Pints for Paws

Come down to Pioneer Tap House Friday April 3rd 7-pm where The Highway Sisters will be donating their performance again to support Nanook and Nakoda's Big Paw Rescue. We raffle 3 date night baskets each one containing a meal, entertainment and misc items!!! All proceeds of the raffle go to help care for the dogs!!

Pints for Paws

Come down to Pioneer Tap House Friday April 3rd 7-pm where The Highway Sisters will be donating their performance again to support Nanook and Nakoda's Big Paw Rescue. We raffle 3 date night baskets each one containing a meal, entertainment and misc items!!! All proceeds of the raffle go to help care for the dogs!!

Pints for Paws

Come down to Pioneer Tap House Friday April 3rd 7-pm where The Highway Sisters will be donating their performance again to support Nanook and Nakoda's Big Paw Rescue. We raffle 3 date night baskets each one containing a meal, entertainment and misc items!!! All proceeds of the raffle go to help care for the dogs!!

But what to do when the dog is hearing AND vision impaired............

Although obedience training is essential for any canine, it's imperative for deaf and blind dogs because it builds a bridge of communication between the pets and their humans. 

If a dog is deaf it's not difficult to learn and adapt to using visual commands just like when they are blind it's not difficult to adapt to using only verbal commands but what do you do when your dog is both vision and hearing impaired?

The following tips are a good place to start learning to communicate with your vision and hearing impaired canine friend:

1. Place child proof gates in your home to prevent dangers such as falling down stairs, entering rooms where they could bump into things and injure themselves

2. Be careful when moving furniture around as your vision and hearing  impaired dog will learn the layout and then become accustom to navigating things as to not injure themselves.

3. Create a safe haven. Put your pet's bed or crate in a quiet spot so he can feel safe and secure when company comes, or there is lots of activity that makes him nervous.

4. Make your presence known. You can avoid startling your pet by stroking or rubbing its back or shoulders when you enter a room.

5. Be careful where you touch him when he’s sleeping, avoiding the hindquarters because he might startle, thinking somebody is trying to sneak up on him.

6. When you do touch your dog when he’s sleeping, don’t apply a lot of pressure. Instead, lightly touch the tips of his hair .  Repeat the light touch and he’ll wake up.  Be consistent and touch your dog in the same place on his body  each time you wake him and he’ll soon learn when he feels your touch that it is you.

7. Sometimes dogs can smell in their sleep.  You can hold your hand under his nose to see if your scent wakes him.

8. Adjust your expectations for walks and play to accommodate your pooch’s needs and you’ll both enjoy time together 

Stay tuned as we learn to develope a communication method with the dog we rescued from a kill shelter that suffers from vision and hearing impairment. 

Pints for Paws

Come down to Pioneer Tap House Friday April 3rd 7-pm where The Highway Sisters will be donating their performance again to support Nanook and Nakoda's Big Paw Rescue. We raffle 3 date night baskets each one containing a meal, entertainment and misc items!!! All proceeds of the raffle go to help care for the dogs!!

Invite all your friends!!!

Ollie

Sunday March 1st NaNook & NaKoda's Big Paw Rescue tagged a vision and hearing impaired dog from the local kill shelter. With the over crowding currently happening at this shelter and the cities pet overpopulation problem due to a lack of spay/neuter ordinances and irresponsible breeding, this guy would have been euthanized quickly.

The first thing we have to do for this guy is get his vaccinations, rabies, heartworm prevention, microchipped and neutered done. While he's at the vet we will also need to have his vision and hearing evaluated.  During our dog testing visits at the shelter we believe he can see shadows but that there are definite issues with his vision. We also noticed he wasn't responding to low voices but he was responding to loud noises.Both issues could be due to many reasons such as birth defect, illness, or lack of proper health and nutrition.  Best case scenario these issue will be treatable, worst case scenario we will have to help him adjust.

If it is established that either issue is not treatable then we will have to develop a method of communication with him as well as make sure that his foster home is cleared of any hazards.  This will require baby gates, vibration collars, etc.

Crazy Reasons Why People Abandon Their Dogs

A common topic of conversation among rescuers and animal shelter workers is the crazy reasons people give for why they are abandoning their animals.  Many excuses are used frequently among abandoners but every now and then we hear new reasons for the first time.  

“I don’t like the way he looks at me.”
A woman surrendered her 4-month old Pit Bull puppy to a shelter because she felt uncomfortable with the way he was staring at her. He had never growled, bitten, or otherwise shown any signs of aggression.








“He sheds too much.”
When a Golden Retriever mix was surendered due to his excessive shedding, shelter workers found that he was covered in scars and nicks from being constantly shaved. The dog was, as a result, very frightened of clippers and feared being groomed.

“She keeps peeing in the house and not on the puppy pads.”

“He won’t stay out of the trash.”

“Her hair keeps getting knotted and I can’t afford to go to the groomer every week.”

“He’s sick and I can’t afford to go to the vet.”
A sick little Lab-mix was surrendered to the shelter where he was treated and quickly recovered. His treatment would have been an inexpensive veterinary visit and a round of antibiotics, many of which are filled for free at certain pharmacies. His owner had never bothered to even make a phone call and did not have a primary veterinarian. It’s not known whether he’d ever received any vaccinations.



“Now that he’s not a puppy, he’s not as cute.”

“My new boyfriend doesn’t like him.”
Wonder if the new boyfriend is as loyal, loving, and committed to her as her dog was before she abandoned him.

“I don’t want a gay dog.”
A man surrendered his Bulldog mix because, as he claimed, the dog was gay and wouldn’t stop humping other male dogs. Upon surrender, he requested the dog be euthanized.

“The dog doesn’t match the new couch.”
A family bought a new couch for their home and then dumped their dog because the fur she was shedding stood out too much against the color of the couch

‘I won a free holiday and I couldn’t take my dogs with me.’

 ‘I’m a vegetarian but he always wanted to eat meat.’ ‘

I got him as a secret Santa present.’ 

She was too friendly and wanted to greet every dog and human we met on a walk.’

 ‘He was panting too much.’

 ‘He didn’t like it when we played dress up.’

 ‘She sleeps in her own bed all night – I thought she would want to sleep in my bed.’

.“He’s old and no fun anymore. I want a puppy instead.”
When a senior dog was left at a shelter, his previous owners explained that the dog was too old and too slow. They wanted to trade him in for a newer, younger model.

‘She wags her tail far too much. 

‘Now he has lost weight he is too energetic.’

 ‘If I’d known anything about beagles, I wouldn’t have got one I had to spend an hour a day hoovering as he shed so much hair.

 ‘The dog is always staring at me – even when I am eating.’

No matter what the reaso for wanting to get rid of your dog it is never ok to dump it where a domesticated animal has to now try and learn to survive on it's own. 

How Dogs Learn from Other Dogs

According to psychologist Stanley Coren dogs can learn new behaviors by watching other dogs.

As a general rule dogs like the company of other dogs. The company of other dogs helps to keep them active and social as well as mentally stimulated. Bello is an 7 year old German Shepherd who can often be found with the founder of our rescue helping to teach the incoming rescue dogs pack manners as well as leading the way in basic obedience, agility work, search work and play. Other younger dogs can often learn quickly by watching the older dogs perform tasks, commands or play.

a puppy will learn from a mature dog that it is normal to urinate in the garden, rather than in the house. An owner will certainly have to take a proactive approach to house-training – they cannot assume that a puppy will always follow the adult dog’s lead – but it’s likely that the former will tag along with the latter outside and start to urinate in the same area.

Of course, this natural tendency may come with a downside; a dog can also serve to model undesirable behaviors, such as jumping up on furniture. If you are addressing problematic behavior in a dog that lives with other dogs, it is prudent to make sure you train both animals.

How you can help!

Our volunteers are the perfect ambassadors for our rescues work and mission! Their enthusiasm is perfect to organize small fundraisers that can help us reach our building fund goals! Now is a perfect time for our volunteers to get involved and shake things up! By creating and managing individual fundraisers our volunteers can deepen their support for our cause and help get the word out to new audiences!!

Social sharing is an excellent way to raise awareness and spread the word about our rescues work. By volunteers sharing our fundraising campaigns they can help us go viral and we could raise money to complete our building and continue our work!! 

Here come the holidays

The holiday season has arrived. People are out shopping, visiting family, spending time with their loved ones and experiencing the wonder  of the holiday season. However, for rescuers the holidays are a time of increased saddness, stress and general overwhelming anxiety trying to engage with their own loved ones but having to deal with an increase in animal surrenders.

Every year hundreds of animals are reported to be abandoned at kill shelters during the holidays. Rescues are scrambling to save them and begging for donations to take care of them.  Any time there is a holiday where people travel there is an increase in pets being dumped. Everything from senior dogs to young puppies. Some are even as cruel as they are getting rid of a senior dog to get a younger dog. A creature with feelings is abandoned like nothing. They are left by the only family they have ever known and loved in a crowded, noisey, stressful place with strangers they often become sad and depressed, fearful and reactive and many times instead of being adopted are euthanized if rescues can't take them in. 

It's just now Thanksgiving week and it has already started. Our own local kill shelter has already started euthanizing many. Christmas is just around the corner and all those people traveling who don't take the time to make arrangements for their furry family members will be dumping and after Christmas all those Christmas litters people couldn't sell will end up being dumped and then a few weeks into the new year all those people who got Christmas puppies will abandon them because they were too much responsibility and then Spring is right around the corner.

If you are not making a lifetime commitment then you should not get a living creature.