Kush invites community to Wag’n Train

Linda Kush picks up Clove from the Animal Welfare Alliance shelter for one-on-one training and socializing. Kush retired from dog boarding this year and now uses her animal expertise to build dogs’ confidence and obedience skills. Clove is the sister of Peppercorn, another of Kush’s students.

Photo provided

Linda Kush ran Sit and Stay Boarding for 15 years in the Poplar Bluff area. Now she has opened a new chapter of her work with animals through volunteer dog training with the Animal Welfare Alliance of Southeast Missouri, and a new shelter-wide training program.

On her own, Kush fosters and trains dogs who struggle in a shelter environment.

Peppercorn practices his sit and stay for the camera. Dog trainer Linda Kush takes shelters dogs in to train them, build their confidence and ultimately increase their chances of adoption. All 9 dogs she’s trained found permanent homes.

Photo provided

“If they’re a little bit better behaved, at least have sit, down, stay and walking on a leash, they may be more adoptable,” she said. Many shelter dogs are given up due to behavior problems and lack of training, she added. All nine dogs she has trained so far were successfully adopted.

One of her most recent students is Peppercorn. He was fearful of people and growled at them from the corner of his pen at the shelter, but is opening up with consistent attention from Kush and a friendship with her dog Roxie. Roxie herself knows some advanced training, so including her in a lesson on laying down was elementary, but Peppercorn was still building trust in humans. By watching Roxie, he figured out the command and learned the reward was a treat.

“He eventually got it, and then the next few lessons they went down a lot faster,” Kush remarked.

The main behavioral problems Kush sees in surrendered dogs are jumping, roaming and acting “out of control” by human standards.

“Dogs know how to be dogs. That’s all they know. If you want them to behave and you just have to teach them and it’s not that difficult,” she said. “It takes some time.”

The number of shelter dogs she sees inspired Kush and AWA staff to start Wag’n Train. Volunteers will pair up with a shelter dog of their choice to teach them leash manners and basic commands alongside Kush. At the time of this article, there were 14 people signed up.

“I can’t do this by myself. I can’t train every single dog that comes into the shelter. So that’s how I came up with the idea to start this shelter dog program,” she said.

Wag’n Train will be held at 1 p.m. on Oct. 8, 15, 22 and 29. Volunteers can work with their dogs outside of class as well and Kush hopes it will inspire people to continue volunteering at the AWA shelter and to enrich the dogs’ lives — volunteers are welcome to walk dogs, foster a dog for a day, go on field trips to parks or pet-friendly stores and generally socialize their canines.

“I’m trying to get the community involved to help these dogs and make it a better life for them at the shelter until they get adopted,” Kush explained.

More information about Wag’n Train is available on the Facebook pages for Kush and the AWA, at awasemo.org and by calling the AWA no-kill shelter at 573-840-0664.