of the big assets that Downtown Dog Rescue has is our licensed kennel. We are also very fortunate to have a great kennel helper, Billy who works with the dogs six days a week. Running a kennel is a full time job in addition to my “real” full-time job as General Manager of Modernica. I work seven days a week with our rescue dogs and have a lot of great volunteers, like Richard,our Modernica Plant Manager who helps walk dogs during the week, twice a day. We typically have 20 dogs at our place that need forever homes. Some like “Coco Puff” or “Freeway” are real long shots and will live with us for years not months. Others are here a week or a month until they are placed.

Our day begins at 6:30AM, we feed the dogs and they are released to play in our yard with agility equipment and lots of room to chase, tackle and just be dogs. Most of the dogs are out together in our large pack, whereas others who may not be good with same-sex dogs, play in smaller packs with dogs that they enjoy. All of our dogs get out of their runs to exercise off leash twice a day. The entire kennel area is cleaned up before the dogs go back into their runs. At 4:00, we begin to feed dinner, release the dogs to play and clean all the runs again. This is the same schedule for the dogs seven days a week, 365 days a year, even on holidays, in the rain, no matter what. It’s this routine that promotes a sense of stability so that the dogs can relax and enjoy being dogs. In addition to playing in a pack twice a day, I take dogs out during the week to the park to walk, Billy takes dogs out running on his bike and our volunteer Debbie comes by to do one on one leash work so that when our dogs are adopted, each one can walk on a leash and have some basic house manners. On Saturdays, Sandy picks up dogs to go out to adoption, an event some of dogs like Cookie, wait for all week. On Sundays, other dogs go to our Pit bull School at the Coliseum. My dog Clancy loves this class! Right now, Roja, is going to school every Sunday. Leroy, a new volunteer who can’t own a dog right now because he lives in an apartment, meets us at class, and is teaching her basic obedience. Many […]

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