Wayne’s Big Adventure

By Kathryn Jones
Adoption Partner Transfer Coordinator

A few weeks ago, we received a dog for surrender who originated from a rescue in Colorado. Typically, when a dog is surrendered to SFACC and comes from a rescue, that rescue will take their dog back. This is great because it allows us to use our resources on dogs that do not already have rescue placement.

Wayne, or Lil Wayne, as he lovingly became known, is a teenage herding dog mix who was having a hard time in the city. He needed to get back to where he came from–the Rocky Mountains! As the rescue coordinator, I tracked down Wayne’s original rescue and reached out to them to see if they would be in a position to take Wayne back. And fortunately, they were!

Now came the real challenge. How on earth do you get an anxious teenage working dog from San Francisco to Colorado? Wayne had about 1,300 miles to cover and that was a daunting prospect.

With the help of a crew of volunteer pilots, an SFACC transporter, and a volunteer driving on the receiving end, we made it happen. One of our fabulous transport volunteers, Chris, picked up Wayne from our shelter on Thursday morning and delivered him to the little airport in San Carlos. From there, Wayne flew to Elko, NV and then hopped aboard a different plane and flew to Salt Lake City, Utah. From Utah, a volunteer transporter drove Wayne back to his hometown of Brighton, Colorado.

This transport had a lot of moving parts and factors I had never previously had to worry about (wind!) that made it an interesting challenge. It was really inspiring to see how many people were willing to donate their time, skills, and resources in order to help a dog they’d never even met. And now Wayne is safely back where he belongs!

Leave the Nightlight On, Mom!

By Paula Benton, SFACC Behavior & Training

Teaching a child that she can fall asleep peacefully, alone in her room, is a well-known parenting process. But how do you teach a dog to feel comfortable when left alone?

Many canine welfare industry professionals suspect that as Covid restrictions start to lift and people begin to re-enter the workplace, pet dogs (many of them newly adopted during Covid) may experience separation-related problems. Only time will tell if this will happen. In preparation however, SFACC’s Behavior & Training department offers our top 12 favorite tips for pet owners who currently work from home and may soon need to leave their dog alone, perhaps for the first time in a year.

Separation-related problems for dogs cover a broad spectrum. Some dogs may experience a few minutes of intermittent, frustrated mild barking and then settle down peacefully for a nap. Others may exhibit full-blown medically diagnosed separation anxiety and present more serious panic behaviors, such as self harming, intense pacing, a need to escape to reunite with the owner, home destruction, and digging and chewing beyond natural puppy boredom. Many dogs fall somewhere in between.

Helping your dog feel more comfortable and secure when left alone can be a lot of fun—and not as hard as it sounds! The following simple tips can be used successfully right now in your home. These tips are designed to help prevent separation-related distress or problems. Please note they are not designed to modify existing extreme separation anxiety. If your dog is experiencing serious anxiety and panic, please see your veterinarian immediately and seek the assistance of a certified professional dog trainer.

1. Don’t Delay, Start Today! If you have not left your dog alone in quite some time, today is your day. Please understand that the longer you put off this valuable skill building, the harder it may be for you and your dog to succeed.

2. Have Patience! If you have recently moved or adopted a dog, it is reasonable that he or she will need time to transition to a new routine, home, neighborhood, or family. Mild separation-related problems will likely fade away within a few weeks.

3. Alone Time Is FUN Time! Teaching your dog to associate your departure with something she loves is key. There are many very successful learning tools you can use, such as mouth-watering food puzzles or fun hunt-and-seek games. You can research some of our favorites online, including: Nina Ottosson puzzles, stuffed frozen Kongs, Snuffle Mats, Hide-A-Squirrel plush toys, and interactive tumbler-type treat dispensers. An old stand-by is to sprinkle a generous handful of kibble throughout the room your dog will occupy, right before you leave your home. As she eventually catches on to this simple hide-and-seek game, tuck some kibble pieces in, under, and on top of things in the room to add difficulty. When offered consistently, any and all of these positive associations will have your dog nuzzling you out the door!

4. Ping Pong! Contrary to what you may have heard, take care not to make your departures longer and longer each time. You want to avoid accidently increasing your dog’s frustration or distress with predictably longer sessions. Instead, build in success by ping-ponging the length of time you are gone. For example: Today you might leave for 10 minutes in the afternoon; tomorrow, try 5 minutes in the morning and then 15 minutes in the evening.

5. Sounds Good! Leaving on talk radio or a chatty television channel like HSN or QVC can help mask outdoor sounds your dog may overreact to with excessive barking. White noise machines can also assist in muffling environmental sounds.

6. Eliminate Before You Vacate! Take your dog for a 15- or 30-minute relaxed neighborhood walk before you leave your dog alone. The opportunity to stretch his legs, and wee and pooh will surely add to his comfort. However, take care not to exercise him in high aerobic activities prior to your departure. This can keep his adrenaline higher than you want when he’s alone.

7. This Bed Is Just Right! We all know every dog has her own preferences regarding just about everything. As your dog’s personal “P.I.,” it’s your job to discover her alone-time location preference that provides comfort and security. Be observant. Is your dog most secure in a cozy den-like crate, lying on one of your tee shirts and chewing on a Benebone? Is she most comfortable loose in your living room, secured by baby gates, snoring on the couch? If your dog feels secure alone in your car because she has a 360-degree visual connection to the world, try positioning her near a home window before you leave. Find out what is just right for her.

8. Clear the Decks! In preparation for leaving your dog alone safely in a designated room, put yourself in his paws and scan the environment from his canine point of view. Remove any and all household items that may beckon him to chew, gnaw, or swallow. Taking just a few minutes to do this will avoid hindering his progress and encourage success instead.

9. Say No to No! If you return home to find your dog has had an accident or made a bit of a mess, do not punish your dog. Simply put, he will sense you are intensely unhappy but will not understand why. Punishing him creates confusion and frustration. Instead, while you tidy up, take careful note of the place where you left him. This can be invaluable when you are investigating his alone-time location preference.

10. Be a Good Neighbor! Contact your neighbors and let them know you are working with your dog to help him feel more confident and comfortable when left alone. Make them aware that they might hear some barking or whining, and ask if they will be participants in your training process. Give them your phone number and ask them to contact you directly if they hear excessive barking.

11. Don’t Leave Me This Way! Sometimes leaving our dogs is harder for us than for them. Take this into consideration. Make your departures as normal and easy-going as they would be if you didn’t have a dog. Try to avoid over-fussing, and just ignore your dog 5-10 minutes prior to your departure. The same rings true when re-entering your home. Your goal is to normalize this procedure for you and your dog.

12. I Spy! Ever wonder what your dog does when you are gone? Set up a video camera or mobile phone and record your dog’s behavior after you’ve departed. This will give you an accurate picture of what your dog looks and sounds like when alone, and valuable insight into what’s working for her and what’s not.

Preparing your dog for “life after Covid” by teaching him to rest and sleep confidently when alone is important to his overall health and well-being. Dogs, like young children, need a great deal of rest each day. The average young puppy requires approximately 16-20 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period; the average adult dog requires 12-14 hours. Try each of these 12 simple tips to help your dog have successful, restful time alone. And remember: Start today!

March 2021

In March, thanks in large part to the amazing work of Katy Jones, SFACC’s Animal Partner Transfer Coordinator, the shelter was able to transfer 182 animals (52 dogs, 42 cats, and 88 other species) to partner organizations. The shelter directly adopted 22 animals (7 dogs, 9 cats, and 6 other species).

Cocoa…A fluffy, adorable happy tale! My uncle says I’m basically a Dodo story but Mama says I’ve always been kyute! Mama and Daddy brought me home on May 4, 2019 and gave me a medicated bath every three days for about a month. They also added salmon oil to my food and now my coat and tail is super soft and fluffy. I’m the center of everything for my pawrents, as you can see in the photos. Every day, I plop on Mama to wake her and I get pets. My day consists of guarding the house and playing with all my puzzles and toys. Daddy says I’m spoiled but Mama says I’m deserving. I love my pawrents and it’s obvious they love me!” Her Instagram account is @inlovewitdacocoa

Sweet Steve has been adopted.

Hooray! Crawdad has found his forever home!

Here are the 2 happy rabbits we got from your present location around 1-1/2 years ago, we and they are grateful for all your work.

Big handsome senior boy Casper was found roaming in the street. When no one came to claim him, he went to our partner Lily’s Legacy Senior Dog Sanctuary.

Happy 10-year adoptaversary to Minnie Bee!

Handsome hunk Pogi came to us when his person could no longer take care of him. He has some medical problems that made him not suitable for adoption from us. Our partner BRAVE Rescue stepped up and now after a road trip he’s safely in their care. Yay Pogi!

Juniper came to SFACC with a bad case of demodex infection. Now in foster care with our partner Copper’s Dream Rescue she’s recovering and becoming more outgoing—she has even found her voice! She receives medicated baths every other day and is taking antibiotics for her skin infection. She also has a full wardrobe of pajamas and fancy sweaters while waiting for her hair to regrow.

Silly boy Phats needed a place where he can get lots of TLC. Our partner The Heart of Rescue came to the rescue and off Phats went on a road trip to his new foster home.

Coco was very nervous at the shelter and needed somewhere to decompress and gain confidence. Happily, our rescue partner Paddington Station Rescue was able to find her a foster home. After a road trip, Coco is ready to start her new beginning.

Emily Buldoc — Animal Care Attendant

Emily Bolduc came to SFACC with the intention of becoming a volunteer. With her background working at a local boarding facility, she was eager to lend her skills to the dogs and cats waiting for homes at the shelter. She never made it as a volunteer. During the orientation, she learned that ACC was hiring a part-time temporary animal care attendant (ACA) and applied for the job. She joined the staff in Dec. of 2019 and became a full-time permanent ACA in July of 2020. Animal care attendants carry out the cycle of an animal’s stay at SFACC: receiving the animal in the lobby; setting them up comfortably in a kennel, cage, or aquarium; providing enrichment (exercise and socialization), administering medicine as directed by the vet staff; and conducting virtual adoption meetings on zoom. ACAs play a critical role in the animal’s chance at a new life.

Back to Emily…growing up in Central Massachusetts, Emily’s family embraced a menagerie of animals: dogs, cats, mice lizards. When she went to college in Rochester to study biotechnology, her roommate had a lab/Rottweiler, Levi, who she helped care for in his twilight years. Emily bonded strongly with the dog and felt the deep responsibility of caring for an animal. The experience might have forged her path to helping animals.

After college, Emily and her boyfriend drove across the country to San Francisco, where her boyfriend was starting a new job. The experience of caring for her roommate’s dog still resonated with her and she took a job at Wag Hotel, where she worked for 6 years, first as an enrichment coordinator, supervising dog play groups, and eventually as a manager. That’s when she decided to head to SFACC to apply as a volunteer (the old location is across the street from WAG). Instead, she applied for the part-time position to cover for staff who were bringing kittens to the Macy’s Windows event (before the shelter-in-place shutdown). “It’s odd that most of my time at SFACC has been during the SIP.”

Emily notes that without volunteers in the building—though they are helping in other ways like fostering and driving transfers—the staff has the opportunity to do more enrichment with the animals directly. “We take the animals out of the kennels and work with them. It gives us the chance to see their personalities out of the kennel and to observe changes in their behavior that we can share with the Behavior and Training team. We can advocate and collaborate in this way, which sets an animal up for success.” As an example, Emily shares the case of King, a pit bull stray with a tendency to become overexcited. Working with techniques guided by B&T, Emily saw progress in King’s interactions with people, which she relayed to the B&T team. They continued to work with King and his interactions with people improved to the point where he was able to be transferred to a rescue partner and charmed his foster family so much, they adopted him.

One of her favorite things to do on the job is take animals out of the kennel and engage them for photo shoots. She likes to capture their personalities with the goal of getting them adopted into the right home. “Showing a dog having a great time in the yard or a cat playing with toys or lounging in a relaxed moment is so much truer to their character than a sad face sitting in a kennel.”

Like many shelter staffers, Emily has two rescues of her own at home. Both were strays in S.F. and are beloved family members: Rizzo, a sweet pit bull, and Pancho, the Chi. Both are middle-aged and sweet. Emily is also very fond of plants, a passion she learned from her grandmother. “I have about 50 houseplants right now, which is probably my biggest hobby at home, plus cooking and walking my dogs.”  During the pandemic, instead of making sour dough starter, Emily’s pet project became creating a plant aquarium. Then she decided to add beautiful red and white freshwater shrimp. “I started with about 10, and now I have around 50. They’re fun and colorful!”

When asked what has made an impression on her working at SFACC, Emily doesn’t hesitate, “Everyone here has such respect for all the animals that come in—whether it’s a pigeon, cat, dog—it doesn’t matter what the species or circumstance is. Every animal is treated with the same high level of care. And it’s not easy because different species have specific needs. We all try to meet those needs and set each animal up for success.”

Opening Day at the New SFACC Shelter!

Monday, March 8, 2021
Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications

SAN FRANCISCO OPENS NEW ANIMAL SHELTER

The seismically safe facility provides enhancements for animals, volunteers, staff and visitors

San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed today announced the opening of Animal Care & Control’s new state-of-the-art, seismically safe shelter in the Mission District that will serve the thousands of domestic and wildlife critters that come through the doors every year.

With nearly double the square footage of the old facility, the new 65,000-square-foot shelter at 1419 Bryant Street includes a modernized veterinary suite, better ventilation, improved cleaning systems to reduce the spread of disease, and mechanisms that more effectively control noise and odors. The new adoption center’s expanded play and training areas for animals, and larger education spaces, will better serve the public, animal care staff, and volunteers.

“Throughout the pandemic, we’ve continued to make progress on our critical infrastructure projects, supporting good jobs and making our city more resilient,” said Mayor Breed. “Thanks to our long-term planning and capital investments, and the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in the project, we now have a modern, seismically safe, new animal shelter that allows us to ensure the animals in our care are housed in safe, sanitary, and humane conditions. The new facility also offers improved space for education, training and volunteer services.”

The agency takes in close to 10,000 animals of all species a year and operates San Francisco’s only open-admissions shelter, serving dogs, cats, rabbits, raccoons, goats, pigs, pelicans, snakes and squirrels, in addition to many other creatures.

Planning for the facility started a decade ago, and construction began two years ago. Animal Care & Control had been operating out of a former Depression-era warehouse at 1200-15th Street that lacked adequate space for the animals, staff and volunteers, and did not meet current earthquake and other life-safety building codes to serve San Francisco’s 21st-century needs.

Infrastructure projects like the new shelter create jobs and will be a critical part of San Francisco’s recovery from COVID-19. At its peak, the project employed 110 workers in the construction trades, in addition to creating many other jobs across the project’s manufacturers, vendors and material supply chain partners.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to continue our life-saving work in a new, beautiful, and safe facility,” said Virginia Donohue, Executive Director of Animal Care & Control. “We look forward to our innovative and improved home becoming a welcoming place for animals and the community.”

The shelter is the place to go to take a found pet, or to search for a lost pet, and offers an adoption program that includes small and exotic animals in addition to dogs and cats. The agency has a staff of 55 that includes a team of 12 Animal Control Officers who respond to animal-related emergencies and investigate cases of animal cruelty and neglect. Animal Care & Control has a large pool of dedicated volunteers who provide animal enrichment, exercise, and socialization for the animals. Collectively, the volunteer team gives more than 27,000 hours of time annually and are essential to the well-being of the animals.

At this time, the new shelter is limiting public access due to COVID-19 restrictions but is looking forward to welcoming back visitors and volunteers when it is safer to do so. In the meantime, Animal Care & Control staff is continuing to respond to animal-related emergencies, offer virtual adoptions and provide in-person services, such as handling lost and found animals, by appointment only.

“Our family adopted a rescue in the past and even though Birdie is no longer with us, she brought a lot of joy into our lives. The new Animal Care & Control facility will provide a place for healing and care for animals in need before they find new loving homes,” said City Administrator Carmen Chu. “San Francisco has been a longtime leader in animal welfare, and the services ACC provides will be enhanced through this critical project.”

The Friends of SF Animal Care & Control (SFACC), a nonprofit organization, worked diligently to raise funds to support the project. “The Friends of SF Animal Care & Control is honored to have played a role in supporting the new shelter,” said Lauren Weston, Board Chair of The Friends of SFACC. “It is heartwarming to know our work will matter to so many animals and humans alike.”

The new home for Animal Care & Control involved the adaptive reuse and rehabilitation of the original Market Street Railway Company powerhouse, which was built in 1893 and expanded nine years later. The shelter was constructed within the building’s original footprint and retains the historic brick façade and industrial wood windows, but was repurposed to house a modern, multi-level facility that includes rooftop animal runs and an interior courtyard where animals can enjoy fresh air.

“The imaginative and thoughtful reuse of this historic building has been an exciting project for our team to partner on,” said Acting San Francisco Public Works Director Alaric Degrafinried. “We were able to preserve an important part of the City’s past and deliver a safe, modern and user-friendly facility that will serve the needs of San Francisco for years to come.”

On behalf of San Francisco Animal Care & Control, Public Works designed the new facility and managed construction. Clark Construction served as the general contractor. The building features beautiful and colorful animal-themed artwork chosen by the San Francisco Arts Commission.

“An animal shelter can be a very stressful environment for both pets and humans,” said Ralph Remington, the City’s Director of Cultural Affairs. “The large-scale images in wood and glass by Bay Area artist Favianna Rodriguez welcome those who are considering adoption as well as owners of lost pets. They are colorful and heartwarming, helping to calm a charged situation. The beauty of art is that it can define the mood of a space, and that mood can help shape a positive experience for all parties – furry, feathered or otherwise.”

The $76.4 million project, which is part of the San Francisco 10-Year Capital Plan, was funded primarily with Certificates of Participation proceeds. Certificates of Participation are a source of funding used for the acquisition or improvement of existing or new facilities; they often are backed by physical assets in the City’s capital portfolio and repayments are appropriated each year out of the General Fund.

View the virtual video celebration marking completion of the Animal Care & Control project here: https://youtu.be/NpykBcN6y0A