I attended my first German Shepherd Rescue Adoption Day on a Saturday morning three years ago in Redwood City. When a volunteer asked me if I was interested in adopting a dog, I said I was “just looking,” explaining that I traveled too much to provide a good home.
She had an answer for that and encouraged me to volunteer, telling me that it’s a great way to get a “dog fix” without making a lifetime commitment. I slid into rescue slowly at first, but now I can’t imagine life without helping to save these wonderful dogs.
German Shepherd Rescue of Northern California (GSRNC) was first incorporated as a 501c charity in February of 2002. The story began back in 1990, however, when members of the Diablo Valley German Shepherd Club started visiting local shelters and rescuing German Shepherds that were slated to be euthanized.
At first, the group saved a few dogs here and there when someone had room at home to take one in, but by 1998 collaborations with individuals on the Peninsula led to the formation of a 60-member group saving over 100 dogs per year. Today, GSRNC remains an all-volunteer organization with roughly 250 members who just celebrated their 2,000th rescue.
The rescue process often starts with a call from a shelter telling us about a German Shepherd that they haven’t been able to re-home. The message is forwarded to an Area Dog Manager (ADM) who will make the first of a series of decisions as to whether or not we have the resources to bring a particular dog into the program.
The next step on the road to rescue is to go to the shelter and perform a temperament evaluation. Only a handful of GSRNC’s volunteers do this difficult job, which sometimes requires rejecting a dog knowing full well that we are its last hope. The evaluation is a multi-staged process that considers the dog’s level of confidence, social skills, and reaction to being handled. Important tests for resource guarding are performed by giving and taking away toys, treats, and food. The final test is a meeting with another on-leash dog to check out reactivity.
For dogs that pass the evaluation, life begins anew. The ADM will search for the right foster home where the dog will live for as long as it takes to fully assess and, if possible, remedy the dog’s physical and emotional needs. Dogs that have suffered abuse and dogs with serious medical conditions sometimes require months of foster care before they can be offered for adoption. The foster family provides these dogs with a safe and loving environment where they can overcome the stress of being in the shelter, recover from their ailments, and learn basic obedience and house manners.
Once a dog is healthy and fully vetted (microchipped, spayed or neutered, and up to date on shots), he becomes available for adoption. The entire process can be as short as a few weeks or much, much longer. No matter how long it takes, we eventually find each dog a home. Our longest foster, lasting 585 days, was a six-year-old male dog named Nightstar. With the patient and loving care of his foster family, he overcame multiple illnesses as well as separation anxiety and finally found his forever home.
One of the things that make GSRNC so special is a willingness to take in dogs like Nightstar and to find the resources needed to turn their lives around. To this end, GSRNC has set up the Cody Fund to provide financial aid for dogs with extraordinary medical needs. With these funds we can rescue dogs like Caddy Cadillac, a young female who was hit by a car and had severe lacerations and broken bones requiring surgery and extensive recovery time.
Another GSRNC program, the Thulani Program, concentrates on providing hospice care for dogs who are too severely ill or injured to survive. Such dogs typically die alone and afraid in the shelter. The Thulani Program allows us to bring these dogs into special foster homes so they can spend their final days in comfort and peace.
GSRNC is always looking for volunteers. If this article has piqued your interest, please visit our web site (www.gsrnc.org) to learn more or, better yet, come see us at an adoption day.
There will be a bunch of beautiful German Shepherds there, and they just might coax you into joining the rescue effort.
Deborah Bergfeld works as a geologist and lives in Woodside. Her recent foster dogs include Ascot (now adopted) and Me’doc (still with GSRNC). In her spare time, she rides horses and is a passionate rescuer of German Shepherds.
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