For the 150-some puppy mill survivors just rescued from Midwest
states, nearly everything in life is new — walking on a floor instead
of a cramped wire cage, being held by people, drinking out of a bowl
instead of from an water-feeder bottle, going on walks and, most of
all, just simply being dogs.
Just look at an apricot miniature poodle boy. For half a day after he
arrived at a temporary care center on a Midwest farm, he sat huddled in
a back corner of his kennel.
So Best Friends trainer Pat Whitacre gave the dog a play date with another poodle the same size.
It was obvious to the handful of volunteer caregivers observing the
little poodle that it was the first time in his life he’d been out of a
cage. He sniffed the floor, and then, with his hind legs crossing over
each other as he stepped forward, he gingerly walked around an indoor
play area.
With each step he took, his confidence increased. He looked up at the
people watching him. Next, with his belly on the floor, he stretched
out his front legs and then his back legs, he opened his mouth like he
was yawning and stretched his neck. Within the next 30 minutes, he did
that four more times. Then he rolled on his back.
Those watching could have sworn he was smiling. “That’s total
relaxation,” says volunteer Kerri Dahlheim. “It gives me goose bumps to
see a puppy mill dog finally be comfortable enough to relax.”
Also relaxing was a pomeranian who volunteers described as an opossum
because he fell asleep in volunteer Cathy Madewell’s arms, as if he
were playing dead.
The first time she held him, he settled down against Madewell’s arm.
“He took a deep breath,” she says as she holds him. Then she whispers
to the dog, “Life is just going to keep getting better, sweetheart.”
A
Chihuahua stayed back in her travel carrier but slowly walked out on
her own as she tentatively looked around. “You were so afraid to come
out, but you’re doing so good now,” Mary Richie, Best Friends’ Dogtown
receptionist, tells the little dog as she coaxes her out of the carrier.
These dogs’ behavior isn’t surprising, considering their backgrounds.
“Some puppy mills are worse than others, but all have more dogs than
anyone would keep as pets, and the dogs don't live as companion
animals,” says Kelli Ohrtman, a specialist for Best Friends’ Puppies
Aren’t Products campaign which organized this latest Pup My Ride
rescue. “They live in cages in barns and sheds, more like livestock
than pets.”
But with each day that passed at the temporary care center, where the
dogs were taken after they were rescued, the once-confined canines
slowly improved.
On the second day, Whitacre took each of the bigger dogs on walks.
Having obvious fun for possibly the first time in her young life was a
husky girl. Whitacre led the 1-year-old dog out for what would be one
of many walks over the next couple of days.
Once on the grass, the dog literally bounced around, moving from
sniffing the ground to putting her nose in bushes. When she’d see bugs,
she’d pounce on them on the grass. “Oh, my goodness,” Whitacre says.
“Did the grass move again?”
He ran with her down a gravel road. “She knows she’s outside to have fun,” Whitacre says.
But Uncle Sam, a 2-year-old boxer, was unsure. “The first time, he had
no idea what would happen,” Whitacre says. But slowly, with each walk,
he too began to enjoy being outside.
According to Whitacre, most of the dogs exhibit typical puppy-mill behavior. “About 80 to 
90
percent are uncertain of what’s going to happen,” he says. “They’re
used to being ignored or taken out for something that’s not fun.
There’s anticipation of the unknown.”
At the Best Friends sanctuary, for example, Whitacre says it’s
different. “Most of our dogs at Best Friends, when you walk through
their areas, are excited,” he says. “They’re saying, ‘Take me first.
Take me outside.’ Here with puppy mill dogs, it’s the opposite. Only 10
percent, as with the husky, say to me, ‘Take me out and let me have
fun.’”
It’s a matter of slowly introducing them to new things. “Uncle Sam [the
boxer] is experiencing things for the first time and seeing that
nothing bad is happening to him,” Whitacre says. “Now that he’s been
out a few times, he’s thinking, ‘Maybe this isn’t a fluke after all.
Maybe I come outside to have fun.’”
View the videos of the dogs' rescue and journey to safety.
- To view video of the dogs' safe arrival at rescue groups, please click here.
- Click here to watch the video of Fancy, a rescued puppy mill dog, make a photo shoot pleasantly difficult.
How You Can Help
- Adopt don’t shop. Many purebred dogs are available for adoption. Search by breed at Petfinder.com for your next family member.
- Help rescue more dogs from puppy mills by donating to Puppies Aren’t Products campaign to fund future Pup My Ride programs.
For More Information
Pup My Ride: A Best Friends program to get dogs out of shelters and
puppy mills and into areas where they are most likely to find their
forever homes. We deliver the pups to local partners with highly
successful adoption programs capable of finding homes for many dogs at
a time.
- To learn more about Pup My Ride, please click here.
- Finding Comfort: Read the second story about the dogs arriving at rescue groups.
Photos by Molly Wald
Video by Jason Watt