(Left to right) Owner Kate, Blake the dog, and behavior volunteer Laura practice
cooperative vaccination, reducing stress associated with the procedure and making restraint unnecessary © Friends For Life
Behavioral services for companion animals can be so resource intensive that shelter administrators may consider in-house behavior programs to be a luxury rather than a necessity.
When shelter leadership does take a chance on starting up a behavior department, minimal funding is often allocated.
Our shelter was no exception: Friends For Life’s (FFL) behavior program started out as a department of one. Unsurprisingly, FFL had more behavior cases than one person could handle. The ability of the department to function effectively came to depend on the support of skilled volunteers.
(Issue 51, November 2021, pp.30-33). Read article