We got our 80-pound rescue (lab x shepherd or maybe lab x husky… we’re not sure and he ain’t tellin’!) from Austin Pets Alive! about 10 years ago. He’s still high energy and very ball- or prey- or kong-driven. And uh, yeah, he sure doesn’t like men in uniforms. He came to us well over a year old, and we don’t know his prior history. His behavior suggests he has a complex internal life.
Austin does have this, which you probably already know about:
http://www.austingermanshepherdrescue.org/
Nearly all doggo places welcome volunteers. Unlike nearly every other sort of domesticated animal, dogs have chosen to hang out with us hominids / humans for many many thousands of years:
We even shared food:
I loved reading this pitch that dogs exerted an evolutionary force on human development:
So yeah, if you can manage a few hours of volunteering in a week, I am certain that Austin Pets Alive! (for starters) would be grateful to have your help and your time. It’s extremely cheap psychotherapy, it’s fun, and I admit I have played favorites: shepherds and shepherd mixes.
Fun fact: as long as I am pitching the positives about wolves (in the NatGeo article), I love the well-documented ecological restoration wolves can provide, as they have in Yellowstone National Park…
Good luck to you.
I hope you are able to find some spare time to goof around with dogs.
Austin’s not even hot like blazes for the next few months (though tomorrow we are supposed to hit some kind of new record of 85 degrees F).
