Tuffin!!! COME!

Halloween is my favorite holiday. While dressing up in a costume no longer appeals to me, I wear my Walmart and Target Halloween shirts proudly. I love to look at other people's costumes and dress up my son and my dogs. I enjoy giving out good candy to the kids who dress up and peanut butter kisses (those icky candies wrapped in orange or black wax paper) to the ones who don't. I like celebrating Halloween at our adoption event on the last Saturday of October... but this week we're closed.
     We couldn't pull together enough puppies for a puppy run this week so we held this week's adoption event yesterday evening with five puppies. I wasn't sure what to expect, we've never held a Thursday night event before. It went really well; four puppies found homes right away. We have one puppy who still needs a home.



Puppy #938

 Meet Puppy #938: Pup 938 came in a little over a week ago from Noah's Ark Animal Shelter in Trinidad, CO. He was one of three boys who all looked different. One was cream with long hair, one was black with long hair, and #938 has black, short hair. We think he's a lab mixed with something BIG because he's a pretty good size at only 14 weeks old. What a fun-loving, happy-go-lucky boy. He's always up for a good time whether it's hiking, playing fetch or cuddling up for a movie. If it's a BIG boy you're looking for, he's the one for you. He's great with kids and loves to play with other dogs. He's not very happy in his crate but will quiet down after about 20 minutes (if you're willing to stick it out that long.) Contact info@coloradopuppy.org for an appointment to meet him.

This week's most common phone call: Had to do with training. We all know that feeling of panic when your dog bolts out the front door and to the maple two houses down. When this happens to me, I bolt after him yelling "Tuffin!! COME!!" He lowers his leg, sniffs at me and waits till I'm just out of arms reach before taking off in another direction. Now I have a few choices: 1. Keep chasing him and hope I eventually out-smart him. I'm embarrassed to say that could take awhile. 2. Offer him a treat- but I don't want to reward him for this. 3.  Go get the car and lure him in with a car ride. All terrible options.
Like the previous adopters that called this week, my dog knows his basic commands, is generally a good dog and I love him very much but some of his bad behaviors have me mumbling threats while I try to dig him out from under a car.
     I said the same thing to these adopters that you'd say to me. "Try having a trainer come to your home and see these behaviors in action. Then you and the trainer and formulate a plan of action."
     "Yeah, but how much is that going to cost?" one adopter asked before explaining all of her financial obligations.

How I need your help with it: She needs a low-cost solution to her behavior problems and I could not recommend someone for her. I couldn't recommend someone for ANY of the five adopters who called with training questions/complaints this week. That's when I realized that I need to build a database for trainers. Please help me. Leave a comment below if you've been to a trainer that helped to save your relationship with your dog. Please include what the trainers strengths are (ie. aggression, house training, digging...) so that if someone calls with that particular problem I can find the right person to send them to. Please keep in mind that we're trying to keep this as low-cost as possible.

My solution to last week's Facebook Dilemma: I'm going to start posting the same thing on both pages and hope I don't tick that many people off. Thanks to all of you who wrote with solutions.
 
Still no word from the Petco Foundation: about the $1700 dog food donation we asked for a few weeks ago. We'll give it one more week before we start making any big decisions about finding a new place to hold our events. In the meantime, I've decided to submit another application for general supplies. Things like brushes, shampoo, wire crates to replace our bent and rusty ones, new playpens, etc.
 
Next week: We're closed for intake and adoptions. This will give us some time to take care of some things on the business end, like grant applications, that we've been meaning to get to for awhile. I hope to be running again the following week.
 
Guest blogger: I think it would be fun to have one guest blogger a month. I'd like to hear from previous adopters about what it's like to adopt from CPR and I'd like to hear from volunteers and fosters about what it's like to volunteer and foster for CPR. If you're interested in guest blogging, go ahead and write one up and sent it to me at info@coloradopuppy.org. I'd love to slot you in! I'll through in an extra on on Monday to wet your whistle. It was written a few years ago. See you!