Ministry of Dog

A Texas-based rescue and advocacy group for shelter dogs. See, share, and help us help shelter dogs in our area. :) (Yes, we adopt out nationwide!)

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Please help, Tumblr! :)

Emily & D. are starting a new life on their own.

My friend Em’s marriage has fallen apart, and she needs help to move into a place of her own and start a new life. Em is a rescue volunteer, a photographer, and a great mom and all around wonderful person. Please check out this fundraiser to get her moved. ANYTHING would help at this point. 

If you aren’t interested in donating money (Quite understandably!), please consider buying some of her art at DreameyceStudio or hiring her for photography (TexasDogPhotography.com - she does dogs and people and special events, too!) 

Her art is whimsical, sweet, and has a ton of personality. While she’s mostly known for jewelry, she also does christmas ornaments and decor items.

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Em is a Ministry of Dog Foster and does all our photography.

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How cute is this? This is Sapphire, who is currently in one of our sister rescue groups, North Texas Bully Rescue. Here's her petfinder listing! 

Thanks to Emmy at Texas Dog Photography for the awesome photo!

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Just signal boosting -we don't do equine rescue! :D These guys are at the Wise County Shelter (the same shelter Zeke, Sammy, and Geoffery came from) and they're running low on time. I believe they're all jacks (males), and some have their adoption fees sponsored! 

Wise County can be called at 940-627-7577 and their facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/Urgent.Wise.Co.Animals

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Another Ministry of Dog Project - making beds for our local shelters!

These beds are easy to sanitize and not terribly inviting for chewing on, so they work great in kennel runs. This batch (pictured with non MoD-dog Miley the Pomeranian) were for the Lake Dallas Animal Shelter. 

We've used up all our current supplies, but hope to make another batch in the next few weeks. Want to help? We can always use donations- either monetary, or in the form of gift cards for Home Depot, Lowes, or Walmart (all of whom stock the materials we need for these beds.) 

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Ministry of Dog is GROWING! 

We're a Texas-based rescue focusing on education, advocacy, and rescuing dogs from our local rural shelters to get them into great homes!

We've currently got 8 dogs in foster care who are in need of spay and neuter. We've been paying out of volunteers' pockets as we go and reimbursing them once dogs get adopted, which has unfortunately decimated our operations fund- and our savings for filing for our federal 501(c)3. 

So we're fundraising. :) Please consider donating- it's not tax deductible at this time. But it DOES go directly to the dogs, and if you would like to see a statement of where all money we take in goes to (and has gone to, since we officially opened last July), I'd be happy to send you one. 

It costs us $102 and some change to get a dog neutered, and a bit more ($25) to get one spayed. I've set our fundraiser for $750, but every little bit helps! 

Our fundraiser is here. 

Please share

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Oh, hey! Out of queued posts!

So today, have some linkspam:

"At Least, Don't Buy This" - by Heather Houlihan. Why you're not rescuing or helping, when you buy that poor puppy in the window- and why the puppy mill industry is counting on your 'help'. 

The Irresponsible Public Helps A Family Reunite in Memphis - by YesBiscuit!

Ginormous Dog Treat Recall - check and make sure your pets (and you!) are safe! THis is for salmonella contamination- dogs with normal immune systems are usually able to deal with salmonella bacteria, but puppies and elderly dogs can have problems, and HUMANS are much more susceptible!

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This is Rudy! Rudy is 9 weeks old, and ready for a new home right now, pretty please! She's all ready to do any sort of thing you're into, playing ball or digging or hanging out in the yard rolling around on the grass. Chewing things is pretty cool, too. She's a nice chunky puppy and will probably be a medium to large adult- around 40-50 pounds, based on her size now and Mom's size. She has a short double coat and probably won't need much grooming as an adult either- but she WILL shed. 

Rudy, her mom Peggy Sue, and her littermates were dumped in Midlothian, and are currently safe in foster care with Ministry of Dog. Peggy Sue has an adoption application pending, but Rudy's still waiting for her forever home.  We are based in the DFW Metroplex, but we do adopt out of the area- our adoption application, contract, and policies are on our website, MinistryofDog.org

Can you help? Please reblog! 

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Another Ministry of Dog Success story - Karin! 

Karin is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi who was found as a stray in Dallas, and was adopted through Ministry of Dog. (ANd yes, she's definitely a Cardigan, beyond having a natural tail - body structure is definitely not Pemmy :P)

Karin now lives with her mom Melissa and is tearing up her agility class- we can't wait to see pictures of her competing soon!

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So my friends and i have decided it best to get a dog from a shelter. With three Global studies students it’s hardly surprising LOL. Our program is known as the ‘bleeding hearts’ of the university, put a bunch of us together and if we don’t decide to boycott an unethical company or start a protest...

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Awesome! 

ALL THAT SAID - get a dog because you want a dog and are commited for life. Not just to save that dog NOW. 

One of my concerns in adopting to students is that they're going to be moving in a couple years for jobs, and especially with global studies guys- you're going to want to do some of the awesome work abroad stuff. (And, as I've seen a couple times, everyone assumes they'll be able to split taking care of the dog, or that someone's parents will take him/her, and it can just end up being a problem when everyone gets an awesome opportunity the same semester and suddenly whoever'd planned to take care of the dog can't.)

Give a thought to fostering instead of adopting, maybe? You get all the fun stuff of having a dog, but without quite such a long term commitment. And I'm not saying don't do it- but I'm saying thik REALLY carefully about it. 

Onto the rest of your post- chihuahuas. They show up in shelters for a lot of reasons. One is that several other very common small breeds (Toy Fox terriers, Rat terriers) look very similar and are frequently labeled 'chihuahua mix', and a lot of 'designer' chih mixes look pretty much like a chihuahua as an adult. Shelter people are usually just giving their best guess. They're also just plainly the most popular small breed. (And they tend to have larger litters (especially the larger, less breed-standard chihuahuas) than yorkies or Poms, the other two most common toy breeds. And to make it more confusing, if you cross a Pom or Yorkie with something smooth-coated, it's going to look like a badly bred chihuahua a lot of the time. 

The other reason they frequently in up in shelters is that they can be barky (not all are!), hard to housebreak (a significant number are), and nervous little guys. If you're getting a shelter Chih, please do NOT get the cringy, terrified dog (even if he's not biting) unless you're prepared to do a LOT of training work. (It takes more than love. It takes counterconditioning, desensitization, and being vigilant to set him up to succeed by simultaneously protecting him from scary things in the environment, and helping him grow past his fear. ) At MoD, we generally don't pull shelter dogs unless they are unadopted on the last day in the shelter (We'd prefer they get adopted into their new homes directly) and in immediate danger of euthanasia. There are PLENTY of bold little guys out there getting passed over- and they tend to do better in their new homes, too. 

Hope you don't mind me butting in- I was zooming along through the shelter tag :) And I hope this is helpful for you! 

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I know this is a long shot, but this is a dog at the animal shelter in Savannah. I’ve been to visit him and he’s absolutely precious. He’s very sweet and learns extremely easily. He’s been at the shelter too long and is at risk to be put down and I just can’t see that happen to such a great dog. He’s a boxer pit bull mix in Savannah Ga. I am willing to transport to somewhere fairly close (north FL, South Carolina, North Carolina)

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Networking! (Can you get this guy's shelter ID/tag # so if anyone calls on him they know who to ask about?) 

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This is Sonny B!

Sonny B is one of the BBQ Kids (Peggy Sue's puppies- okay, so we were hungry while we were doing their intake photos), and he's still available for adoption! He's a super cute golden (sable) merle with white markings and one blue eye. His face spots will probably fade as he grows up, but he'll ALWAYS be super cute. He's currently about 12 pounds will will probably be a good 60-ish pounds as an adult. His mom is an Australian Shepherd, who was dumped with her litter - we don't know what dad is, obviously. 

Sonny is a sweet, chillaxed boy who likes to lay back and chew on his toys while his sisters (he's the only boy out of 6 puppies) create mayhem. He's got a little bit more plush coat than his sisters, and to me, looks like he might be an Anatolian Shepherd or Blackmouth Cur mix. Only time will tell! :) 

Sonny is being fostered in Midlothian, Texas, and is ready for adoption now! (Yes, Ministry of Dog adopts out of the metroplex with an accepted application- you can fill out our application on our website at MinistryofDog.org)

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Meet Sammy, Ministry of Dog's newest Foster! 

Stats: Young/adult Weight: 9 pounds Breed(s): Chih, possibly Chih/Dachs or Chih/Pom Sex: Male (will be neutered before placement)

Currently being fostered in: Denton, Texas Other dogs: Seem okay Cats: don't know yet Kids: middle school and up, please - he's a little unsure about small, fast moving people.

More info coming as we have it :) 

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Geoffery, a Ministry of Dog Alumni

Geoffery had only 15 minutes left to live when Emily, a MoD volunteer, got to the shelter. She'd lost her youngest dog only a few weeks before, and hadn't been thinking about fostering again yet. But when we'd gone to the Wise County Shelter to evaluate Zeke and his sister Rosey for another foster home, she met Geoffery, and couldn't get him out of her head. 

He was a foster only for one day before everyone involved decided that he was staying. He now has corgi siblings to boss around, a little girl of his own, and more love than any 4 pound dog knows what to do with. 

Geoffery has his own fan page on Facebook and you can follow his adventures there, or on the Ministry of Dog fanpage. He's now competing in lure coursing (a sport where dogs chase plastic bags on a string around a twisty course) and may get to do a commercial with his Pom sister Sekrit in the future- and of course, getting LOTS of love.

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A Book all Pet Lovers Should Read!

Hate that shelter pets are being killed in the US? Me too. But you know what? We can change it!

Redemption's a book by Nathan Winograd. It was published a few years ago (2009) and it is a VITAL read for anyone who wants to stop shelter killing. 

Redemption looks at the real numbers of pets dying in this country (less than 5 million) rather than the hyperbolic estimates given by large charity groups whose donations primarily go to fund more fundraising (50%) than actual shelters (>1%) or helping actual animals (>10%) - and it looks at how we can change them, through changing our communities, and how we think about animal sheltering. 

I'm planning more posts on this in the next few days, so I'll keep this one short. But please - if you want to help animals locally and already have your limit on your own sofa. If you think there's nothing one person can do? 

Read this book. 

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This is Zeke, another MinistryOfDog foster :) 

Zeke is a 10 month old BC who has, for some bizarre reason, not gotten adopted yet- and he's been in rescue for five months! Part of it is probably that he's hard to photograph. :D We got our awesome pro volunteer to do it finally because his foster mom (me) sucks at photos. 

He's a nice compact size- about 35 pounds- and didn't apparently get the memo about BCs being active dogs. Zeke's goal in life is to be your shadow. He's totally cool with long walks, or just curling up in a nice comfy chair with you, although he's not so much into sports and would not be a good match for an agility or obedience home. He's good with kids, cats and other dogs, housebroken, has gorgeous house manners, and is just generally an awesome puppy. He's currently being fostered in Dallas, Texas, but is available for adoption outside of the metroplex as well. Check out MinistryofDog.org or our facebook page for more information about our adoption policies and procedures.

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This is Peggy Sue. She and her puppies were dumped on a rural road outside of Midlothian, Texas. Someone has clearly loved Peggy Sue at some point, and we are super sad at whatever happened that she lost her home. We hope whoever owned her may find these someday and know that she's going to be okay, because she is clearly a super special dog. 

Peggy Sue is approximately 1-2 years old, female (obviously :D), an Australian Shepherd (Aussie) or mix with a natural tail. (Most Aussies are docked.) She's super sweet, a very nice moderate energy level, not hyper, and has lovey house manners. She likes kids, cats, and other dogs, comes nicely when called with smoochie noises, and is housebroken. She'll be spayed before adoption, and is currently located in Denton, Texas in a foster home. She'd make a really fun flyball, agility, or sports companion, or just about anyone's best friend. 

For more information about adopting Peggy Sue, check out MinistryOfDog.org. 

Please reblog and follow :)