Home for the Holidays

For individuals who celebrate a holiday in December, it is well known that this is a time for friends and family.  And for many, family includes the four legged members of the tribe.  At the Lycoming County SPCA we are quite busy as families decide to adopt a pet.  Our hope is that every animal finds its forever home and enjoys the comfort and joy of being loved and well cared for.  After all, isn't that something that everyone would enjoy?

Peppy will be celebrating her first Christmas with me.  This little Chihuahua was found in a crate full of feces and urine.  Unfortunately, her owners were unable to care for themselves much less this little dog.  Peppy weighed just 4 pounds, had difficulty seeing due to cataracts, and had a mouth full of rotten teeth and infected gums.  Through all of that, she remained friendly and affectionate.  Now weighing  7 pounds with a few remaining healthy teeth, she is enjoying her new life with another dog, two cats, and a loving owner. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza, and may peace and joy be with us all!

Full to Over Flowing

Neglect Turned Around

Can you believe this is the same dog?  Lucky Meatball (yes that's his name) came to the SPCA in May.  He was underweight, suffered from mange, and an eyelid that had turned inward.  After surgical repair of his eyelid, good food, and multiple medicated bath; this happy-go-lucky dog is in good health.  He loves everyone he meets and he will especially love his next family.  Lucky Meatball is a must meet canine! 

How to Train a Dog

Right off, you should know that you will not learn how to train your dog from this blog. However, you will learn some dos and don'ts.

Recently, an adopter put out a plea for help on facebook.  She described her problem and received many different suggestions.  A month later, she was asking our SPCA trainer for help.  So what went wrong? 

First off, training a dog requires patience. For those of you who have housebroken a puppy, you know that the puppy does not learn in one easy lesson.  It requires consistent, repeated, positive training.  So teaching a dog not to bark, chase cars, jump on visitors, counter surf, etc., requires consistent, repeated, positive training.  And that takes time and does not happen over night.

Secondly, the owner of the dog needs to decide which training method to use and stick to the plan.  Our SPCA dog trainer trains with positive reinforcement.  Dogs receive lots of play and praise for doing the right thing.  So if you decided to train positively, you need to do it consistently and not change when you don't see instant results.  Changing patterns of training confuses the dog and frustrates the owner.

Third, it is worth spending the money to take a class or two.  Trust me on this one.

Fourth, training does not end with the classes.  If you want a well behaved dog, keep up with the training from leash walking to where the dog sleeps.  Both the dog and owner will be happier.

Tell the Truth About Your Animal

Recently, our SPCA received a "stray" dog.  Several days later a woman comes in to claim the dog.  She has paperwork with the "finder's name and address on it.  So the poor dog was in the shelter for 3 days as a vindictive move on the part of the ex-boyfriend. 

So it is lose-lose all around.  When an animal is surrendered as a stray and the person who surrenders it knows the animal, we cannot get good information about the animal.  Plus the animal is held at the shelter for the required hold period and cannot be adopted until the hold period is over.  It has financial implications as well because it costs the shelter money to inoculate, feed, and shelter the animal.

So please do not lie about an animal when you bring it to a shelter.  It isn't in the best interest of the animal.

Raising Funds For Charity

I am often amazed by the individuals and groups that will host various fundraising events to help raise funds to care for homeless animals.  From young children to adults the ambition and ingenuity
of our supporters is amazing.  From home made pet treats to lemonade stands, we have had people work hard and give generously.  There are also tons of businesses that donate when purchases are made. 

A new twist on fundraising is an app named Walk for a Dog.  More information can be found at WoofTrax.com.  There you can learn more about the app, and should you choose to download the app, you can choose your favorite charity.  Wooftrax will make a donation based on your use for that charity.  The Lycoming County SPCA received a donation from Wooftrax, and that is how we found out about it.

 Once in a great while there will be some people who will raise funds for their own benefit.  And that is a difficult thing to reign in. My advice is to always write a check to your favorite charity and only pay cash if you are paying it directly at the charity's facility. 

The Lycoming County SPCA likes to acknowledge donations we receive with a thank you letter-another great reason to write a check.  And THANK YOU for your support!

Animal Sheltering is Hard Work