Ex-Volunteer's Story "I fostered Dexter for DAWG since June 2016. He was adopted in May 2017. After he was adopted, DAWG accused me of mishandling him during his time at my house."

"Dexter was a County dog that was almost killed when they transferred him to the Orange County shelter for a free adoption event. DAWG stepped in at the last minute and saved his life in May of 2016. See the full story here.

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Dexter is a Dutch Shepherd mix and is very high energy, bred for herding livestock. Many people thought he would make a good search and rescue dog because of his energy level and work ethic. But the Search Dog Foundations didn't want him because they don't accept pit mixes in their programs. 

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When I began volunteering at DAWG in May 2016, I saw Dexter jumping and barking continuously in his kennel and in the yards because he was not getting the exercise that he needed. My experience with continuous jumpers is that many times they will blow out a knee and then have a very hard time undergoing the surgery and enforced crate rest during the 12 wk rehab. So even though I had Jake I made the commitment to take Dexter home as well. 

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For maybe the first time in his young life, Dexter got the exercise and training that he needed. He gained 10 lbs at my house even though he was being fed 4 cups of food a day instead of 6 cups at the shelter due to his energy level dropping significantly. He had several training sessions with the DAWG trainer who recommended walking him very slowly to teach him to be more patient. The trainer's advice was to do it for a few minutes at the beginning of each exercise period and then go on a walk or for a scooter ride. This advice was followed.  

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Dexter was eventually adopted out to a nice young active couple and did well with their chi and a bunch of animals at the parent's house- chickens, cats, goats, horses, and other dogs. 

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After he was adopted the DAWG board president sent me an email accusing me of not training him during his time with me, which was untrue. It is unclear how she arrived at this conclusion as she had never worked with him or seen me training him."

Ex--Volunteer's Story: "In summary, DAWG forced me to adopt Jake (my foster for 13 months) in order to keep him out of their shelter. I have the emails from the Board President telling me to bring him back, and my emails to them only requesting that they find another foster for him. These are available on request."

Long Sad Story--
"Jake was a stray at the County Shelter on Overpass Rd. He kenneled very poorly, and after they neutered him and put a cone on him things got worse until the County threatened him with euthanization unless a Rescue pulled him. Because he kenneled so poorly, Rescues could not take him unless someone agreed to foster him at the same time. In order to save his life on his last day in the last hours, I agreed to this for DAWG. See full story here.

I had done this for DAWG before with other dogs, but they had always managed to find homes for the dogs in a relatively short time. The last one was Kimbo, a ridgeback mix that would nip if he was grabbed, and he was with me for 5 weeks until a spot in the shelter opened up. Then he was adopted after several months. He lives in my neighborhood and I see him often.

Jake lived with me for 13 months. He never appeared on the DAWG website because it was not being updated, and they were not posting him on the other rescue websites. The Board President occasionally would post him on Facebook when I asked her to, and other vols and I posted flyers for him around town and posted ads on Craigslist. I would often take him in to DAWG during adoption hours on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. As time passed, it seemed that finding an adopter was going to be hard due to his dog reactivity, so I asked DAWG to find him a new foster. No luck on that either, as DAWG has a number of long term dogs at the shelter for more than a year (some for years) that don't have fosters either. Some have died in the shelter without ever being adopted.

Fast forward 13 months and DAWG had a large dog returned with knee injuries who needed surgery and extensive rehab. I've done this for 4 dogs and knew the dog, so wanted to rehab her. So I asked the DAWG Board to please make it a priority to find Jake a new foster so that I could take this other dog. Recently they had found a foster for a difficult dog so I know that it can happen if they are all working on it.

DAWG then sent me email telling me that I had agreed to keep him until he was adopted but they don't have this in writing and I would never have agreed to something that open-ended, which I told them. The Board President then sent me an email telling me that they didn't have a foster and so I should bring him back to the shelter on a certain day. Given his behavior at the County, the fact that he had spent 13 months in a home being treated like a cherished pup, and the lack of volunteers currently at DAWG to exercise the big dogs, that was not an option. So I asked to adopt him. Fortunately they agreed because the other option would be for me to not take him back, which is technically petty theft of property less than $950, and would subject me to arrest or being sued in civil court.

So now I have Jake, and he's such a good dog in the house and backyard where he probably lived before he showed up as a stray. And I am working on his outside behavior and he is slowly getting better and today even helped a young dog work on his play behavior so is passing it forward. Of course I would adopt any of my fosters but if I had done that I would have 26 dogs at my house and that would limit me from helping other dogs such as the DAWG that needs knee surgery.

But I do not appreciate DAWG forcing me to adopt him to keep him out of their shelter. If you disagree with this as well, please let them know at their contact email at info@sbdawg.org

I can send you the emails exchanged between me and the DAWG Board if you would like to see them."
 

Lulu has been under confined in a locked kennel at the DAWG shelter since April, 2017. Here is her sad story.

-SB County Shelter management threatens to euthanize a non-bully dog Lulu. See her story here.  (Lulu is probably a livestock guardian dog Central Asian Shepherd). The threat is probably not serious because she is not a pitbull but DAWG transfers her  to their shelter in November 2016 on the advice of a volunteer trainer who says she will try to come walk her 2x a day without being paid.

- DAWG is very cautious with their new dogs and does not allow anyone else to handle her except Lindsey. Lindsey is not always able to come in 2x day and at some point in December DAWG tells the volunteer trainer to not come at all. 

-By this time a few DAWG vols have made friends with her which takes about 2 treats and so they put her in yards. The contract DAWG trainer also works with her a little and the kennel manager can handle her . She is too big for most vols but one or two walk her when they are at the shelter. The contract trainer does at least two sessions with her where she is around a little dog and another where she is in a yard with Balto the Husky and the min pin Arthur. 

- DAWG's vet gives her a new dog exam but does not identify any knee problems. He can't spay her because his table is too small. 

-A guy shows up in Jan/Feb and falls in love with Lulu and says he wants to adopt her and take her to Michigan to his sister's ranch. Some volunteers and staff get weird vibes from him and do not think it is a good match but it is one way to get her adopted quickly without shopping her around to Central Asian dog rescues or someone who wants to train a livestock guardian dog that may not have been trained early enough to be useful. Plus she is not friendly to all dogs without proper introductions. 

-It is unclear if DAWG had contacted the LGD rescues and when a member of the public does contact them they get mad at her and tell her to stop. DAWG has never posted her on their website adoption page. They have never advertised her on the rescue adoption sites. 

-The potential adopter comes to visit her almost every day. He is not a volunteer but DAWG puts Lulu in a yard for him and they play explosively with toys and balls for extensive periods. One volunteer trots with her 2x/wk to across Hollister where she liked to sniff around in the bushes because she is a good nose dog.  The volunteer trainer used to walk her an hour or more during November and December and she seemed okay with those things before the yard play began. 

-The DAWG contract trainer spends a lot of time talking to the potential adopter and eventually agrees to the match. The trainer takes her to State St in his car to socialize her with strangers (end of December, or early Jan) and she throws up 4x and poops 1x in his car. He says that he is going to work with her about car sickness but it is unclear if this ever happened. 

-The DAWG adoption counselor sends out an email saying that the guy is going to adopt Lulu. A volunteer sends an email to her with their concerns and the contract trainer tells the volunteer that at this point the guy had not even filled out an adoption application for her and they don't know where he lives. It is possible that he actually lives in the blue van that he drives around. 

-A volunteer shows up to the shelter around Easter and takes her out. She is limping a little but not too bad.  When they return to the shelter they have posted a big sign on her kennel NO WALKS NO YARDS. The volunteer is told that she has a knee injury and she is put on limited activity, short pee walks only. She tears up blankets so they have her living on bare wet concrete because they do not have a squeegee to dry the kennels and they don't pick up poop, they wash it down the drain. So it takes some time for the concrete to dry. The beds that are big enough for her are too big for DAWG's small inside kennel areas so finally the volunteer put a bed in the outer kennel but she has only been seen on it once- maybe won't lie where she potties like some dogs. 

-The shelter vet has her on glucosamine-chondritan-MSM but no anti-inflammatory. A volunteer overhears the vet tell the adopter that she should remain on the joint support and also be given omega fish oil supplements. The vet now diagnoses Lulu with knee problems and says that the knee that doesn't hurt is even looser than the knee that Lulu can't put much weight on. 

-DAWG does not have a fosterthat can handle a dog as big as Lulu. In a perfect world they would send her somewhere that she could be on a soft bed with limited activity to see if her knees would heal without surgery. 

-The potential adopter fills out an application. DAWG verifies that he has a home in SB where he can keep her.

-The adopter pushes them to get her spayed so finally in April after 5 months in the shelter they send her to La Concepcion for the spay as Dr. Dalo has a big enough table. Dr Dalo xrays her knees because DAWG's xray machine is broken and says she will probably need surgery on both knees. They don't think the ligaments are completely ruptured but those never heal, they just get less painful as scar tissue and bone growth occurs as the body tries to stabilize the joint. 

-The adopter finalizes the adoption and promptly ignores all the advice he was given by the DAWG trainer. He takes Lulu to Elings Park and lets her off leash with her messed up knees. She gets in trouble.

-The adopter tells DAWG that he doesn't think he can keep her and brings her back after she'd been gone a week or so. IA volunteer comes in on the next weekend and notice that the supplements she was getting were not on her kennel door where they used to be.She is actually more weight bearing on the knee that when she left so the volunteer takes her out for short pee walks and lets her sniff around in front of the shelter.  The volunteer assume that the vet and the kennel staff are keeping the meds somewhere else but the vets examines her a week later and realizes the adopter did not give the meds back and she hasn't been getting the joint support pills since she was back. He does not give her the omega oil supplements as he advised the adopter to do. He finally prescribes an anti-inflammatory pill for her. This is documented in an email sent out by the vet staff. 

-The kennel staff put sheets over her kennel doors so she can't see anything from the kennel to minimize her reactivity and jumping at people and dogs walking by Still no or one blanket in the kennel so she has very little padding to keep her off of the wet concrete. 

-The DAWG contract trainer knows the full story about the adopter and says that almost everything the adopter had told him was a lie. This comes up in a conversation about whether or not the adopter has trained her to be in cars because he had her in his van a lot.

-In May 2017 a  foster dogs gets adopted and so the fosterer tries to take Lulu home for the weekend to get her out of the shelter. The vet says okay. The contract trainer is lukewarm on the idea and says it is up to the Board President because of the problems Lulu had during the adoption. The Board President says that trainer has been telling her that fosterer is having a hard time handling his other foster dog so shouldn't be allowed to  have Lulu at his house. The fosterer tells them he is used to rehabbing knee problem dogs and if they are so concerned about his foster dog maybe they can get him into a new foster because they have been unable to find him a new foster or adopter for 13 months. 

- Memorial day weekend - the fosterer tries to take her again for the weekend by contacting Board President  but she and trainer say no and suggest he take another dog that has been in the shelter for a while. 

- The fosterer pee walks Lulu on Saturday and tries to take her out again on Monday. The trainer says he can't take her out and when he goes past her kennel they have put a lock on it so he can't even go in to say hello which she liked. 

- A member of the public posts her on Craigslist and finds at least 2 people that are willing to take her and rehab her knees. When DAWG finds out that the connection is not through DAWG they deny the requests.

- Another potential foster/adopter is sent to DAWG through other local rescues. 

- The vet sends around an email saying how great Lulu is doing. At his point she had been in almost complete confinement for 2 months. 

- As of July 2017 they have still not developed a plan for her and do not have any alternative for her. DAWG has significant resources with at least $1M in  their reserves but is not willing to spend any of them on her. 

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Lock and sheet on Lulu's kennel at DAWG.

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