April Academy News - Adopt a Pet Day & Dog Fighting Awareness

April! Finally Spring is here! This month we celebrate two very important days at American Grooming Academy! Here at AGA pets are so important to us all, student, staff and alumni alike. We dearly love our pets and that’s why our students are so successful. They just love animals, so it is easy for them to become compassionate, educated individuals whom customers feel comfortable leaving their pets with. This month April 8th is National Dog Fight Awareness Month and we are educating our students on this horrible epidemic. With the help of the So Cal Pit Bull Team who will be coming to AGA this month to advocate for victim dogs and how we can help stop this vial sport! Also April 30th is National Adopt a Pet Day! Every year shelters across the country adopt out loving, healthy mixed and purebred dogs to thousands of new families! Being a part of the community that gives back to homeless pets, AGA knows just what rescue they want to help this year!

National Adopt a Pet Day on April 30th, is a great day to add a new friend to your family! Why not do it with the help of one very special rescue we love here at AGA! Animals Need U Rescue is a 501c3 non profit rescue run by long time AGA friend and client Debbie Krieg has a love for homeless pets! This month we decided to dedicate our “Adopt a Pet Spa Package” to Animals Need You rescue. $3.00 of every package sold will be given to “ Animals Need You rescue”. We caught up with Deb now that her dream of a 501c3 has become a reality and asked her some of the questions that only a true Rescuer could answer! Always loving animals and helping with many organizations over the years Deb wanted to start her own rescue for one reason, simply LOVE.

She loves animals and decided that she wanted to be their voice! Starting a rescue has been extremely hard but Deb says the hardest part is “not being able to save them all. There are just so many unwanted litters, unwanted dogs,unwanted pets who had been wanted at one time. Elderly pets, broken animals. Trying to keep up is exhausting.” When asked to describe her most memorable case so far Deb’s answer was heart breaking and amazing all at the same time.

“A man came to me and said ‘I have a shih tzu and a malti-poo I can’t take with me’ (whatever that means). They were 8 and 11 years old, seniors, scared to death of being touched by anyone. I had to take them from him so they wouldn’t go to the shelter, their ages would have made them candidates for euthanasia. They took months to rehabilitate. After all the medical, emotional and psychological help I could give they found their true, loving, wonderful homes.”

Deb’s dream, is for “ Animals Need U Rescue” to grow. She wishes for some land and a large kennel area so she can rescue larger unwanted pets. Right now she primarily has foster homes and pets with her. We asked her what was the most common misconception about adopting a shelter pet, “That all of them come with bad behaviors, really? Some have undesirable behaviors and some are amazing right out of the box. Besides you need to teach a dog what’s right for you not the other way around!” We are so Proud to be a part of Deb’s journey even if it’s only a small part. When asked what’s the best thing about being a rescuer Deb remarked “When you look into the eyes of a fearful dog, and the day comes when that same dog is running and playing, that’s the best part!”

April 8th is National Dog Fight Awareness Month, Dog Fighting is a type of blood sport generally defined as opposing two game dogs against one another in a ring or a pit for the entertainment of the spectators or the gratification of the dog-fighters. It is a major problem in the United States as well as around the world. American Grooming Academy, is educating our students with the help of the So Cal Pitbull Team, to the horrors of what happens to these amazing animals. Many times, illegal drugs as well as illegal firearms are present when dog fighters are taken down. Many of the fight victims as well as bait victims tend to have emotional problems for the rest of their lives and understanding this process is a great resource for our students. AGA has had a first hand experience with a dog fight victim.

Instructor Kat Marchant rescued a pit bull in November of 2015. Valak was pulled off the streets of Philly by animal control, he was emaciated at just 30 pounds, he is now 70, he had a mangled mess of infected ears that were shredded and abscessed and past the point of saving so they had to be removed. He was found only having 3 legs, but judging by his ears and scars he had obviously spent some time fighting then probably used for bait once his days of breeding and fighting were over. Valak could not be within 20 feet of another dog at any time.

He had aggression and possession issues when we decided to adopt him, but we were convinced that we may be his only shot at survival! Recognizing that Kat was out of her area of expertise. “We have adopted a bait puppy and a 5 month old being groomed to fight, so he was continuously beaten to make him meaner, but this(Valak) I didn’t know how to deal with this. It took 10 months of crating and rotating with our other dogs, 10 months of training with the miracle that is John Eisert from Passion For Paws Dog Training, and every day since that knowing what Valak used to be, to make him a functioning part of this family. The devastation to these dogs for enjoyment makes my heart break, but the resilience of a dog that is given a chance to make a difference mends the break.” National Dog Fighting Awareness Day is a great opportunity to educate everyone and for us the education received by our students makes them even better at anything they want to accomplish!

Help out homeless pets here in Temecula and get your best furry friend fresh and clean for the April sunshine! This month we are dedicating our monthly spa package to Animals Need U rescue! $3.00 from every spa package sold in the month of April will be donated to the homeless pets!