News

Video: Dogs learn good manners at Southold Town Animal Shelter

JENNIFER GUSTAVSON PHOTO | Hunter learns good behavioral skills at Southold Town Animal Shelter.

Miss Manners has come to the Southold Town Animal Shelter.

Dawn Bennett, who runs the North Fork School for Dogs in Cutchogue, is also a shelter volunteer. Two months ago, Ms. Bennett began training dogs at the shelter as part of the American Kennel Club’s K9 Good Citizen program, which helps the dogs develop the social skills they will need in order to be adopted and to get along with their eventual owners for the long-term.

Ms. Bennett said that the average age of a shelter dog is between one year and 18 months old.

“It’s a juvenile age. They’re testing boundaries,” she said. “They come out of the cute puppy stage and people don’t want to spend the time on management and training.”

She’s hoping her program will provide that training.

“It’s definitely a draw,” said shelter manager Gabby Glantzman of the program. “People ask to see the dogs with the certification posted on their kennels.”

[email protected]