Reflections on DogTown... and a couple of tips from the experts.

While at Best Friends Animal Society, we spent quite a bit of time in DogTown. With about 500 dogs at any given time, we were impressed and it warmed our hearts to discover that each dog is treated as an individual. New dogs are fully vetted and evaluated and then carefully placed with a dog who is considered likely to be compatible with him or her. Over several days, the dogs are put together during the day while a caregiver is monitoring their relationship and then they are separated at night until they prove to be a good match (or not in which case a new match is tried out). The enclosures are huge with a heated/cooled indoor area for each run. Some dogs are housed singly if they are not able to live closely with another dog. In the Old Friends area, dogs live in groups of up to four dogs. In one case, Layla, one of the Vicktory dogs (rescued from Michael Vick), was uncomfortable with other dogs at all. She has been moved to the Feathered Friends area of Best Friends where she lives as a companion to the caretakers there. She is very happy and loves people and the attention she gets.

A picture of us with Layla. We visited her a few times. She is as sweet as can be.

The folks in DogTown are the experts on dog care. They work within a sensible budget as all of us in rescue do in order to make the money go further in order to give each dog the best care possible while leaving funds for expansion and emergencies. They have found the best ways to deal with some basic problems in dog care. Here are three tips that we got that we have already used or will use soon at OFSDS.

1. Front clip harnesses: Most of the DogTown dogs are walked by volunteers, many even by young volunteers. I don't know about you all, but we have been through just about every type of harness that we can find and nothing is exactly right. They are either too flimsy, the dog can climb out of them or they are difficult to put on the dog. Most of the dogs that we walked at DogTown had a front clip harness, it pulls from under the dog's chin and keeps the dog from pulling because when the dog pulls it tends to turn them to the side. The harness doesn't have to be super tight and is extremely easy to put on. It is made of standard leash materials and is thus very durable. We bought one for Gracie and have tried it out. It works like a charm. Here is a link to the one that we got for Gracie: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009ZBKG4/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00

Zeus, modeling his Easy Walk front clip harness.

 

2. For the food inhalers in your family: Simple, simple, simple solution for the dog who eats their food before you even put it down. Take a $5 stainless steel anti-tip bowl and flip it over. The food goes around the center and the dog has to slow down to get to it all. We have already started using this for Bandit and it has made a world of difference. The meal that took him three seconds to eat now takes a minute or more. Another solution used at Best Friends is to spread the food out in a muffin tin.

Slow feed dish

Bandit eating more slowly than before

3. Raised bowls for larger dogs: I thought that this was very clever. We will use this idea whenever we have the need for a raised bowl. It is a cutout plastic bucket with a stainless steel bowl set in the hole.

A taller or shorter bucket could be used depending on the dog