Larimer Humane Society: Kia Pet Adoption Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
This grant allowed us to underwrite portions of adoption fees or waive adoption fees completely for certain animals who had been in our care a little longer than normal or who needed additional training/attention post adoption.
In addition to reducing or waiving fees on individual pets, we were also able to host several different adoption specials at our shelter, including: 50% off adoption fees for all animals Aug. 24-31, all adoption fees waived on dogs from Sept. 1-8, and 50% off adoption fees for cats and dogs from Sept. 9-30. Through these events and the waiving of individual fees on dogs/cats, we were able to adopt out 328 dogs and cats.
How many pets did this grant help?
This grant enabled us to adopt out 328 dogs and cats to loving forever families.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Meet Sadie! Sadie is sweet 3-year-old English coonhound who was surrendered by her owner and ended up spending a longer period of time in our shelter than most dogs. While she had a good history with cats, kids, and other pets, Sadie really struggled — she would whine, pull, and bark — when meeting other dogs or encountering squirrels and rabbits on walks, and exhibited frustration when being kenneled.
Sadie did get adopted very shortly after initially arriving at our shelter, but was returned less than a month later due to the same behavior issues. While our behavior team tried to work with Sadie’s new owners, she proved too much for them to handle at the time.
Once Sadie was back in our care again, our behavior team went right to work helping Sadie address some of her biggest behavior issues. Sadie was the perfect candidate to learn hand-targeting and the Protocol for Relaxation. These two behavior modification methods, along with classical conditioning, were used as the foundation to redirect and focus her energy when faced with novelty.
With the support of our caring volunteers and local trainer, Sheri, Sadie also participated in our Clicker Club in order to reduce kennel frustration and increase calming behaviors. Sheri grew to love working with Sadie and saw such improvement that she offered to provide a free training session for Sadie’s new owners when they came along.
Sadie’s lucky day finally came after more than a month of training and patiently waiting! She is doing well, and we would not have had the ability to work with her for an extended period of time and then get her adopted had we not been able to significantly reduce her adoption fee. Thank you for helping Sadie find her new forever family!
