Animal shelter guides pets through recovery

CAPE CORAL, Fla. — A local animal shelter is helping to make healing a little easier for pets.

At Cape Coral Animal Shelter, dogs are the center of attention.

“I always tell people they have to be more interesting than anything on the planet and the way to do that is with food,” says Louise Hébert, a volunteer trainer at the shelter. “I want to understand how a dog thinks? How does a dog act? How does a dog react?

Hebert has been training dogs for 25 years and has been involved with the Cape Coral Animal Shelter for two years.

“I teach all the dog walkers how to handle dogs properly, and then for the dogs that may have more problems, I trained all these handlers as well,” she says. “So everyone in the shelter takes care of the dogs. exactly the same way, which is the best way for dogs to learn. If everyone keeps doing the exact same thing, it will be very easy for the dog to understand.

Every dog ​​that comes to the shelter is different. Their race and their size but, more precisely, their history.

“You may not necessarily know what happened to this dog, but if you pay attention to the dog, if you listen to what the dog is telling you with his body language, this dog will tell you his story,” says Hebert. “And that’s what I do – I listen to the dogs.”

Some dogs come from more difficult backgrounds than others. But, as Hébert says, the key to understanding and helping a pet starts with learning.

“The main thing, I think, is education, education and more education,” she says. “So it’s about educating kids on how to handle dogs, educating people on how to handle dogs, and having a really strong sheriff’s department supporting you.”

It also comes with confidence.

“You teach people how to approach a dog and you’re just very careful and careful with them, but kind and affectionate. Most of the time these dogs will turn around. You can’t save them all, but you can save most of them. ‘between them. them.’

Although it may be a sad realization, offering help starts with a single act.

“If you see something, say something so we can get that dog out of the situation.”