Lori’s Corner – Page 4 – Downtown Dog Rescue

LORI’S CORNER: Neuter or Euthanize

On Friday I received a call from Robert, a homeless pit bull owner, who had been arrested, jailed for four months and was about to lose his dog “Boss” forever if I did not help, as he put it, “Right now!” I phoned him back immediately, but it was still after the shelter closed for the day, which was too late. Boss was scheduled to be euthanized on Saturday April 24th.

The only reason that the captain of the shelter had decided to hold on to Boss for four long months was because his owner had written eight letters, pleading with the Department of Animal Services to hold on to his beloved pit bull. This amazed me because the shelter is only required to hold any personal property dog, such as was the case with Boss’ impound, for thirty days. The DAS went to amazing lengths to hold on to him for an additional three months, even though Boss is not the coolest dog in town, temperament wise.

I spoke to Robert, heard his account of how the LAPD, for no good reason, forcefully took Boss from his Cadillac, smashed the windows and destroyed his personal property. This all went down in Hollywood, which is the service area for the North Central Animal Shelter. According to Robert, LAPD officers waited for two hours for an animal control officer to come and get Boss and take Robert to jail. The officer never showed up so LAPD delivered Boss to the shelter where he stayed for 120 days. According to Robert, Boss was never aggressive but the officer hit Boss with his Billy club and threatened to kill Boss if he became really aggressive.

I listened for about twenty minutes to Robert’s account of the day that he was arrested, how he had no money to get Boss out and the fact that this dog was his world. He had owned Boss since he was just a pup. Now almost two years old, from the Razor’s Edge Razor’s Edge line, he was a dog that he had planned to breed because, according to Robert, he had “a wonderful temperament and great confirmation”.

We agreed to meet at the […]

LORI’S CORNER: Adoption Extravaganza at DDR!

his past weekend was a very busy weekend for adoptions. We decided to book people for private appointments to meet our dogs at our kennel in Downtown LA instead of sending a few dogs out to Petco. I always take people by appointments on Saturday and Sundays but it’s usually one or two a weekend that often results in zero adoptions. This was not the case this weekend.

We got off to a slow start, our first appointment was a “no show/no call”, but our next appointment with Suzie was an adoption. She met Pepper and instantly wanted to adopt her. She had lost her two older dogs and was ready to adopt after her loss. The great thing about showing dogs at our kennel is that adopters get to see the dogs out in a small pack. When Suzie met Pepper, she was able to see her with lots of other dogs, off leash, playing with toys, running around, being a puppy. Hard to believe that just two weeks ago Pepper was going to be euthanized due to overcrowded conditions at the South LA shelter.

Next, Quattro was adopted. I will deliver him to his new home this weekend. Quattro also was set to be euthanized at the South LA shelter the day that we rescued him. His new owner Gene had been looking to adopt a dog for a very long time. He loved Quattro’s energy and intelligence. This pup is a gem. Very quick to understand what I want him to do, very social, a great boy who is going to love the dog park near his new home in Valley Village.

Sunday, Askim was adopted to a couple who live in Santa Monica that have been looking for a dog for two years. They wanted to adopt a dog but the time was never right. Now that they own a home and are more settled, it was time to get a dog and they picked Askim, our Compton Park dog. He went from being a stray at our spay/neuter clinic in the park in Compton to living in a beautiful home in Santa Monica, going to the dog park every day. What a great life […]

LORI’S CORNER: BACK TO BACK DDR ACTIVITIES!

I had a very busy weekend. Saturday was our monthly Compton Clinic. We spayed/neutered 33 Compton dogs + collected over 50 names and contact information from dog owners who came up to our table in the park. Thanks to a grant from Petsmart, we can offer free spay/neuter for Compton Dog Owners. Our goal in 2010 is 700 Compton Dogs. Our focus is pit bulls. When we are in the park it’s not just about spaying and neutering dogs, we also offer information on dog care and training. People really want to learn.

I want to thank Ivania who comes out to every clinic and translates for us, since there are many Spanish speakers who are eager to comply with the mandatory spay/neuter ordinance. Second I would like to thank Edgar, Queeny’s owner, who came out and helped me speak to many people including a group of basket ball players who had some pit bull puppies that they needed information on getting off to a “right start”.

Forming these relationships within the community and offering free spay + neuter right in the park is the only way we will ever see a possible decline in the euthanasia rate for dogs at the Downey shelter (the shelter that serves the City of Compton).

(remember Chocolate? Now EVE!)

On Sunday, Downtown Dog Rescue hosted another CGC trial. This time, some of our class members who missed a couple of points on their last test passed! Judge, our class dog passed with flying colors and so did Eve (formerly known as Chocolate), so young, and on her first attempt. I was especially proud to see one of our DDR dogs pass on her first attempt. My friend Carole Pearson, leader of Dawg Squad, also passed a couple pit bulls. It was a really great day. Thank you again Lezle for being our evaluator.

Our next CGC trial is going to be the first week in June. If you own a pit bull and want to see if your dog will pass the Canine Good Citizenship Test, get in touch with me soon . Our Coliseum class is a great way to put the work into your dog that you will need to pass the test.

Our goal is to certify 100 pit bulls, something that has […]

LORI’S CORNER: Introducing Jade to the Pack

Introducing Jade to our pack was not something that I did overnight. She is a big girl who is full of what appeared to be “crazy energy”. When I would let her out in the yard with just Cookie, my girl hid from Jade, didn’t want to play, which gave me a lot of good information on Jade. My plan was to wear her out a bit before I introduced her to some dogs. She had given us no indication that she was going to be aggressive, no growling, no guarding the gate, some barking in her crate, but nothing out of the ordinary. I released her with Askim, Bruno, Sasha, Curtis, Janey, Black Pearl, Cookie and Medira, all dogs who love to play. Jade was quickly overwhelmed and decided to lay down in the sun. In fact, she didn’t display any of the crazy puppy-like energy that she normally displayed because she was psychologically exhausted by the pack of dogs sniffing her, checking her out and in Curtis’ case, pushing her to play.

When she did decide to play, she picked Bruno, who is a favorite among a lot of the dogs. He plays just right, not too hard, always high energy, but knows when to slow it down and back off. I wish that I could say that same for Curtis or Janey who are my “pushers”. They will push and push a dog to play, regardless if the dog is done. This is always a good test to see if the new dog is going to display aggression, telling those two to back off. Jade didn’t, she simply retreated into a corner where she decided to lay down with Bruno and sun bathe.

Jade is a wonderful dog who has never had a real home. She has had several litters of puppies back to back when she was just a pup herself. She loves people, is fully obedience trained, walks well on a leash and is ready for her forever home. Please come out Saturday and check out Jade if you are looking for a beautiful blue. I want to thank the Amanda Foundation who spayed and vaccinated her and put close to a year of boarding and training into her before she came to me two weeks ago. The volunteers and staff at the Amanda Foundation did a great job socializing her with dog and people. Jade is a real gem of a dog!

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: