Meet the Board!
This will be a new feature in the next several newsletters. We thought you might enjoy getting to know the Board.

As of December 2005, Jill Larsen became our Foster Coordinator. On top of that, she does transport for us and she just began looking into grant writing. Jill's daughter, Hayley was the inspiration behind our Hayley Award for Volunteers.

In Jill's own words...

I am 38 and have a husband (Dave) and a 7 year old daughter (Hayley). My husband and I were born and raised in the Sugarhouse area and have known each other since elementary school. We continue to live in the Sugarhouse area at 1433 E 2700 S. I have been a dog lover all my life and was introduced to bassets by a very special basset named Buddy Guy. Back when my husband and I were still dating, he lived in a basement apartment. One night I was over visiting and I heard a dog bounding down the stairs towards our door. Dave said "oh yes, the people upstairs have a dog." I opened the door and it was love at first sight! Buddy and I were rarely separated after that and soon after Marty and Fred (the landlord's) brought home another basset, Rosie. Rosie and Buddy were like my dogs, too. I played with them and since I worked graveyard shifts they would come down and sleep with me during the day. Ever since then, I have wanted bassets. At our current house, we have Rusty (a cocker mix), Beau (a very small and very white basset mix), Gunther (our adopted UFBH basset) and then our current fosters, Lucy and Louie.

Instead of the family dog learning to chase and tug at children teach him/her the following more appropriate games.

Retrieve a toy/ball
Teaching your dog to bring back a toy or ball uses up lots of energy and is a hit with many dogs. If the dog does not drop the ball or toy, swap it for a piece of hot dog as you say "DROP" until he gets the idea.

Hide 'n' Seek
Throw a treat for the dog. When he is running after it, go and hide somewhere, then call your dog's name. When he finds you give him lots of praise and a food treat or play with him with a toy. Make it easy, at first, to keep him interested, then make it more challenging as your dog understands the game. Kids and dogs love this!

Find It
This game requires at least 2 family members. One person holds the dog while the other person hides a food treat or toy in the house or garden. Then send the dog to find it saying "Find It." Make it easy at first by letting the dog see you put it behind a chair leg etc. Make it harder as the dog gets wise to the game. Be careful not to teach your dog bad habits - don't put the treat in places you don't want him to go. Give him a huge round of applause when he finds it. Most dogs love this game! (This is how search and rescue dogs are trained)

Round Robin Recall
You need 2 or more family members each with a pocket full of yummy treats to play this game. Stand at an 8' distance from each other. Then each person takes it in turn to call the dog to them, when he gets there give him a treat and praise him. This is a lot of fun for everyone. When the dog gets good at it you may start to say "come." See who in the family can get the dog to come the fastest! The dog will also be learning to come when called. Article copyrighted to Jane Marshall and Mary Dow.

Maxine

...now known as Maggie is one lucky hound! Her new basset brother Wolfie is the one to thank! Maggie and Wolfie, along with their new canine siblings, all have regular visits to Dogmode.

Wolfgang

Wolfie was discovered at Dogmode during one of his playdays. A family arrived to pick up their dogs and jokingly said, "We'll take that one, too!" Little did they know! A Dogmode employee printed out an adoption application for them; they filled it out on the spot and left it for Denise, the foster mom, to pick up. By the time it was all said and done...Maggie, (see above) found a home, too!

Go to the UFBH website and login, using the case- sensitive login information below.

Username: Member
Password: Basset

Enjoy!