Dogs Out Loud fills niche in city's no-kill plan

Big dogs need love too 

from: dogsoutloud.org

According to the Dogs Out Loud web site:

Austin, TX is at the forefront of the No-Kill movement and, in 2011, became the largest city in the US to achieve a 90% or better save rate of the animals entering its city shelter. As we have accomplished this incredible milestone in humane achievement and lifesaving work, a new challenge and gap in services has come clearly into view. No-Kill is defined as saving every “healthy, treatable, and rehabilitatable animal in the shelter.”

What we have discovered is that a 90% save rate is not truly fulfilling that promise. Our city has incredible programs to support nearly all of the vulnerable shelter populations save one: medium to large breed dogs with high-level behavior problems. While dogs with mild to moderate behavior problems can be supported through in-shelter behavior programs, there is a group of good, savable, rehabilitatable dogs that cannot. It is those dogs that are still dying in significant numbers at Austin’s city shelter. Dogs Out Loud was created to help fill this final gap, meet the needs of this last vulnerable shelter population, and contribute to making Austin a true No-Kill city and a leader and model for the rest of the world in what is possible in animal welfare and behavior work.

Dogs Out Loud provides training, behavior rehabilitation, and high quality care in a home-like environment to medium to large breed dogs dying at shelters due to high-level behavior problems that cannot be addressed in or are exacerbated by the shelter environment. We provide additional behavior support services that address specifically identified gaps currently costing the lives of this subset of shelter dogs.