You are free to compare the quality of care procedures, in place at the Columbia-Greene shelter, with the facility in contract with your municipality. In addition to our shelter, know that Mohawk-Hudson River Humane Society, Dutchess County Humane Society, and Ulster County Humane Society are compliant. These facilities are all well-established humane societies and SPCA’s that have strict medical protocol for municipal dog holding. The standards in place at our Columbia-Greene facility adhere to the highest and most comprehensive standards. Many dog-owning taxpayers are unaware that some towns hold dogs in garages or outdoor kennels, with no health evaluations and no veterinary attention unless the dog is deemed in peril. Know that your well-cared-for dog could be jeopardized by adjacent kenneling to a sick, parasite infested, or mange infested individual, with no kennel cough protection. Knowledge is power. Be proactive.

Here’s the list for reference:

Municipalities housing with CGHS/SPCA from Columbia County:

Ancram: Wes Powell (518) 339-4008, (518) 794-0225
Canaan: Bob Alexander (518) 929-7794
Claverack: Reg Conklin (518) 851-9985, (518) 755-3152
Copake: Wes Powell (518) 339-4008, (518) 794-0225
Ghent: Wendy Shufelt (518) 392-5435, (518) 821-0707, (518) 392-4644
Greenport: Jennifer Pinkowski (518) 567-7668
Hillsdale: Wes Powell (518) 339-4008, (518) 794-0225
Hudson (City): Wes Powell (518) 339-4008, (518) 794-0225
Kinderhook: Diane Ryan (518) 275-9983
New Lebanon: Wes Powell (518) 339-4008, (518) 794-0225
Stockport: Stockport Police Department (518) 828-9389
Stuyvesant: Wes Powell (518) 339-4008, (518) 794-0225
Taghkanic: Wes Powell (518) 339-4008, (518) 794-0225

Municipalities housing with CGHS/SPCA from Greene County:

Ashland: Bruce Feml (518) 589-6155
Athens (Town): Sherry Vieta (518) 322-9783, (518) 678-0168
Athens (Village): Nora Adelman (518) 945-2866
Catskill: Aaron Clause (518) 291-0705
Coxsackie (Town): Mark Misurack (518) 390-9259
Coxsackie (Village): Mark Misurack (518) 390-9259
Greenville: Melissa Rosa (518) 634-7384
Hunter: Bruce Feml (518) 589-6155
Jewett: Bruce Feml (518) 589-6155
Lexington: Bruce Feml (518) 589-6155
New Baltimore: Joe Tanner (518) 756-9355, (518) 857-7515
Prattsville: Jeremy Marsh (518) 299-3375
Windham: Bruce Feml (518) 589-6155

Municipalities housing with CGHS/SPCA from Dutchess County:

Rhinebeck: Roger Newkirk (845) 876-2465

Municipalities housing outside of CGHS/SPCA in Columbia/Greene counties:

Austerlitz: Wes Powell (518) 339-4008, (518) 794-0225
Chatham: Wes Powell (518) 339-4008, (518) 794-0225
Clermont: Desirae Weber (321) 863-3875, (518) 537-2483
Gallatin: Jim Reilly (845) 756-4136
Germantown: Anthony Cidras (518) 567-7224
Livingston: Martin Palumbo (518) 929-7891
Cairo: Cairo Police Department (518) 622-2324, Shelter (518) 622-2324
Durham: Mert Tripp 518-966-8552
Hlcott: Greg DiBenedetto 845-254-4009

Feel free to call us with any questions at 518-828-6044, or visit our website at www.cghs.org. Stop down and see us at 125 Humane Society Road, off Route 66 (about a mile south of the intersection with Route 9H) in Hudson. Our hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed on Wednesday and Sunday. The Food Bank is open to any from the public in need of pet food or for those wishing to donate food anytime during business hours. All of our cats and kittens are “Furrever Free” with all expenses paid. Spay/neuter clinics for cats are $65 male or female, including a rabies vaccination and a 5-in-1 feline distemper combination vaccination. Nail clipping services are available every Saturday from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Shelter, no appointment necessary, for a donation of $5 for cats and $10 for dogs.

 ***
Charlene Marchand is the Chairperson of the Columbia-Greene Humane Society/SPCA Board of Directors. She may be contacted by e-mail at cghsaaron@gmail.com.

were bold or sharp, whose owners needed a trainer comfortable with and knowledgeable about training an assertive dog. We’ve also addressed fearful, anxious, and phobia-driven dogs, many of whom could be improved with correct counter-conditioning programs and appropriate pharmacology. Others needed pragmatic, humane assessment to evaluate their quality of life (or lack of). Without a doubt, dog obedience and good management can be sufficient to deal with a number of reasons (be they ever so poor) for surrender, but my concentration for this printing will be on barking. It is with great concern that our legislators may be ready to inappropriately invade the sanctity of a pet-owner-veterinarian relationship, by outlawing the bark-softening surgery option for phobic and neurotic compulsive barkers. For longer than I can remember, clients came through my training room doors with canines other trainers had considered incorrigible with their incessant barking. Most of these individuals were on their third, fourth, fifth, and in one case, a terrier’s sixth home.
                    
Frustrated owners had progressively pursued positive reinforcement training, citronella and other kinds of no-bark collars, electronic collars, combinations of psychoactive drugs, doggie daycare, etc. The list in many of these cases, as well as the frustrations, were endless. When presented with an extensive and comprehensive scenario, after providing a counter-conditioning protocol that I’ve found to be reasonably effective, I recommended a veterinary consultation for a number of these clients. These canines were at risk for euthanasia, or a return to a rescue or shelter with another placement failure notch in their belt. All the families to whom I am referencing chose a surgical alternative. Bark softening surgery is a relatively simple procedure, with few complications statistically. Every dog, I repeat, every dog who was taken to surgery remained in their now forever home. One family who came to me from Rochester, whose new rescue was on his sixth and last home, had a consultation with a local vet practice, and stayed here for the procedure before returning home. One family sent to me from downstate was being evicted from their townhouse with a lovely German Shepherd Dog. They are now living happily ever after in that townhouse, with a successful surgical alternative behind them.

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the American Kennel Club (AKC) have supported the bark softening surgery as a humane solution to a very common, frustrating, and difficult behavior pattern to correct. Contact your state representatives immediately, telling them that appropriate veterinary procedures should never be subject to what has been referred to as “arbitrary” government regulation. The Assembly bill A1204-2013 has passed the Assembly and is now pending in the Senate Agriculture Committee as bill S2271-2013. We cannot allow our government officials to interfere in the sacrosanct health care decisions between our veterinarians and ourselves. This is a right and a freedom that must be protected at all costs. If not, the losers will be many of our companion animals. The Senators on the Agriculture Committee: P. Ritchie (Chair), P. Gallivan, T. Gipson, V. Montgomery, T. O’Mara, M. Ranzenhofer, J. Serrano, J. Seward, C. Tkaczyk, D. Valesky, and C. Young. Tell them you oppose bill S2271-2013. The domino effect of these types of undereducated legislative decisions is and will prove to be extremely perilous.

Feel free to call us with any questions at 518-828-6044, or visit our website at www.cghs.org. Stop down and see us at 125 Humane Society Road, off Route 66 (about a mile south of the intersection with Route 9H) in Hudson. Our hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed on Wednesday and Sunday. The food bank is open to any from the public in need of pet food or for those wishing to donate food anytime during business hours. All of our cats and kittens are “Furrever Free” with all expenses paid. Spay/neuter clinics for cats are $65 male or female, including a rabies vaccination and a 5-in-1 feline distemper combination vaccination. Nail clipping services are available every Saturday from 10 to 11 a.m. at the shelter, no appointment necessary, for a donation of $5 for cats and $10 for dogs.

 ***
Charlene Marchand is the chairperson of the Columbia-Greene Humane Society/SPCA Board of Directors. She may be
contacted by email at cghsaaron@gmail.com.

Westminster may have an extensive viewing audience, but it’s far from the only dog show in town! Last week our handlers in our Columbia County Jail New Leash on Life Cell Dog Program put on an impressive dog show of their own. Kevin and Grits, Ryan and Jetta, Nick and Casey, with back-up handler James, put their canine companions through their paces for a large group of onlookers.

Capt. John Davi and Program Supervisor Sgt. Brian Gardner hosted the Albany County Jail Superintendent Chris Clark, his associate Sgt. Ralph Peltier, other corrections officers, Director of the Mohawk-Hudson Humane Society Brad Shear, and two of Shear’s potential dog trainers for the soon-to-be-created Albany County program. We are so proud to be the first county jail cell program in New York state. We have hosted a number of corrections officials from in and out of state, to learn from us the best and most efficient way for them to establish a program similar to ours.

We are just over two years young, have graduated 37 dogs to date, and our momentum has not slowed. I personally swelled with pride when our handler-dog teams excelled with their knowledge and presentation. These class dogs never blinked an eye when an onslaught of program “auditors” entered the training room. We ended with a meet and greet for all of our guests, and the handlers
shared their personal comments on their participation in the program, and how far the dogs have come in such a short period of time.

Excellent job, handlers. Thank you for your love, devotion and commitment to the dogs. The performance was met with impressed and rave reviews from our guests. A special thank-you goes out to CGHS/SPCA CEO Ron Perez, whose hands-on contributions to the program are too numerous to mention. Another special thank-you to my friend and colleague Laura Manchester who has faithfully assisted me in class since the beginning of winter. Call the shelter to set up a meet and greet with one of our canine stars. This is a unique opportunity to get a dog in need with many training and management skills. The line forms to the right of our CGHS doors!

Thank you for your generosity to our food bank. We are always ready to fill our shelves with your goodness and food!

 Feel free to call us with any questions at 518-828-6044, or visit our website at www.cghs.org. Stop down and see us at 125 Humane Society Road, off Route 66 (about a mile south of the intersection with Route 9H) in Hudson. Our hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed on Wednesday and Sunday. The food bank is open to any from the public in need of pet food or for those wishing to donate food anytime during business hours. All of our cats and kittens are “Furrever Free” with all expenses paid. Spay/neuter clinics for cats are $65 male or female, including a rabies vaccination and a 5-in-1 feline distemper combination vaccination. Nail clipping services are available every Saturday from 10 to 11 a.m. at the shelter, no appointment necessary, for a donation of $5 for cats and $10 for dogs.

 ***
Charlene Marchand is the chairperson of the Columbia-Greene Humane Society/SPCA Board of Directors. She may be contacted by email at cghsaaron@gmail.com.