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3500 Dogs Rehomed! Did you catch ARF dog Rosie on the news yesterday? To celebrate becoming ARF's 3,500th adopted dog, Rosie and her new family Jan, Alan and fur-sibling Frank the pug met one of ARF's founders and long-term ARF supporter Senator Katy Gallagher at Parliament House yesterday! Rosie also got to reunite with her foster carers Benson and Emma and give interviews to several media outlets. You can help dogs like Rosie by  becoming a foster carer, making a donation and more.

The ACT Government today launched the yellow dog campaign which lets the community know that some dogs need space while training, recovering from surgery or being rehabilitated. The team from Domestic Animal Services will be at The Royal Canberra Show this weekend to raise awareness of the campaign and to hand out yellow bandanas, vests and leads to owners of dogs who need space. If you see a dog wearing a yellow bandana, lead or ribbon, please do not approach this dog or its owner. The yellow indicates this dog needs some space. Some of the reasons a dog may need space include it’s: still in training nervous or anxious old and grumpy unwell or recovering post operation a rescue dog being rehabilitated. Dogs make wonderful companions. All dogs, however, can be unpredictable. The yellow dog campaign aims to improve community safety by clearly and easily identifying dogs who need space and prefer to be left alone. Owners of these dogs will be encouraged to use a yellow bandana, vest, lead, or ribbon to let others know, at a glance, their dog prefers to be left alone so people don’t approach their dog. Dog owners can pick up a yellow bandana, vest or lead for free from Domestic Animal Services, 92 Mugga Lane Symonston, from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. The yellow dog campaign will feature paid advertising as well as posters and postcards (see attached) distributed to dog parks, vets, pet stores, cafes and schools to raise awareness of the yellow dog initiative. We encourage you to share this information through your networks and contact us if you require further information or some posters and postcards delivered to you. For more information about the yellow dog campaign please visit www.cityservices.act.gov.au

Chuckles came into foster care back in January 2017, and boy did he turn out to be a hard dog to rehome.... Turns out you can't rehome a dog that runs and hides from potential adopters. About 9 months later, after extensive training, he had improved so much  but was still not going to be easy to rehome, I think he just decided he wanted to stay here. Four years on, he is living his best life. He is still very nervous around people but once he knows you he loves you. He loves his walks and runs, and loves play dates with other dogs. He is a super happy boy and is a great foster brother to any other foster's I take on, his current bestie is a cat. He's cheeky, loveable and sometimes naughty and I'm so glad he chose to stay with me (even though he has learnt to open the fridge and pull everything out).

Ziggy is a medium-sized crossbred dog, who came to live with me a bit over a year ago, when I started fostering him. If I had to guess, I would say he might have a bit of staffy in him, and maybe some bull-arab?? Being a true cross-bred, it is really anybody’s guess though. He came from DAS in Canberra, where he had been handed in as a stray. Nobody ever claimed him, so after doing his legally required time in the pound, DAS was looking at options of what to do with him. Ziggy could not be put up for adoption as it was pretty clear that he had a major issue; he was absolutely terrified of everything. He spent his days in his kennel hiding in the far corner, would soil himself if anybody so much as looked at him, and refused to eat or drink other than in the middle of the night when everything went quiet at the pound. So, DAS asked ARF for help, and ARF asked if I would be able to foster him. I agreed to go and meet him at the pound, to see for myself what I would be getting myself into. When I met him, my first impression was that he was still a very young dog and was scared out of his brain. He soiled himself on the way to the meet-and-greet yard, crawled around the yard on his belly, and tried to climb in between the fence and some netting to find a dark place to hide. He did his utmost best to stay as far away from any humans as his lead would allow. However, despite his obvious distress and fear, he never showed any sign of fear-aggression, which was pretty amazing. I saw a lovely boy

Little Tink came to us from a puppy farming situation outside of Canberra. Tink the tiny, terrified 4 month old puppy. It was immediately clear that she was extremely scared of almost everything, especially people. When I collected her up she pressed herself into the back of her crate and turned her head away from me and shivered. We got her home and let her explore the yard, intending to have a very quiet afternoon where she could explore slowly and safely without interference from the scary people. However, the best laid plans don’t always come together. We had an impromptu visit from our parents and their beautiful dog Summer, which was lovely but it was all too much for poor Tink. She hid from the commotion so well that we couldn’t find her. We searched the yard from end to end, talked to the neighbours in case she has slipped through the fence, searched the house from top to bottom. Tink was missing for over half an hour, and I was starting to panic. She was so small and could potentially have wedged herself in anywhere. Fortunately all the searching paid off and she was found in the very far corner of the yard wedged behind some pavers. Safely recovered Tink was provided with a quiet corner for the rest of the day where she would be safe from scary people. Over the next few days we noticed that Tink refused to eat or drink in front of us. We would have to put her and her bowl in another room and leave the room. When we returned her bowl would be empty. Toilet training was also quite a challenge, as approaching her or startling her in any way would result in her bolting to her ‘safe corner’ next

Ferdi was our first foster dog with ARF. We had fostered dogs and puppies in the past and were currently looking for a foster that we could bring into our house that would get along well with our other dogs. Our mentors contacted us and asked if we would be willing to take on Ferdi, we were warned that he had not had the best start and had made his way to the pound a few times in his short life. We had a look at his profile and were immediately willing to take him on. He looked so sweet, with the biggest brown soulful eyes that just said, ‘love me’. Our first meet and greet started off great, he was excited and happy to just go for a stroll and sniff. What we quickly learnt about Ferdi is that he was quite insecure when he couldn’t control his environment or the dogs around him. He wanted to mediate everything and make sure that everyone was quiet, calm, and not having too much fun… how things have changed. Once he was dropped off, we took things slow, we gave him the space he needed to sniff and start to feel comfortable in our house. The first few weeks were a challenge, not only for us but for Ferdi as well. We are no strangers to managing dogs with separation anxiety, but boy did he have it bad. There were weeks of sleepless nights and him crying every time you tried to leave the house or put him in his crate. There was the ‘great escape’ from his crate the first time he was left for more than 30 minutes. He chewed a hole in the crate and then jumped the baby gate to go in search for us and our

Help ARF to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome dogs  Is your dog a lucky star? Buy a raffle ticket and help ARF to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome dogs in need. ACT Rescue and Foster Inc. (ARF) is an incorporated association of people in Canberra and the surrounding region who rescue dogs from euthanasia and foster them temporarily for as long as it takes to find them loving, permanent homes. Tickets are priced at $50 each Buy tickets at this link Prizes Prize valued at $1,050 The winner of the raffle will have their dog feature in ARF’s 2022 calendar. The prize includes a professional photo of your dog, a copy of the ARF 2022 Calendar, and a digital copy of the photo that is used in calendar. Prize also includes a mini photo shoot with the winner and their dog, with up to 3 digital photos provided to the winner. Photography by Paul R Cowled.   Terms & Conditions: Photos of dog for calendar and mini photo shoot are to be taken within the ACT, in the same location, and outdoors (e.g. in a backyard or a park). Photo of dog for ARF Calendar can take anywhere between 15-30 minutes. Mini-photo shoot occurs immediately after photos are taken of the winner's dog for the ARF Calendar. Maximum time allotted for mini-photo shoot is 30 minutes. Maximum limit of 2 adults and 2 dogs in mini-photo shoot. The winner and their dog must be available before 7 June 2021 for the photo shoot. Have a question? Contact [email protected]. The Raffle commences on the 3 May 2021, closes on the 21st of May 2021 and will be drawn on the 22nd of May 2021 at Canberra at 12:00pm. Details of the Winner(s) will be displayed at https://fosterdogs.org/ and [as mentioned above, raffle website link to be provided]

A beautiful sunny Autumn afternoon was the backdrop to the first ARF walk for 2021.  The dogs were super excited to be out, and so were we.  A nice chat with some of our members and friends, the dogs always enjoy having an outing and it's great for the dogs that need to have a bit more socialisation = humans enjoyed it too. Look on our events menu to see our upcoming walks - we'd love you to join us!  

ACT Rescue and Foster (ARF) Inc - Notice, Agenda and other Information for members about the 2020 Annual General Meeting The Annual General Meeting is scheduled to be held on Tuesday 24 November 2020 at 7.00pm. Please note that the AGM was advertised in the ARF October Members’ email as being held on 23 November 2020.  Given the current situation in the ACT and that this has remained reasonably positive for the ACT the Committee felt that it was possible to conduct a face to face AGM.  However, we were unable to secure a venue for 23 November 2020, hence the date change. The venue for the AGM on 24 November is the Tuggeranong Seniors Centre, 101 Cowlishaw Street, Greenway. Attached are the Agenda for the 2020 AGM, minutes of the previous AGM (24 November 2019), Committee nomination form and proxy form. All positions on the Committee are declared vacant.  Completed poxy forms and nomination forms should be emailed to [email protected] Nomination forms must be received no later than Tuesday 27 October 2020. Proxy forms must be received no later than 24 hours before the AGM (7.00pm 23 November 2020). One of the agenda items is a Special Resolution to amend the ARF Rules to comply with new legislation.  We have taken the opportunity to also tidy up membership categories and requirements (given there is a zero cost to membership), wording about the ARF Gift Fund and surplus property, some numbering and to allow future 'remote' meetings. The draft amended Rules and an Explanatory Memorandum are available on the ARF Website here. This link also takes you to the existing ARF Rules.  The Explanatory Memorandum for the proposed Rule change is also attached to this email. At the start of the item on the Special Resolution we hope to have a short briefing by our

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