Cooper

One of the hardest situations to face as a rescue organization is placing an animal into a home which you later regret. Even with the application screening, home visit screening and mutual agreement made through a signed contract, you can't avoid unfortunate situations from arising. Our Pal's Place adopted Cooper into a home when he was just a puppy. Our adoption contract requires puppies to attend puppy socialization classes. These classes help ensure the puppy receives needed playtime and interaction with other dogs and helps us provide needed training as normal puppy issues arise such as housetraining, chewing, etc. When Cooper arrived to his first socialization class, he didn't know how to interact with the other puppies, but made noticeable progress as reported by one of our volunteers in attendance. Unfortunately, Cooper was not brought back to the other socialization classes and, as a result, during the critical time of his development did not learn how to appropriately interact with other dogs. To make matters worse, a shock collar was put on Cooper to control his barking. Think about it .... Cooper sees another dog which already frustrates him, starts to bark and gets shocked. As is warned with the use of shock treatments, dogs don't always know why they are being shocked so most likely Cooper associated the shock with seeing the other dog. This culminated into the people returning Cooper to O.P.P. which we are so grateful for now that we have put all of the pieces of their story together. We regret putting Cooper into such a situation. When Cooper was returned to O.P.P., our trainer and her assistants were on-site to receive Cooper, assess him and determine how to best help him. Using positive reinforcement, our trainer had Cooper on the front lawn in close proximity to another dog with minimal reaction from Cooper within 20 minutes. Next step was see how Cooper would react inside our pet adoption facility where our other dog residents are housed. Based on what we had been told, we expected Cooper to be lunging and trying to break through the doors to get to the other dogs. Just the opposite. Cooper stood leaning against our trainer's leg with his whole body shaking. Once he calmed down, the training team started playing ball with him. When Cooper returned the ball, the room exploded into cheers for Cooper. He was so proud! Our director took Cooper home to help Cooper relax and continue assessing the situation. In a home with 5 dogs, Cooper has not once lunged, growled or barked when seeing one of the dogs. He merely wants human affection, belly rubs and a good game of ball! Through continued socialization, positive reinforcement and TLC, Cooper is successfully being reconditioned to be around other dogs. Cooper craves human affection and wants so badly to please and be called a 'good boy'! He is one of the most loyal and loving dogs we have ever met. Compare the 1st and 2nd pictures taken the day after Cooper returned to O.P.P. with the 3rd picture sent to us by his people where Cooper is wearing a shock collar. In the 2nd picture, Cooper is playing ball with a dog barking at him from the other side of the fence.

One of the hardest situations to face as a rescue organization is placing an animal into a home which you later regret. Even with the application screening, home visit screening and mutual agreement made through a signed contract, you can't avoid unfortunate situations from arising. Our Pal's Place adopted Cooper into a home when he was just a puppy. Our adoption contract requires puppies to attend puppy socialization classes. These classes help ensure the puppy receives needed playtime and interaction with other dogs and helps us provide needed training as normal puppy issues arise such as housetraining, chewing, etc. When Cooper arrived to his first socialization class, he didn't know how to interact with the other puppies, but made noticeable progress as reported by one of our volunteers in attendance. Unfortunately, Cooper was not brought back to the other socialization classes and, as a result, during the critical time of his development did not learn how to appropriately interact with other dogs. To make matters worse,

One of the hardest situations to face as a rescue organization is placing an animal into a home which you later regret. Even with the application screening, home visit screening and mutual agreement made through a signed contract, you can't avoid unfortunate situations from arising. Our Pal's Place adopted Cooper into a home when he was just a puppy. Our adoption contract requires puppies to attend puppy socialization classes. These classes help ensure the puppy receives needed playtime and interaction with other dogs and helps us provide needed training as normal puppy issues arise such as housetraining, chewing, etc. When Cooper arrived to his first socialization class, he didn't know how to interact with the other puppies, but made noticeable progress as reported by one of our volunteers in attendance. Unfortunately, Cooper was not brought back to the other socialization classes and, as a result, during the critical time of his development did not learn how to appropriately interact with other dogs. To make matters worse, a shock collar was put on Cooper to control his barking. Think about it .... Cooper sees another dog which already frustrates him, starts to bark and gets shocked. As is warned with the use of shock treatments, dogs don't always know why they are being shocked so most likely Cooper associated the shock with seeing the other dog. This culminated into the people returning Cooper to O.P.P. which we