Behavior Team Highlight: Working with Viola
Our Behavior and Training team does their best to support the dogs at the shelter. They go above and beyond to ensure these dogs have someone on their side, someone to be the voice they don’t have and support them on their journey to adoption. They are always coming up with new and creative ways to help these dogs get the support they need to find an adopter.
Our Behavior & Training team’s commitment to finding methods to help dogs feel comfortable was seen while working with Viola. Viola has stranger danger which can be quite challenging in a shelter environment. Our team was coming up with ideas on how to introduce this dog who is scared of new people to new people in hopes they would adopt her.
During this process, they started muzzle training Viola so we could show her to new people in a way that made everyone, including Viola, feel safe and comfortable. With this skill, her future adopters can safely take her to the vet, or introduce her to friends and family while knowing she will be safe and comfortable.
Along with this muzzle training, we realized Viola’s love for other dogs might be a great way to assist her in meeting new people. With another dog who loves meeting new people in the yard with her, the pressure is off of her to interact and she can go at her own pace, paying more attention to the friends she is familiar with and the doggy friend in the yard with her. Some of our staff did pretend adoption shows for our team to test out this idea and it went great! Viola quickly warmed up to these new people, even coming up for pets as the show progressed. With this new strategy, meeting potential fosters and adopters is much less stressful for Viola, and hopefully will help her find her future home! We will continue to use this method for dogs who feel more comfortable with other dogs than with new people to help ease their stress levels.
We are proud to have a team of people so dedicated to supporting these animals and saving lives at Cincinnati Animal CARE. They do impossible work for these dogs and are committed to setting them up for success in their future homes.
