Positive People Training

Last night was Thursday. Which means shelter night!

I volunteer for an hour every Thursday evening, training both dogs and people at the New Rochelle Humane Society. I started at the shelter on the recommendation of my trainers, who both also go on Thursdays. Most of the time I work with the green-dot (easy) and yellow-dot (extra attention and/or equipment needed) dogs, but recently I’ve started teaching the green-dot volunteer walker class every few weeks.

Last night I was late due to an accident on the road home from work. Got to the shelter to find Mrs. Trainer (my two trainers are husband and wife, so let's just give them names I can use, yes?) had started the class of four new walkers. It was quite the mix of people; one extremely pregnant woman, one college-age girl, one “normal” young woman, and a woman of nearly indeterminate gender and few social skills. After the speech portion of the class, we split into two groups. I got Mrs. Preggo and Ms. Socially-Awkward.

Mrs. Preggo – I think my puppy is less distractible. I’d be showing them how to enter a kennel, and suddenly she says “Do you know where that cute doggy that looked like a ragdoll is? Is he outside? I love that little doggy over there, she’s so cute, I would totally take her home!” No, I don’t know where Fozzy is… probably adopted or in foster. FOCUS! Then she wanted to walk a specific dog for the outside part of class. Sorry, lady. We’re taking the sweet old-lady Pitt (Champagne) who won’t haul you off your feet. Even with such a calm dog she wrapped the leash tightly around her palm. I tried to encourage her to just bunch up the excess, so a strong dog wouldn’t rip her fingers off, but it went in one ear and out the other.

Champagne - picture from her PetFinder posting

Ms. S-A clearly wanted to help with the dogs, and clearly wanted to hear my advice, but was also quite nervous about the whole process. Even with ultra-calm Champagne, she had to have the leash tight. If that meant holding her leash-hand practically over her head, then so be it. She got better once I pointed out that keeping a tight leash encourages pulling, and she realized the dog was content to plod along with us. Bonus points: despite her nerves, she was very calm in her handling of the dog and didn’t panic when Champagne became very interested in a little Daschund in a parked truck.

In the end I passed both women. They handled the dog safely, didn’t fling kennel doors open (which would mean chasing down an escapee), and they listened to suggestions. Mrs. Preggo will probably realize she doesn’t have time/energy/inclination to volunteer once the baby comes, but I hope that Ms. S-A comes back. I bet working with the dogs would help her confidence.

I’ll leave you with a story that I’ve heard Mr. Trainer tell a half-dozen times now:

One year there was a fairly new volunteer working on Christmas Eve at closing time. After the dogs had all been kenneled, the lights shut off, and the front door locked, someone knocked on the front window to be let in. Since the shelter was closed until after the holiday, the volunteer wasn’t about to let someone from the general public in after hours. She waved her arms and shouted through the door “YOU’RE TOO LATE! WE PUT THEM ALL TO SLEEP!”