Through training, anything's pawsible

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The Herald-Tribune

By Jean Faulk


"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." -- Unknown

Iris Eastman would agree. The head of the 4-year-old Canine Coaches training program for the Humane Society of Sarasota County says she is seeing progress toward a new way of thinking about dog training: Dogs love to learn, and they love to be challenged.

Newly elected president of the society's board of directors, Eastman has been successfully training dogs since 1980.

Among her best memories is the story of a pit bull mix named Taylor. It began in upstate New York. "No one wanted this dog because he was so excitable. His obedience was good, but he was just crazy. His time on Earth was almost up," remembers Eastman.

She was so impressed with him, she got on the phone and started trying to get him adopted. She succeeded. He was trained in Miami and now works for the U.S. Customs Service in San Diego as a drug-sniffing dog.

"My goal in training a dog," says Eastman, "is to get them so the human companion will want to keep them. If you keep the dog happy, the human will be happy. Basic training for dogs."

According to Executive Director Deborah Millman of the Humane Society of Sarasota County, "That is one of the reasons we can place all our adoptable dogs. They're adoptable in part because they have basic training."

Sarasota County is fortunate to have enough volunteer trainers and students for its program. Most shelters don't have enough employees or volunteers to make a program like this work.

Approximately 1,500 dogs are turned over to the shelter each year, some due to unavoidable circumstances in the owner's life, but most with behavior problems such as jumping, barking or "mouthiness" (excessive nipping or biting).

"People don't know what to do or how to do it, so they don't do anything at all, and then they can't live with the dog. Then they bring them to us," Eastman said.

"These dogs are bored to death. They have nothing to do all day but lay in a kennel. This program gives them a purpose, and once they are successful at something, they enjoy the challenge of it."

When asked about the perception that shelter dogs don't make good family pets, especially those out of favor such as a pit bulls or rottweilers, Eastman cites Petey from "The Little Rascals."

"That dog was a pit bull. A perfect family dog." And of course, there is the drug-sniffing Taylor.

"It is not the breed; it is not the dog; it is the training, and that is the responsibility of the human," she said.

"Nothing but good can come out of this project," says Lori Michel, director of volunteers for the Humane Society.

Michel estimates there are between 40 and 50 volunteers who work only with the dogs. "They don't want to be bothered by people," she said. And she is working to get volunteers into training positions for the Canine Coaching program.

Among the shelter's canine population are some particularly challenging cases.

Romeo, for example, a black-and-white Lab mix, started out like all dogs as an adorable little puppy. Then he became a teenager. At 10 months and almost 57 pounds, he arrived at the shelter with little training.

He was adopted out and then brought back due to food aggression problems in October 2005. He has been at the shelter almost a year.

He jumps; he whines; he barks. It is the only way he knows how to get the attention he craves.

No one looks at Romeo. He is too wild, too jumpy, too nervous. But he is in class. He is learning. It is working.

Jazz, a 2-year-old hound mix, has different behavior problems. She has lots of energy, but she is scared. She has left the shelter and come back four times, each time for a different reason.

Jazz is shy around children, so that eliminates younger families from the list of potential adopters. It takes her a while to warm up to strangers, so because she is wary, people are wary of her. Most never even ask to see her outside her kennel.

Stacy Weeks, a Canine Coach volunteer, spends 10 hours a week at the society and has worked with Jazz continuously. In class, Jazz can follow all the commands and then roll over to have her belly rubbed. She knows Stacy, and you can see the trust in the dog's eyes.

Stacy adopted a challenging dog, much like Jazz, almost a year ago. Gizmo was so scared, she would not even get in the car. Gizmo has done a 180-degree turn since then. Stacy has seen what positive training did with Gizmo and believes finding Jazz a forever home is just around the corner.

Dogs aren't the only ones who benefit from the program. "The volunteers have a sense of achievement in accomplishing the training goals and the dogs love it," Michel says.

Volunteer Jay Julian has been working with dogs for two years. He has nothing but positive things to say about the training program. "My main impression is there is not a single dog that has been in that class that doesn't show remarkable improvement. I think the combination here of the Canine Coach training and the love and affection they get from the kennel staff makes all the difference."

Canine Coaches volunteer Marsha Svirsky describes herself as "a placid and conservative person," except when it comes to the animals, and then there is a "rebel" in her heart. Her shelter service began in New York State in what she calls "the shelter from hell." That was 25 years ago.

She has learned a lot since then. She has worked in all areas of the shelter from transporting animals to fundraising. The Canine Coaches program started with training shelter dogs to sit and stay when entering or leaving their kennels and walking calmly on a leash.

The potential of dog-training programs is so great that the Humane Society of Sarasota County is constructing a new training facility, projected for completion in December. This will allow the society to upgrade the training of its shelter dogs and to offer training to adopters and the public, from puppy classes through obedience, always with the goal of well-trained dogs in happy homes.