Burned the **** out, girl is stressing me the **** out and blaming me for everything, unable to take personal accountability unsurprisingly. So I’m taking off for the middle of nowhere without cell service to sleep in my hammock and float in the river and get **** faced for a while. Might just not come back and become one with the trees.
Join Juliet and Callie as they break down the Maria vs. Sydney confrontation (8:46), admire Joey’s ability to handle drama and tears (15:00), and laugh at the ridiculous yet entertaining game of capture the flag (28:27). They discuss Joey’s chemistry with Daisy during their one-on-one (31:17), and break down the final Rose Ceremony (38:24). Finally, they discuss updates to Season 2 of The Traitors, including Pilot Pete’s development, their favorite contestants, and much more (41:01).
Dogs are social animals. Typically they love the company of other dogs, are comfortable around people, adapt readily to various situations and eagerly await at the door to welcome us home.
These social skills are learned and dogs benefit from practicing them. Unlike people, pups only have body language and barking to communicate how they are feeling and misreading these cues can lead to serious misunderstandings of what the animal is trying to tell us, often resulting in pups being deemed “Behavior Dogs.”
Austin Pets Alive! Is leading the charge to save this vulnerable subset of the shelter population from euthanasia by providing behavioral modification training, dog socialization playgroups, and adoption follow-up services to help place these pups in loving homes.
Understanding a dog’s body language is paramount to supporting their behaviors — whether, correcting a behavior, enhancing a behavior or simply letting the dog know that you’re on their side. Reading these behavioral cues are critical to understanding a pet’s needs and in the shelter environment, can be the difference between life and death.
Ruthie is a great example of a life saved thanks to APA!’s Behaviorteam taking a moment to read between the lines. The 5-year-old black mouth cur mix, originally came to APA! as a puppy, ill with parvovirus. She was treated and adopted, but four years later she was returned to APA! due to some developed behavioral quirks such as displaying some pretty severe separation anxiety and resource guarding.
That’s when former Dog Behavior Team member and current APA! Data Engineer, Ellis Avallone took her on as their “special project.” Initially, staff members had trouble determining if Ruthie was showing signs of aggression. She can be a tough “read” in her kennel — throwing “very large and jarring tantrums. She is a big dog with a big bark,” Ellis recalls “She doesn’t have a bite history (but when she doesn’t get what she wants), she’ll bark, show teeth, and lunge.”
Putting their dog language know how to use, Ellis leaned in to “hear” what Ruthie was trying to communicate.“The biggest misunderstanding about her behavior is that she isn’t trying to hurt anyone when she throws her tantrums. She’s just upset and doesn’t know how to express it.” Taking Ruthie to their home for a sleepover allowed Ruthie’s BFF the opportunity to get a better understanding of exactly what her separation anxiety looked like. While working on separation anxiety can be a bit difficult while a dog is in shelter, this first hand experience allows our team the ability to have more productive and knowledgeable conversations with future fosters or potential adopters on what to expect and ways they can begin addressing the behavior.
With the support of the dog behavior team, APA!’s Flight Path Program, a program that utilizes volunteers to support a pet’s mental wellness and behavioral progress, and Ellis’ faithful friendship, Ruthie continues to show great improvement, such as a displaying reduced resource guarding. She primarily guards “high-value” treats such as bully sticks or peanut butter. Ellis has worked to lessen this behavior of Ruthie’s with a specialized feeding program in which Ruthie is receiving positive reinforcement as food is being tossed to her bowl and conditioned to feel calm built through respectful trust.
“Being friends with Ruthie has been the best part of working and volunteering at APA!. I love how excited she gets when she sees me and how she instantly turns into a wiggle machine when we leave for campus field trips. If you need a dog to pick up on emotions, she’s your girl.”
Our staff is keenly aware that each dog is an individual and that some pups may not be ready for placement initially but through training, behavior modification, and taking the time to understand what an animal is communicating, we can help a misunderstood dog like Ruthie, realize their full potential!
Dogs are social animals. Typically they love the company of other dogs, are comfortable around people, adapt readily to various situations and eagerly await at the door to welcome us home.
These social skills are learned and dogs benefit from practicing them. Unlike people, pups only have body language and barking to communicate how they are feeling and misreading these cues can lead to serious misunderstandings of what the animal is trying to tell us, often resulting in pups being deemed “Behavior Dogs.”
Austin Pets Alive! Is leading the charge to save this vulnerable subset of the shelter population from euthanasia by providing behavioral modification training, dog socialization playgroups, and adoption follow-up services to help place these pups in loving homes.
Understanding a dog’s body language is paramount to supporting their behaviors — whether, correcting a behavior, enhancing a behavior or simply letting the dog know that you’re on their side. Reading these behavioral cues are critical to understanding a pet’s needs and in the shelter environment, can be the difference between life and death.
Ruthie is a great example of a life saved thanks to APA!’s Behaviorteam taking a moment to read between the lines. The 5-year-old black mouth cur mix, originally came to APA! as a puppy, ill with parvovirus. She was treated and adopted, but four years later she was returned to APA! due to some developed behavioral quirks such as displaying some pretty severe separation anxiety and resource guarding.
That’s when former Dog Behavior Team member and current APA! Data Engineer, Ellis Avallone took her on as their “special project.” Initially, staff members had trouble determining if Ruthie was showing signs of aggression. She can be a tough “read” in her kennel — throwing “very large and jarring tantrums. She is a big dog with a big bark,” Ellis recalls “She doesn’t have a bite history (but when she doesn’t get what she wants), she’ll bark, show teeth, and lunge.”
Putting their dog language know how to use, Ellis leaned in to “hear” what Ruthie was trying to communicate.“The biggest misunderstanding about her behavior is that she isn’t trying to hurt anyone when she throws her tantrums. She’s just upset and doesn’t know how to express it.” Taking Ruthie to their home for a sleepover allowed Ruthie’s BFF the opportunity to get a better understanding of exactly what her separation anxiety looked like. While working on separation anxiety can be a bit difficult while a dog is in shelter, this first hand experience allows our team the ability to have more productive and knowledgeable conversations with future fosters or potential adopters on what to expect and ways they can begin addressing the behavior.
With the support of the dog behavior team, APA!’s Flight Path Program, a program that utilizes volunteers to support a pet’s mental wellness and behavioral progress, and Ellis’ faithful friendship, Ruthie continues to show great improvement, such as a displaying reduced resource guarding. She primarily guards “high-value” treats such as bully sticks or peanut butter. Ellis has worked to lessen this behavior of Ruthie’s with a specialized feeding program in which Ruthie is receiving positive reinforcement as food is being tossed to her bowl and conditioned to feel calm built through respectful trust.
“Being friends with Ruthie has been the best part of working and volunteering at APA!. I love how excited she gets when she sees me and how she instantly turns into a wiggle machine when we leave for campus field trips. If you need a dog to pick up on emotions, she’s your girl.”
Our staff is keenly aware that each dog is an individual and that some pups may not be ready for placement initially but through training, behavior modification, and taking the time to understand what an animal is communicating, we can help a misunderstood dog like Ruthie, realize their full potential!
Together with you, we have the opportunity to share so many stories here at APA!.
Your love of the pets with the greatest needs inspires us to continue saving lives every single day. Today, we wanted to share one of YOUR stories.
Alyson and her partner visited APA! just two weeks after moving to Austin. “I was insistent on getting an adult or senior cat,” said Alyson. “At the time, that meant between ages five and 10, a cat that was calm and liked cuddles as much as me. Those were the parameters I relayed to the APA! worker, who immediately directed me towards Roscoe.”
“I sat on the bench in the group cage. Roscoe was almost invisible in the back corner of the only cubby. After knowing Roscoe, I realized it was because of his missing claws, he felt extremely vulnerable with other cats. But I sat next to the entrance and began to softly stroke his cheek. He crawled out slowly, rested half of his 16-lb self on my leg, and lightly purred. It was quiet and comforting; it was what I wanted. I don’t remember how many cats I met that day, but I remember knowing that he was mine.”
“Roscoe beyond everything was simply the ideal companion. We bought him a backpack, in which we would take him on trail rides and harnessed walks through the summer heat. We enjoyed watching him explore the cypress roots and the waterfronts.”
“I will never know whether it was the wisdom of age or his personality that made him such an emotive companion. We had bright days, cuddles on the couch, and danced in the kitchen. But he also held space for us in times of darkness. His patience lasted for a time when I stopped going to work. He slept on my arm as I scrolled through the devastating news. He fell asleep next to me when my fiancé went home to Slovenia, and Roscoe and I were left alone in that little apartment, to fend for ourselves in times of fear and death. Even though the emptiness of that house was harrowing, his afternoon cries for playtime, and evening snores brought me a sense of steadiness and purpose. He reminded me every day that there was a reason to stay alive and to keep moving through the routines.”
“Roscoe loved me unconditionally.Through the sleepless nights of nothingness, through the complete dismantlement of our home; through the angry phone calls and my stress pacing as I quit my job”
“To his last days, he never wanted to be apart from us. Even when he felt tired, sick, and scared, he never hid. Until his last heartbeats, I never doubted that he loved me. And as hard as we fought to save him, he fought equally hard to keep going. The last thing I said to him was, “thank you,” for his companionship, strength, and effortless love that he gave me in the two years of chaos, excitement, and change. I told him he could let go. We would be okay. I would be okay.”
“I chose to donate to Austin Pets Alive! as a thank you for giving me the gift of friendship and purpose. In the days following his passing, I was looking for ways to memorialize lost pets. One of the first recommendations was donating to an organization in their honor, and making even a small donation to his previous caretakers was the first thing I knew I had to do. Roscoe was my dearest friend, and I am grateful for the two and a half years that I spent with him. I have never forgotten where he came from and Austin Pets Alive! was always featured in the story I would retell to anyone who would listen.”
“I was sometimes questioned about my decision to adopt an elderly cat. But it was a decision I never once regretted. I know there are more animals like him in your care, and I want them to know that I love them, too.”
Today is the last day for our City Council to decide if the work we do for the City of Austin, keeping it a No Kill city by taking all animals who would be euthanized at the Austin Animal Center, is worth the use of one acre of land at Town Lake Animal Center.
We believe No Kill needs to be front and center in Austin.
We believe APA! should be kept in the heart of Austin, showing every other city in our nation that eliminating the killing of pets in our shelter is important to our city, our city council, and to every Austinite.
As you know, our agreement to use that space has been in negotiations for five years, holding up any progress we can make on actually rebuilding there.
At the heart of the issue is the severe reduction in the land that has been allocated to APA! from the council’s original intention of 3.5 acres down to just one acre. No matter what, we are losing more than ⅔ of the land we currently occupy. We are asking for a fair agreement that puts Austin first by ensuring that pets slated for euthanasia at Austin Animal Center have a way out alive. Without APA!’s support, the city would only be saving four out of five animals (about 80%) that enter the city shelter.
We are asking that our city also create a sustainability plan because it is unacceptable that our city animal shelter has the highest budget in the entire country (per animal and per capita) but still expects APA! to do a large percentage of their work for no monetary compensation, only a piece of land that has been reduced severely, and that cannot be used for anything other than parkland or an animal shelter under state law. In addition, the City of Austin requires that APA! pay 100% of all building and demolition costs for a new facility on that land.
Will you speak up again today? We need you to write or call the council offices to let them know once again that you believe in an equitable agreement that keeps APA! in the heart of Austin. We need all of you to reach out to the council today, even if you have called or emailed before. Today’s decision will impact the future of APA! and No Kill in Austin for decades to come and we are counting on you to speak up.
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UPDATE:
Thank you for advocating on behalf of Austin Pets Alive! We have just received word that Austin City Council is planning to vote on the APA! resolution on November 4th.
We believe this still gives us enough time before our agreement terminates on November 23rd to reach an agreement and are grateful to the council and our supporters for prioritizing our life saving work. We believe we will hear more critical information to share with you next week about actions you can take to support APA’s future in Austin!
