Sheltering | The Teachings of Sisco Miyagi

‘Outside of the shelter, she’s just a dog’

Posted on 09/07/2022
/Under Animal Behaviour, Culture, Sheltering

To anyone outside of the world of shelter behaviour, the words ‘Outside of the shelter, they are just a normal dog’ probably cause a moment’s thought and not much more. For those of us in sheltering though, that simple phrase sums up one of our biggest challenges – how do...Read more

Superheroes are an amorphous bunch, and it’s about time we defined ourselves

Posted on 26/06/2022
/Under Animal Management, Culture, Sheltering, Uncategorized

Heads up for today’s blog. While I am going to do my best to make it useful and hopefully entertaining, my aim is to get you thinking about what you know and don’t know about some of words and labels we use in our sector, when talking about each other....Read more

Making friends with our enemies and challenging culture

Posted on 10/04/2022
/Under Behaviour change, Culture, Sheltering

“Like Norm, I too am a passionate believer that every person who works within our sector has a unique and potentially very powerful opportunity to change our world for the better. Through experience, I’m also acutely aware of the challenges and stresses inherent to jobs in our sector, and how...Read more

Dear Foster Carer… Thank you for loving them

Posted on 08/01/2021
/Under Animal Behaviour, Sheltering, Staff and volunteers

Dear Foster Carer, I’m reaching out to you in writing because this is a hard conversation to have in person, and I know I’m probably the last person you want to talk to right now anyway. You see, today we said a permanent goodbye to an animal that we both...Read more

‘Test’ vs ‘Assessment’: Words matter, and that bathwater is looking dirty enough to lose a baby!

Posted on 04/12/2020
/Under Animal Behaviour, Sheltering, Uncategorized

Back in 2017 I was sitting in the audience of Mykel Smith’s presentation at the Australian Institute of Animal Management yearly conference ‘Recruiting: Are we getting the most suitable candidate?’. He spoke about staff recruitment, focusing on the difference in an organisations ability to select high-quality candidates using traditional Q&A...Read more

Pet Adoption – stacking the odds of success!

Posted on 23/10/2020
/Under Animal Behaviour, Education, Pet ownerships, Sheltering

This week’s Sisco Miyagi post is a little belated. I went into last week with full intentions of staying on track with my weekly posts, then a few long days at work coincided with the 2nd anniversary of Sisco’s passing and I chose to curl up on my recliner covered...Read more

Vollie, Vollie, Vollie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Posted on 25/09/2020
/Under Animal Management, Sheltering, Staff and volunteers

I had planned on waiting until Volunteer Week to sit down and put my thoughts ‘on paper’ in this space. That was until I realised that Vollie Week is in May and it’s September, so it would be a while before I put ‘pen to paper’. Given that my main...Read more

Open Adoptions – compromise or the start of a beautiful friendship?

Posted on 18/09/2020
/Under Culture, Sheltering

Today’s post is a bit of a confession. I took a really, really, long time to fully appreciate the concept of Open Adoptions and how or why we need to embrace this idea in Australia. By the time the ‘Adopters Welcome’ program had filtered to us in Aus, I was...Read more

Companion animal welfare and management people, we need to stop modelling our identities on Superheroes

Posted on 28/08/2020
/Under Animal Management, Culture, Sheltering

Clarke Kent – Lois Lane – Superman Peter Parker – Mary Jane – Spiderman Bruce Wayne/Batman – Selina Kyle/Catwoman It’s a trope that has been around for as long as superhero comics themselves – Superhero leads double life to protect their human identity and loved ones. Lowly human identity falls...Read more

Betty and Charlie – the hidden costs of expensive consolation prizes

Posted on 18/08/2020
/Under Culture, Education, Sheltering

This is the first post of Sisco Miyagi so I’m a bit excited and a bit anxious about how this is all going to go. If you want to know more about me, or why this blog is named after a kelpie and a movie character, head to the ‘About...Read more