Today I was asked to be part of a three person tag team to evaluate GSD's at a kill shelter in a near by city, pull them an place them into rescue. I said yes and will shadow one of the other members to learn what to do. I will be the on call person on my day off ,when the other two are working.

Has anyone done this? What should I expect? I am sure it varied for each shelter and rescue.

I am hoping to do some good for these dogs.

This is neat!

I have no idea, so can't help, but just wanted to say great job!

I am not sure. Hopefully they have a list of things they do or look at with the dogs.

Let us know how it goes.

That would be great! They should have a protocol and standard expectations across the board for what constitutes a pass and a fail. They may be using a specific test that has been developed for shelter dogs, or something else. Go into this understanding that you may give a dog a fail, and that will mean that dog will probably not make it. Ask for a copy of their eval form. Do they tape it?

Also, find out the placement policies of the rescues the dogs are going to. If they do not do vet and personal references and a home check (NO PICTURES!) for every dog they place, I would not place a dog with them. I would look at their other policies, and try to find out more about them before agreeing to help them in any way. You want to help take a dog out of a bad situation and put them in a good one for life.

I do not do evals. I do not like being the "liability person" (that is in my mind and I have no idea if that's true or not) and also tend to do one of two things - find a way to get a dog to do a good behavior that they might not do for someone else, or be able to easily get them to do a bad behavior that might not happen if someone wasn't pushing their buttons so hard. I am good cop/bad cop in one person. I am also not trained, and avoid being a decision maker.

I met Lily before I fostered her and she was a perfect girl to me. Lots of energy, but perfect. That did not echo the "true" eval she had because of the way it was done and interpreted. I was all over her, pushing at her, but different environment I guess! But this is a huge point - who is evaluating - we have had people on the other board in the past, going into shelters to evaluate who really made it a mess for a dog that would have passed otherwise (several times). I think it helps to go in pairs. And to be trained.

Also, the dog in a shelter is a dog under stress. However, that stress reaction is valid - because while not maybe as stressful for the dog as a shelter, being out in the world, with kids and people, and other dogs doing the things that they/we do is what they are going to be up against every day. So a stress reaction there can be one that they could have in the real world. I think sometimes it is very difficult to differentiate an aggressive stress reaction from other things, but either way, if you get an aggressive behavior that only 1 of 100 dog owners could handle...regardless of reason...you may have to make one of those decisions. However a dog that is only fearful in their reaction, to me, has a better chance in a foster home setting.

When you enter the shelter, you will see why I say that these animals are not hairy Skinner boxes, doing things for stimulus response purposes. They are emotional beings and I give you credit for being able to walk into a kill shelter. I could not.

I really want to do this though! http://www.suzanneclothier.com/content/carat

SAFER: http://www.aspcapro.org/safer-faqs.php

No comment: http://www.suesternberg.com/00assess.html

being the "liability person" --- this is how i would feel. if i saw, eval'd, and gave recomendations on a dog, and then it went to some yahoos that dont train or see gsds the way i do i would feel horrible. not to mention, if that yahoo was able to sue me, and i do believe they could try to, i could lose alot.

Really like Suzanne Clothier
This is the Rescue I have been asked to help. I will be going with the person who asked when she does evaluations to get a feel for it.

Golden StateGSDRescue

my post should read....

...and then it went to some yahoos that dont train or see gsds the way i do- it bites someone and gets returned or uthenized i would feel horrible. not to mention, if that yahoo was able to sue me, and i do believe they could try to, i could lose alot.

Of course, you can't tell everything from the website, but this looks excellent and like such a huge opportunity to help dogs in need.

THANK YOU for taking the time to do it.

I know SF, I always wonder about that even with fosters. I know what a dog is like with me, and I see that website even covers that. It helps that I have INCREDIBLE adopters (ahem - I am not even saying that because 2 are on the board)!.