Two Brothers......and Anna

Anna Fernandez walked through our shelter doors about a month ago and introduced herself. She has a dog walking/sitting service and is also working on her certification for dog behaviorist. She asked if we had any dogs that could use some…..uhhh….fine tuning. Of course most of our dogs could use that….heck, I could use some fine tuning myself. She showed no interest in teaching me how to become more social or like-able, but did seem interested in helping our long term resident, Mennen, with this problem. Mennen is close to a year now. He is Boxer/mystery mix and has been at the shelter since he was a mere 3 months old. He knows no home other than a kennel, and no family other than his kennel mate Chadwick and the shelter staff, who know the dog he is, and not the one he appears to be. Mennen is cage aggressive, a nasty way of saying merely that he is territorial of his space and frightened of strange people who come too close and cause him to feel threatened. When Mennen comes out of the kennel, he shakes uncontrollably, tail tucked securely between his legs, and looks at the world through wide, terrified eyes. Anna’s dog that needed fine tuning: Mennen.

One afternoon a few days later, I walk outside and see someone in Mennen’s kennel. It is Anna. She sat quietly in the corner of Mennen’s kennel, letting him come to her, allowing Mennen to call the shots and decide for himself whether this was a good guy or bad guy (and good guys ALWAYS have treats in their pockets….just FYI). Anna came every few days to spend time with Mennen, and with each subsequent visit we began to notice small changes in Mennen. He was calmer when potential adopters walked down adoption row, he barked less, he smiled more (yes, Mennen smiles). One day Anna felt she had gotten to a point at which she should raise Mennen’s exposure level a notch, and sat with him in the lobby as people and dogs came and went. Clients and staff alike talked to Mennen and reached to pet him as they passed by. What did Mennen do? He sat smugly and quietly, tail and tongue wagging wildly. He devoured the positive attention. He was positively a different dog, one comfortable in his own skin…and that transformation was a beautiful thing to witness. I am happy to report that Mennen was chosen by a couple up North for adoption, and will be headed to Tenafly, New Jersey next weekend!

And so it is a happy ending for our Mennen, but there are still so many dogs with the very same issues and psychoses. For it is easy for a dog’s spirit to devolve into a fearful and frustrated one when they have been in the confines of a kennel (no matter how humane the conditions) for a lengthy period of time. Do we have another dog like Mennen? Yes, his name is Mitchum…….Mennen’s brother. But Mitchum has a new friend in his corner these days. Her name is Anna, and the two of them can be seen palling around together in the exercise yards whenever Anna can break away to offer her time and guidance to the dogs here who need it. I could go on and on about what Anna does for our Mitchum, but why don’t you see for yourselves: