Last week, two Green River students joined four Rock Springs students at the Red Desert Humane Society’s Pet Camp.
During the one-week camp, the group acted as volunteers. They kicked off the week with a tour of the shelter and went over how to fundraise for the cause. They also learned how to talk to animals and they met the animals they would be in charge of preparing for adoption.
On Tuesday, rescue worker issues, including hoarding, overpopulation and euthanasia were discussed. The kids also met with Chezney Leisch, a dog agility trainer, to hear about target training.
Throughout the entire week, the students continued to work with their adoption dogs on basic obedience training.
Wednesday the students became familiar with the society’s “Hip to Snip” program. This program showed the kids who important it is to have their animals spayed or neutered. They visited with local veterinarian Tiffany Reed of Sweetwater Veterinary Services.
Thursday was another busy and possibly stressful day for the children. They visited the Rock Springs Animal Control Center with the task of picking three dogs and three cats that would be taken back to the shelter.
RDHS volunteer Melinda Baas said this is always difficult for the children because they quickly learn that they cannot save them all. This year, an exception to the three-cat rule was broken because the students could not break up a litter of kittens. All six were brought back to the shelter.
On Friday the students were busy gathering supplies together and preparing the animals for the adoption event, which took place Saturday at Zoobecks.
Baas was happy to have six in the class this year, which was the third year the society has hosted the program. She said they would like to have three one-week long classes next year, but that all depends on how many volunteers the group has.
Camp attendee Jacob Mondragon, an eighth grade Green River student, said he heard about the camp through his school, while ninth-grade Green River student Rebecca Shamer said her mother signed her up.
“I had a lot of fun,” Shamer said. “It was really cool.”
Both, Mondragon and Shamer thought they would just be cleaning cages all day, but they were surprised when they discovered that wasn’t even on the agenda.
Mondragon said he enjoyed learning how to train the dogs to speak, sit, shake hands, stay, come and lie down. These are all things he worked on teaching his own 6-year-old doberman years ago.
“She knew all of them, but this sort of reinforced that,” Mondragon said.
As for Shamer, she has a cat and a dog. Her dog is one year old and all of these training techniques were really helping her out. She said when her husky, shepherd mix came home he was getting into everything. He got into the bread, flour, sugar, peanut butter and syrup, which he smeared on the couch. He later tore the couch up trying to get to the syrup, but now he is doing much better.
“He is beginning to get out of that puppy stage and now we have started training him,” Shamer said.
Both Mondragon and Shamer were glad they attended the camp; and would encourage others their age to do the same.
“I’ve see a change in the comfort level,” Baas said.
This program is funded by the Sweetwater County Board of Cooperative Educational Services.
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