Shaking off the mud

In a way I'm going to be sorry to see the last lingering bits of snow slip out of the yard. This morning, there was still enough there for Ruby and Henry to have a snow bath to shed most of the mud from this morning's hike.
When I first adopted them, we didn't go anywhere near the roads. Instead, we would hop in my car and head down the road to my friends place. The miles of woodland trails to choose from there made it a very good place to begin the process of training them without the distractions of traffic and other dogs. I still don't think that was coddling them ....rather I see it as protecting them from being overwhelmed and giving them a chance to develop some confidence before 'taking it to the streets'.
Personally, I think that the coldest part of winter is the best time to ease a dog into his or her new neighbourhood. There's less foot traffic and its too chilly for everyone to dawdle and get distracted with chit chat. Now that everyone is out and about, Ruby and Henry are better prepared to learn how be polite with other dogs that they meet. Ruby is just so used to being the boss of Henry when they play that it may be one of those lifetime lessons for her to learn some restraint with every dog that we meet.
We teach our dogs 'manners' so that we can be out in the world with them safely. In our case, there is an even better reason ... this is a very small area and everyone up and down the road know that both Ruby and Henry were adopted from animal rescue. The neighbours have followed their progress and have seen first hand how adult dogs can 'learn new tricks'
In a sense they are spokesdogs and when they do well it encourages others to think of adopting. Now Miss Ruby never actually was listed on http://www.petfinder.com/ because I had a preapproved application in with several groups, and when ARC rescued my sweet girl they were fairly confident we would be a good fit. Henry did make it to Petfinder, but by sheer chance I was in at the vets buying cat food at the same time as the Annapolis ACO had dropped him off there for CAPS .
There are so many great dogs that either never need to be listed on either rescue websites or on petfinder. People who have adopted in the past understand that a preapproved adoption is a great way to let the rescue help them in their search for their new friend. For instance, when I applied with ARC, I was actually looking for an older girl than Ruby, who was two at the time. But she has been my heart from the moment we met because on my app I had talked about how much I had missed Chloe, the sweet little girl I had lost the year before.
And that is all fine and well for everyone who has already experienced the joys of pet adoption. But what about when rescues and shelters are NOT preaching to the choir? How can they attract first time adopters if the sweetest, cutest and best behaved dogs never need to be listed on their website or on petfinder?
Like it or not, this is a virtual world. Even people who shop in person do a lot of their legwork online. For instance ... I go to the CTC website all the time to see if they carry the tool or the gadget or fixit thing that I need .. and if its in stock, before heading to the village. If they don't carry it .... I simply go to another site until I find one that does.
One of the most common reasons that people offer for not wanting to adopt from rescue is that they don't find the pet they are looking for in the selection available online. So they simply assume that the harder to place dogs that are listed are all that are available.
What happens then? Why its off to the pet store or the neighbourhood breeder or gawd forbid the dreaded free online site. If rescues and shelters want people to become adopters instead of shoppers, then they need to find a way to let people know how many wonderful pets really do become available for adoption.
How do they do that? These are difficult days and advertising budgets are non existent. Oh but wait....isn't there a well publicized online listing service already there? Don't most of them already subscribe to it?
At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, until all the adoptables are listed on petfinder, no matter how briefly, there is no reason for potential first time adopters to dip their toes in the water. Hand in hand with that is the need for groups to list enough of a selection of their petfinder happy tails to let potential adopters know what types of pets have been adopted through their rescue or shelter.
In the business world, this is referred to as cornering the market. At the end of the day , people want what they want. Shoppers will only become adopters when they can see that animal rescue really does have something for everyone.