'Difficult' dogs discover a new life

EVANS MILLS — It may be the dog days of summer, but for Alyson S. Rice and Patrick O. Danforth, it's no different from any other time of the year.

Ms. Rice and Mr. Danforth are co-owners of the Foster Dog Chronicles, which trains and rehabilitates difficult dogs acquired mainly through the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Jefferson County Dog Control.

"We started out fostering dogs for Fort Drum that were going to be euthanized and just needed a little care to make them happy family dogs," Ms. Rice said, patting a rehabilitated black mouth cur named Casey. "We can't keep dogs from shelters, but we can make a difference in this dog's life."

The Foster Dog Chronicles, which got its name from the title of their blog about the rehabilitation of abused and stray dogs, is housed on the couple's property in the town of LeRay. Ms. Rice and Mr. Danforth established the business after seeing a need for an alternative to euthanasia and for more rigorous certification programs for dog trainers.

"We weren't comfortable with the way the dog training world was working," Ms. Rice said, adding that the Foster Dog Chronicles is the only rehabilitation program of its kind in the area.

As a result, Ms. Rice became a certified trainer with the Karen Pryor Academy, a nationwide training program that uses a plastic clicker to indicate when the dog has done something good and emphasizes positive communication over punishment or force-based systems. All their dogs are trained in this method to perform a variety of commands ranging from the simple "sit" and "stay" to doing tricks.

"Dogs need jobs, and you can teach a dog to put laundry in a laundry basket, toys in a toy basket," said Ms. Rice, a retired state police officer and the only Karen Pryor trainer in the area. Among the tricks performed by Maggie, a Catahoula leopard dog and Labrador retriever mix owned by the partners, were turning on a light, closing a door, sitting in a folding chair and distinguishing between different toys.

Ms. Rice and Mr. Danforth also encourage their dogs with verbal affirmation, gentle voices, soft whistles and treats. Although bits of kibbles are normally sufficient snacks, the presence of visitors ups the ante for good behavior and necessitates bits of ham or other special treats for the dogs.

"We basically rehabilitate dogs from undesirable behaviors they've inadvertently been taught," Ms. Rice said. She explained that these behaviors take a minimum of one month to fix and can range from pulling on a leash and barking to growling and biting.

Australian cattle dog Sasha is one pooch with undesirable behaviors that's gone through the Foster Dog Chronicles. No one knows why she recently turned up in an animal shelter or even how old she is — owner Shari L. Scott of Watertown estimates she's 1 year old.

"She still smells like puppy to me, and she still has lots of puppyness in her," said Ms. Scott, the owner of Garden Angels. "She's been trained by somebody, but she is seriously high energy, so maybe they couldn't just handle that."

In addition to the training Sasha received at the hands of the unknown owners, she received some behavior lessons at the hands of Ms. Rice and Mr. Danforth to calm her down. Ms. Scott was given a few lessons in clicker training before she took Sasha home.

Despite the spunkiness of the puppy, which initially required four walks a day to manage, Ms. Scott said she is extremely fond of Sasha and the Foster Dog Chronicles.

"I'm really happy. She's a great dog," she said. "I think they're great people doing a wonderful thing."

In the opinions of Ms. Scott, Ms. Rice and Mr. Danforth, rehabilitated dogs are not necessarily more difficult than pet shop puppies. Unlike many shelters, the Foster Dog Chronicles carefully screens dogs to discover hidden behaviors — for example, a strong dislike of cats in black mouth Casey's situation.

"We test their temperament, check for any food aggression, dog aggression, animal aggression," Ms. Rice said. "We check for any possessiveness, any guarding behaviors."

As a result of this caution, the Foster Dog Chronicles has been successful with matching the right dog with the right home.

"To date we have not had to put a dog down. We have a 100 percent placement rate," Mr. Danfroth wrote in an e-mail. "We work hard testing and training the dogs to avoid failure by also screening families for the right home."

The Foster Dog Chronicles also spays or neuters each of their dogs and encourages all pet owners to do the same. The partners, who have rehabilitated more than 20 dogs in the three years they have been operating, own seven dogs and have an additional three on hand for adoption.

The business, a registered New York state not-for-profit, is both Ms. Rice's and Mr. Danforth's only job and relies upon charitable donations to stay afloat. Because they mainly take in dogs from other nonprofit shelters, and because they charge buyers $150 for an animal whose training and medication costs up to $300, the couple says they have had to adjust their lifestyle to fit their income.

"We occasionally take dogs from the private sector," Mr. Danforth wrote. He said they rarely work with animals without also training the owners, though, since the owners' actions often contribute to the dogs' behavior issues: "It is best to have the owner and dog work as a team."

Despite the large number of dogs and a fixed income, the pair said the most difficult part is dealing not with the canines but rather with their human counterparts.

The couple, who once volunteered with dogs on Fort Drum, said a ban on certain breeds in on-post housing has a negative influence on their business by reducing the number of prospective customers. The breeds not allowed (except in the case of certified military working dogs being boarded by handlers or trainers) are deemed potentially aggressive and include American Staffordshire bull terriers, English Staffordshire bull terriers, Rottweilers, Doberman pinschers, chows and wolf hybrids.

"The breed ban affects the entire community and makes adopting mixed-breed dogs to the military a lot harder," Mr. Danforth wrote. Fort Drum housing laws also limit the number of pets in a household to two dogs or cats.

"Our biggest challenge is finding people that really want to put the time and effort into having a dog," Ms. Rice said. "They're all good dogs; they just need good homes."