From Shelter to Service
Local Dogs Getting Pulled from Pound and Into Veterans Aid Programs
The holiday season is the perfect time to reflect on your blessings and seek out ways to make life better for those around us. The Gardenia E. Janssen Animal Shelter (GJAS) along with a new organization they are partnering with called K9s For Warriors has found a way to make that possible.
K9s For Warriors, a veterans service organization based out of Florida that provides service dogs to veterans, recently built a new facility in San Antonio and found that GJAS had some great candidates. “In October the organization started to visit shelters in our area and so far we have had five dogs pulled,” said Shelter Director Teresa Stanley-Brown.
“It was one after the other and then we were able to utilize the tools to pretest the dogs, and then we were able to call them and say, ‘Hey we have two candidates that we would like you to look at,’ and so far every time they have come they have left with a dog.”
Since they will be serving veterans, some of the tests the shelter is doing with the dogs involves how easy they startle with gunfire or fireworks. They want the dogs to be able to stay calm in those types of situations so that they can keep the veteran calm. They are also testing for food aggression with humans and other dogs.
These dogs are also able to leave with an extra sense of comfort and a reminder of Fayette County thanks to the Colorado Valley Quilt Guild’s Quilts of Valor program. Originally started to give quilts to wounded veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, the generosity of these quilters has expanded its scope as a way to thank a veteran, including its canine companion.
As of now, three out of the five dogs are continuing their training, which lasts six to eight months. Once they are at the facility, they go through an extensive vet exam. After that extensive exam, Loba, one of the first dogs pulled from GJAS, was found to have problems with her hips so she went into their adoption program and was soon adopted by one of the K9s For Warriors trainers. Butch, another dog pulled, sadly also didn’t make the cut for a veteran. However his “prey drive” or hunting instinct got him picked up by another organization the GJAS partners with for Category 5 Disaster Search and Rescue training.
Along with partnering and learning how to train the dogs for Category 5 Disaster Search and Rescue, GJAS is also partnering with an organization to teach the dogs to search for drugs in schools.
Stanley-Brown could not be prouder of these new partnerships and endeavors for GJAS. “For us, the service dog industry is a new avenue that we are exploring. It’s another avenue to ensure that these dogs will go to a good home but it also means and shows that dogs are meant for so much more than backyard pets. So many dogs have it in their DNA to have another purpose. They really do need a job,” said Stanley-Brown.
“We work with rescue organizations all over the country for adoption but to have partners that actually take our dogs into a program and give them a job is just an amazing chance. We don’t know the history of our dogs but given the tools, we can now test for things we may or may not think of so it does give us another avenue for saving their lives.”
And of course, Stanley-Brown and GJAS know they have the support of the community behind them.
“We can never do what we do without the support of the community and we’re so blessed to have such great support in this community. It is so amazing how many people want to help us help these animals,” said Stanley-Brown. “We do have a lot for 2022, more big and small fundraising, KC drive-thru dinners, but none of that matters without the community.”
So if you would like to continue to help GJAS this holiday season stop by and volunteer and adopt don’t shop because you just might find your next best friend or hero this holiday season.