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From the owners of Dallas, now Finnegan:

We cannot thank you enough for the opportunity to adopt “Dallas” (now known as “Finnegan”) in mid-February 2013. He is proving to be a wonderful addition to our family- smart, eager to please, and so loving. He LOVES walking the off-leash trails in High Park, chasing balls with friends in dog parks, and is always willing to come when called. His leash manners have improved immensely with patience and positive rewards for eye contact instead of pulling. He has completed 8 classes of obedience and is ever eager to learn more. Our only challenge with him right now is to slowly work on overcoming separation anxiety-- we are working with the vet and obedience instructor to desensitize him to our comings and goings in the hopes he will be able to stay calmly by himself in the future. We have seen him overcome short term fears (new food dish, balloons, and kitchen fan) and feel he will be successful in this larger issue. He is such a wonderful dog that every change to our lifestyle is worth it!

We’d also like to express our appreciation for the “care package” you sent home with us- he drinks from his portable water bowl every day while walking in the park, drives us crazy with the plastic moose squeaky toy, and still wears his collar (+name tags, phone numbers, and i.d.). although we’ve gone to a harness for daily walks. The time James took to allow us to become acquainted with him and the on-going support from Ashley have also been most appreciated! You are all a wonderful team doing wonderful work!







4 Comments to “Update on Dallas”

  1. Anonymous says:

    What a beautiful boy! He looks so happy!

  2. Fabulous! I love how quickly he made friends at the park -- it always takes me such a long time. Lucky, lucky dog; seems like he really hit the jackpot. Man.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Beautiful dog! Love his new name. So nice to get the update and see that he has found a wonderful home with compassionate people. His life in the dog park and with his squeaky moose sounds like a dogs best dream come true! Thanks to TAS, Fred and the new owners!

  4. Anonymous says:

    Nothing more uplifting that to see a happy dog in a happy place. Such great news.

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A request

The reason for this blog is to help get specific dogs adopted from TAS but equally important is to try to normalize the idea of shelter dogs being just as good and just as desirable as any other dogs including those which are regularly merchandised by backyard breeders, puppy millers and those few remaining pet store owners who still feel a need to sell live animals. The single greatest stigma shelter animals still face is the belief that shelter animals are substandard animals. Anyone who has had enough experience with shelter animals knows this is untrue but the general public hasn't had the same experiences you've had. They see a nice dog photo in a glossy magazine and too many of them would never think of associating that dog with a dog from a shelter. After all, no one abandons perfectly good dogs, right? Unfortunately, as we all know, perfectly good dogs are abandoned all the time.

The public still too often associates shelter dogs with images of beat up, sick, dirty, severely traumatized animals and while we definitely sometimes see victims such as these, they are certainly not the majority and, regardless, even the most abused animals can very often be saved and made whole again.

Pound Dogs sometimes discusses the sad histories some of the dogs have suffered. For the most part, though, it tries to present the dogs not as victims but as great potential family members. The goal is to raise the profiles of animals in adoption centers so that a potential pet owner sees them as the best choice, not just as the charity choice.

So, here's the favour I'm asking. Whenever you see a dog picture on these pages you think is decent enough, I'd like you to consider sharing it on Facebook or any other social media sites you're using (I know many of you do this already and thank you for that). And when you share it, please mention that the dog in the photo is a shelter dog like so many other shelter dogs waiting for a home. If we can get even five percent of the pet buying public to see shelter dogs differently, to see how beautiful they are and how wonderful they are, and to consider shelter dogs as their first choice for a new family member, we can end the suffering of homeless pets in this country.
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