It's All Happening At the Zoo

Earlier this month the Critter Club took a field trip to the Racine Zoo for a program on careers with animals in a zoo.   After the program we spent quite a bit of time walking around and looking at the various animals in their exhibits. 

When we came to the bears I started reminiscing about going to the Milwaukee County Zoo as a kid with my family.  I happened to mention that we used to bring bags of marshmallows with us and entertained ourselves by throwing them to the bears.  The kids were amazed that the zoo allowed this, and it's a good reminder of just how far animal welfare has come.  Nowadays any zoo prohibits members of the public bringing food in to feed the animals.  And when you think about how many families visit a zoo on any given day, it clearly is not a good idea for bears to eat who knows how many pounds of marshmallows. 

The Milwaukee County Zoo was one of the early adopters of exhibits that attempted to provide animals with a more natural appearing habitat, rather than housing them in cages.  Over the years zoos have also become more aware of providing for their animals mental and emotional needs, in addition to their physical needs.  Good zoos have animal enrichment programs which allow animals to fulfill these needs. 

It makes sense when you think about the fact that in the wild an animal would spend most of it's waking time searching for food and some animals would also be searching for or building living space.  Captive animals have all of their needs provided for them, but they still have the instincts and habits in place that can cause extreme boredom and even depression if they aren't given an outlet for them.  

Zoos make an effort to constantly make changes to an animals environment, provide interactive materials as toys, and feed in such a way as to require the animal to hunt or forage their food.  Really great video and photo examples of these types of activities in zoos can be found at the Honolulu Zoo's website.

Zoos aren't the only organizations to make such changes to better the welfare of their animals.  In my next blog I'll talk about some of the changes that can be seen in animal shelters. 

Fears and Anxiety

Last Friday night we had a meeting for KHAWS -- a HAWS program for kids between the ages of 8 and 12 years of age that meets once a month.  The presenter this month was a dog trainer who came to tell the kids about dog sports, and she brought her very well behaved choclate lab to visit the kids as well. 

One of the kids who attends this program is a girl who was attacked by a dog when she was younger.  As a result she is terrified of dogs, and her mother enrolled her in KHAWS so that her daughter would have an opportunity to spend time with safe dogs in a controlled environment and hopefully, eventually get over her fear.

The mother stayed during the program and I was extremely impressed with how she helped her daughter.  The dog was about 25 feet from the girl at all times, but the girl was still afraid.  We left the door to an adjoining room open to her so that she would have, as she called it, a safe place to go when she was feeling overwhelmed with anxiety at the presence of the dog.  The little girl took advantage of the safe place any time she saw the dog move or even stand up from a down. 

At one point the presenter mentioned that her dog had developed a fear to something.  I overheard the mother telling the little girl, "See, even dogs are afraid sometimes".

By the end of the evening the girl remained in the room -- albeit at the 25 foot distance from the dog.  But the dog was up and moving, and being greeted by the other children, and the girl chose to remain.  Her mother remarked that her daughter's behavior around a dog was the best it's been that evening. 

As a dog trainer I'm well versed in helping dogs confront fears that they may have.  Common convention is that forcing a dog to confront something it's afraid of is the worst thing you can do -- it can backfire and cause the dog to be even more afraid than it was to begin with.  Dog trainers much prefer to work at what we call a "threshold" -- an exposure that causes the least amount of fear response from the dog, and as the dog recovers at a particular threshold we expose the dog to their fear item at a stronger and stronger threshold, until the dog is capable of coping with whatever previously caused them extreme anxiety.

Dog trainers also use "safe places" as well.  It provides an opportunity for a dog to remove himself if the threshold he's being worked at becomes a little too much for him.  A dog who is empowered to make his own choice when nervous is more likely to be able to deal with his fears.  A good example of a behavior modification model that uses this is Behavior Adjustement Training (BAT) developed by Grisha Stewart.

The empathy the mother displayed for her daughter and the decisions she was making on her daughter's behalf were right on target.  And it's a good reminder that no matter if you are a human being or an animal, we all have fears.  And what seems silly to one person (I can't imagine being afraid of all dogs) is very real to another.  So whether you're a dog who's afraid of men with beards, no matter how well intentioned the bearded man is, or a little girl who's afraid of dogs - no matter how well behaved the dog might be, it's not silly at all.  

Compassion and Kids

Wade might not be the cutest dog at HAWS.  And he certainly isn't the most playful.  But despite his disability, or perhaps because of it, he has captured the hearts of several of our Critter Club members. 

At last nights club meeting the middle school aged members spent part of their time at HAWS training some of the shelter dogs.  Like many shelters, HAWS has a large number of ill-mannered adolescent aged dogs that benefit from training to make their adoption more likely.  The kids greatly enjoyed working with the dogs during the training session. 

The last half hour of the meeting the kids were allowed to socialize the animal of their choice.  Out of all the animals they could have chosen, Jennifer and Caitlin were excited to be able to spend some time with Wayde - an 8 year old blind terrier mix.  Expressing their love for him and how wonderful they think he is, the girls quickly brought him into an interview room and spent the next 30 minutes telling him how wonderful he is, and giving him non-stop petting. 

One of HAWS goals in our education program is to instill empathy for all living creatures.  I don't know if the programs are working, or if we just happy to be attracting kids who are already outstanding animal ambassadors to our programs.  Either way, it makes me happy to see young people be able to appreciate an animal who isn't young, cute and energetic.  It's spending time with kids like this that make my job truly worthwhile.   

Lad Lake and Tink

The Lad Lake program has started up again.  This semester we have a great group of 6 boys who are enthusiastic and fast learners. 

One of the dogs assigned to one of the groups is Tink -- a very small Chihuahau.  The boys learned very quickly that training an adult small dog can be a challange.   Many times they are difficult to lure into a down position, and in Tink's case, she was also difficult to lure into a sit. 

Quite by accident the boys discovered that she does a beautiful play bow, and they spent most of their training session with her on Wednesday perfecting this trick.  Within no time Tink was not only bowing reliably, but holding it for over a minute at a time while the boys reinforced her with tiny Chihuahua sized treats. 

It was fantastic that the boys went from frustration to pride at what they were able to train this little girl to do.   I'm sure it will make them look forward to future sessions of dog training at HAWS.

Critter Club Starts Again!

Summer is over, camp is a not so distant memory, and with the start of the school year HAWS begins again with our fall programs.

One of my favorite programs is Critter Club -- a club for students in grades 6th through 9th, in which members learn about animals, do special animal related projects, and volunteer on Saturday mornings helping at HAWS. 

Last night was the first meeting night.  Critter Club consists of 15 students.  Ten of them are returning Critter Club members, which speaks to how much fun the kids had in their previous semesters in the program.  It's nice to see familiar faces -- I've really gotten to know these wonderful kids during the time I've spent with them.  And I look foward to getting to know the five new members this semester as well.

HAWS Education Assistant, Megan Katzuba, is new to Critter Club as well.  Last night she did a great job training the kids on cat socialization, despite the rowdy mood that came from the kids reuniting with students they hadn't seen since the end of the last school year. 

After the brief training session the kids were given a quick tour of the cat area, had a chance to look at all the adoptable cats, and were allowed to take some of the cats out for a little bit of play-time.   

I'm really looking forward to this year's group of kids.  Many of them have attended HAWS Kids 'N Critters camps over the years, and I've watched them grow into some amazing people.  They are the future of animal welfare, and it's wonderful to see that they are going into that responsibility.

HAWS Summer Kids 'N Critters Camp ended at the end of last week.  The building is certainly much quieter for the first time in 11 weeks.

The feedback from the parents and kids overall was extremely positive.  I've heard so many parents tell me what a great time their kids had -- even that out of all the activities the kids did over the summer, coming to HAWS was their favorite.  A lot of the kids are already planning on attending our camps next year. 

I went through some of the many (literally thousands) of photographs that my staff and I took throughout the summer to document what the kids did while they were here.  One of the things that struck me is how many different types of animals the kids were able to meet and learn about during their camp sessions. 

HAWS is a little unique in animal sheltering in that we will accept just about any kind of animal.  Many shelters handle only dogs and cats because they aren't set up to be able to accomodate the needs of other types of animals such as rabbits, pocket pets, birds and reptiles. 

While it's unfortunate that there is a great need for a place for all types of animals to go when their owners can no longer or aren't willing to care for them any more, the fact that HAWS does take in all different types allows us to use them as a learning opportunity in our education programs. 

Many times this means that we have to educate ourselves before we can pass this knowledge on to the kids.  Over the years I've learned about a lot of different species, but the Red Tail Boa we accepted a few weeks ago was a new one on me.  This one is only about 4 feet long, but full grown can end up to be about 10 feet long, and will weigh about 50lbs. 

Additionally the kids learn that all animals are not the same.  Different species need different care, require different habitats, display different behaviors, and require different handling.  Our campers learn about all these differences and get to see some of them first hand here at HAWS when they interact with the animals. 

Crowing about Kids 'N Critters Day Camp

He was supposed to be a girl named Ramona.  He ended up being a boy and was renamed Ray.  Because he was being picked on by all the other chickens, Ray the Rooster ended up being surrendered to HAWS.

Luckily for our campers this week Ray is friendly and personable, and gave the kids a great opportunity to learn about chickens, how they are cared for, and what kind of pets they make.  Camp counselor Brittany Tubbs has chickens and did a great job talking to the kids.  I learned that chickens eat a small amount of sand and pebble and that helps grind up their food in their digestive system.

Ray taught the kids why it isn't a good idea to keep roosters in urban areas, as he repeatedly crowed throughout the presentation.