UPDATE 7/06/08 on the 19 Seeley Collies Rescued in Upstate NY
Statement by AWCA President Jean Levitt
Folks, we still have no further news that we can share regarding the remaining Seeley Collies. Therefore we are discontinuing our scheduled reports. When there is breaking news we will issue additional Sunday reports.
It has been
264 days.
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AWCA's volunteer Team Leader, who adopted the spinning dog, has most graciously shared with us the following update about his progress. We are delighted to hear of his continuing rehabilitation.
"On July 8th, my new Collie and I will have been together just six short months. He had been in cold storage for a significant part of his young five years. Habitual spinning is how he has coped with stress and expelled energy bottled up by physical and mental confinement. To see the mental and physical chains broken and the heart and soul of this magnificent being emerge is a deeply emotional experience for me as his guardian and companion, and for our very wise mentors who propel us forward.
"My Collie is a recent graduate of the Family Manners Level I training class taught by Chris Danker, CDPT (http://www.hemlockhollowdogtraining.com/index.htm) at the Mohawk & Hudson River Humane Society, Menands, NY (http://www.mohawkhumanesociety.org/tour.html). Using positive reinforcement training methods, we worked through such exercises as sit, down, settle on your ‘bed’, leave it, loose leash walking, polite greeting, hand targeting, recall, collar touch. On graduation night, students played a version of “My Dog Can Do That” using skills we learned over the weeks. My dog and I drew “the dog tries to steal the roast on the kitchen counter” scenario! We demonstrated three methods which could foil this doggie opportunity: leave it; collar grab: the recall.
Well, I believe this Collie speaks English and thinks independently. The very next evening the same scenario played out in my kitchen. The meatloaf waited on the counter under his watchful eye while I backed up to a counter behind me to get a knife to cut it up into bite size training treats. No sooner had I backed up than the Collie made a play for it with paws springing up on the counter and teeth ready to chomp. Calmly but firmly I called his name, took his collar in hand leading him away from temptation, and rewarded him with some luscious liver. Well what Collie worth his salt doesn’t make a break for something delicious on the kitchen counter! I'm so pleased the true dog is beginning to emerge. He feels enough at ease to make a play for something he wants and, thanks to training, consistency and positive reinforcement, is willing to turn away from something he desires at my request.
"We also completed a three-day novice obedience training camp held at Mahogany Ridge, Malta, NY (http://www.mahoganyridge.net/. Under the knowledgeable guidance of instructors Theresa Richmond and Barbara Nagy, my new Collie took a great leap forward at camp. It was an exciting, stimulating, and stressful environment for him. He wanted to spin his way to relief but I didn’t allow him the opportunity. By the afternoon of our first day of camp, his habituated response to stress – spinning – emerged as barking. Collies do bark. However, to date this Collie rarely barked! Just as I’ve managed the tendency to spin by asking for other behaviors, I tried to manage the barking by doing the same. Getting his attention, I would ask him to lie down and reward him with gentle touch and praise. The barking persisted into the second day, but his "down" became more relaxed. Instead of lying on all fours, he shifted to lying on his right hip with rear legs relaxed. And the barking episodes became less frequent. By the third day he could just settle into a relaxed down lying on his right hip and he didn’t bark!
"The final event at camp was a novice obedience match. My new Collie performed a pre-novice routine with great energy and enthusiasm and to great applause from fellow campers.
"We are all familiar with the TV show Lassie which highlights the strong bond that can form between a dog and his/her family. Etched in our minds is the quintessential picture of Lassie saving Timmy from the well. We can all have that bond with our dogs. It takes trust built on kindness, respect, consistency and patience. I am his Lassie saving him from the “well”. I have no doubt that in time, as our bond deepens, he will become my Lassie and return the favor. For all dogs in all shelters, we wish the same miracle."
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Five-Year Anniversary
Montana Collie Adoptions
Five years ago as of the upcoming August 3, Rev Oakes and I saw the last of the 183 Montana Collies off to her new adoptive home. AWCA continues to help with veterinary and other assistance for these Collies in their new lives. We also provide for any Montana Collies who for some reason cannot stay with their adopters, such as two situations recently where their adopters had passed away. In the latest such case Thea Sperline, our dedicated AWCA representative and rescue coordinator for Montana, drove more than 500 miles in one day to accept the Collie into her rescue. She then quickly found a wonderful new home for this girl--and for another Collie who'd been turned in to a local shelter that same day!
We continue to be grateful for the many kind and dedicated people who helped the Montana Collies during their detention and placement, for the wonderful people who have loved and cared for them in their own homes ever since, and for those who continue to watch over and support them as AWCA committed to do for the rest of their lives.
We are also most appreciative of all those who continue to act with discretion, dignity and integrity, in regard to the Montana Collie rescue, and who have refrained from exploiting these dogs, as AWCA had committed to the Toole County Sheriff's Department when they entrusted us with their care, placement and followup.
Calmly,
Jean Levitt
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