2008 was a very productive year for Highland Canine and our Second Chance Program. For those of you who may not be familiar, our Second Chance Program provides pro-bono work for our local dog rescue groups and humane societies. The dogs we worked with suffered from such behavioral issues as: lack of socialization, fear aggression, dominance aggression, dog on dog aggression, potty training issues, and simply no manners or strucuture at all. Highland Canine worked with 42 different dogs in 2008 from various rescue groups in our area, and we are proud to say the majority of these dogs were adopted out to their forever home with little or no issues.
The way the program works is that our local rescue groups or humane societies contact us and tell us that they want to pull a dog from the pound (or a surrender) but, it has certain behavioral issues. Based on our availability the dog comes to our facility just like our personal in-kennel training and once we feel the behaviors are under control they return to the volunteer foster home, or adopted and picked up from our facility. We also work one-on-one with the new forever family that is adopting the particular dog, so that they understand how the dog was trained and how to handle them if the issues were to return.
I would like to personally think my trainers; Jaime Stuart and Bobbie Ellis for all their hard work with these animals. I must say it is very rewarding to see these dogs placed in a forever home and bypassing a short life through animal control. I feel our program is making a difference and we are excited about our tasks for 2009!
