Today while at the Peninsula Humane Society, I had the pleasure of working with two dogs. The first of which was named Padric, a five year old brown chihuahua. He has been at the Humane Society since February 6th, which is why I would guess he was labeled a priority dog (priority dogs are supposed to be taken out first). Padric was extremely difficult to get out of his kennel, one of the behaviors that the behaviorists and volunteers such as myself are working on with him. He gets overexcited, jumps up and down, and reacts poorly when someone tries to put a collar on him, all of which are behaviors that have to change in order for him to be more appealing to adopters. However, once out of the building, Padric was very pleasant. And despite the fact that he did not comprehend most of the commands we were working on, he was very treat-motivated.

The next dog, was little Dotty, a six month old jack russell terrier. She and her siblings had been at the Humane Society since March 8th, but the rest of her siblings had been adopted already. Dotty was still very much a puppy; she was not interested in training at all, only in all of the different and fascinating toys in the play area. She was very cute as well, not only in her looks, but also because she had an equilibrium problem, meaning she would get a little dizzy and sometimes fell or tripped over herself. I wasn't sure if this is something that she would outgrow or if her siblings had similar problems, but I couldn't imagine she would be at the Humane Society for long.

Today I also lucky enough to meet with Rebecca Katz, director of San Francisco Animal Care and Control. I learned a lot from our meeting about San Francisco Animal Care and Control as well as the difference between animal care organizations in California. San Francisco's animal care agency was founded in 1989 (counties in California are required to have an animal control organization, and it can either be through a contract or a government agency). San Francisco's ACC is an open door shelter, meaning they will take in an animal regardless of condition or species (but they also will euthanize animals). The San Francisco SPCA may choose which animals they take in, however in 1994, the SPCA and the ACC made an agreement that the SPCA will take any healthy and available animal from the ACC to adopt out except for pitbulls. The SPCA is a critical partner to the ACC, because they adopt animals out easier. The ACC has many different functions, though, they do: animal control (officers pick up strays, enforce animal laws, protect the public), adoptions, licensing, lost and found, animal care (food, cleaning, health), as well as outreach (events, education at public schools). Their budget, which comes mostly from the government, is about $4 million (as opposed to the San Francisco SPCA's $16 million). They receive about 11,000 animals, and have a live release rate for cats and dogs of about 86%, which is great when compared to the national average of 36%.