Vera Jordan Magazine

Managing Behavior Challenges
in the No Kill Model
Gold Star DOGS
Special Rescue Pups and the Program that Helps to Find Them Homes
By Keri Buscaglia
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Maximus works for a treat with Joan
Harris on the PAWS Chicago Lincoln
Park Adoption Center roof deck.
The No Kill movement is grounded in one major tenet: preservation of life. Despite the proven
success of No Kill, many private shelters continue to operate in failed models of the past where killing
is an acceptable population management tool. But that is slowly changing.
PAWS Chicago continues to develop its No Kill Model as a guide for shelters and communities,
showing that No Kill can be successfully scaled to care for large number of animals, while every pet is
given the individualized care needed for quality of life.
The foundation of the No Kill Model is a community coming together to support four pillars: a
robust adoption program to unite homeless pets with loving families; a high-volume spay/neuter
program targeted to low-income families who could not otherwise afford it; a comprehensive
volunteer program that encourages individuals to get hands-on in every possible way to save animals;
and a program dedicated to holistic animal health and well-being. This last pillar consists of a
state-of-the-art shelter medicine program to heal the body and a comprehensive animal behavior
program to enrich the mind.
Animals in shelters are wounded in many ways. They might have been lost, found surviving on the
streets, or discarded by the only family they ever had. Others have had a revolving door of families.
Some are victims of abuse. Each one has suffered a profound loss.
No matter how nice the accommodations, shelters are a stressful environment for homeless pets.
This stress reveals itself in a litany of physical illnesses and in less visible emotional damage.
Just as a No Kill shelter will not take an animal’s life because of a curable or manageable physical
disease like upper-respiratory infection, ringworm or mange, a No Kill will not take life because of fear,
lack of socialization, bad manners or protectiveness, so long as there is quality of life for the animal
and experts believe that there is no danger to others.
PAWS Chicago’s shelter medicine team heals the physical health challenges and the behavior team
works to instill confidence and communication skills through training and behavior modification. Read
on to learn more about the Gold Star program at PAWS Chicago.
All you have to do is look at Maximus and you can tell he knows what
it’s like to be loved. You can see it when you look into his bright eyes,
or hear the confident thump of his tail when you say his name. But
there’s a quiet insecurity to this four-year-old Shepherd Mix, an eagerness to
please and perhaps, more touchingly, a palpable sense of need… to replace the
stable family he once knew. Maximus had his world turned upside down after
the tragic and sudden loss of his owner; in the blink of an eye, the only life
he’d ever known was replaced with the cold, harsh reality of the city pound.
He was anxious, confused and stressed by the time he found his way to PAWS
Chicago – behavior that is now making it difficult for him to fit in and more
importantly, find a new home. Maximus has a special set of social challenges
that make him, what we call, a Gold Star.
Why A Gold Star?
The ‘Gold Star’ is a program designation PAWS Chicago uses to find the
right family for behaviorally or socially challenged rescue dogs. The program
consists of support services designed to help harder to place pets, like Maximus,
find the special environment and training that both dog and adopter need to
be successful. The program is also about dispelling common misconceptions
that challenged dogs ‘aren’t adoptable’, ‘have too much baggage’ or are in a
shelter because ‘they didn’t make good pets’.
While it’s true that a Gold Star Dog may have a bumpy past or may exhibit
challenging behaviors, second chances are possible, according to Joan Harris,
Director of Training and Canine Behavior at PAWS Chicago.
“It’s about finding the right adopter and the right home environment,” she
explains, likening the process of finding the right home for a dog, to that of a
person trying to do the same thing.
“Most of us consider our environment carefully when deciding where
we will be happy and thrive,” she says. “You might want to live in a house
on a tree-lined street in a quiet neighborhood. But now, imagine your state
of mind if that search resulted in the complete opposite. It’s fair to say you
might exhibit undesirable behavior because you are living under conditions
so obviously not suited to your personality.” Harris says it’s the same for a dog.
“If I have a reactive dog that barks at every little noise or at every person
that walks by the window, placing them into a condominium in Bucktown
isn’t going to do anything but frustrate everyone in that relationship,” she
says. “Finding a quieter environment will give the dog a chance at success.
Removing the behavior triggers and getting them in the right environment
can work wonders.”
Gold Star Training
Removing behavior triggers and finding the right environment - that’s the
foundation of the Gold Star Training program, because according to Harris, if
you don’t start there, the problem behavior will continue to be a problem. But
it’s the training that gives both dog and future owner the skills or, as Harris
calls it,“the language,” to manage.
Take Rhubarb. This young dog is full of puppy energy. She’s social, loves
to play, fetch and run alongside anyone willing to take her. More importantly,
Rhubarb is eager and enthusiastic when it comes to her training. She was
Augustus
Joe
Adolpho
Rhubarb
Above: Augustus, Joe, Adolpho and
Rhubarb let their personalities show
through in training and in their foster
homes. These Gold Stars are all looking
for their perfect match.
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