Scratch This: Zoom Room couple helps put the 'forever' into forever home
Adopted shelter and rescue dogs will receive a free evaluation and training session. Meet a few LBACS candidates.
A couple of months ago, I wrote an article called Adoption dos and don’ts, the point of which was that love isn’t all there is when you adopt a pet. There’s also medical care, food, vaccinations and sometimes, behavior and socialization training. When an adoption fails and the animal returns to the shelter or rescue, it’s heartbreaking: will the next adoption fail, too, and will there be another chance at a forever home for this pet?
“We see dogs returned to the shelter all the time after just a few days for things like ‘having too much energy,’ ‘not getting along with other pets’ or ‘not being housebroken,” said Long Beach Animal Care Services volunteer Amber Rood Durfee, who’s seen her share of returns. “I always wonder, if the humans had just given that dog some grace, time and a little training, [the dog] would have ended up becoming that perfect addition to the family that they were hoping for from the start!”
Most dogs, Amber said, need time to get used to their new home, and the human must be committed to help them get there. She stressed the importance of socializing and training so that they’ll be “ready to run around the nearest dog park with no problems.”
“The truth is, they need to learn so many things before that can happen,” Amber said.
Jennifer and Mike Watson are ready to teach those things to dogs adopted from area shelters and rescues and teach their humans, too. The Watsons own the Long Beach Zoom Room franchise, and they’re gifting every adopted shelter or rescue dog with a free evaluation and a private training session. Beneficiaries include canine residents of Long Beach Animal Care Services, the Harbor shelter in San Pedro, the Carson Animal Shelter, K9 Kismet, Blockhead Brigade, Beachmutts, and Chunkz & Tubz. Also, during Long Beach Gives, any Long Beach Zoom Room client purchasing a class pass will have the purchase matched with a pass for any dog adopted from K9 Kismet.
Living and sharing their dream
The Watsons were longtime LBACS volunteers before they decided to open their franchise.
“I thought, when I retire, I’m going to be living at the shelter, I’m going to be adopting out dogs. That was my dream,” Jennifer said.
When she met Mike, he was a franchise consultant. During the COVID pandemic, Jennifer decided to retire from her job. The idea of opening a franchise occurred to both her and her husband. After examining the franchises that Mike came up with, Jennifer pointed to Zoom Room and said, “This one!”
“Sure, we could make some money with the business, but it’ll also help the community keep these dogs in their homes,” Jennifer said. “When I was a kid, you fed the dogs, you took them for a walk, played fetch, and that was it. That isn’t how life is anymore. Animals are part of our family, and all the science they’ve been doing about dogs and cats says that mental enrichment is important.”
Jennifer and Mike took the extensive training that Zoom Room requires of all franchise owners and trainers. Jennifer’s experience raising service-dog pups made her a natural for the training, and Mike took to it as well.
Zoom Room Long Beach has been in business for two years now. . Zoom Room Long Beach offers all the core training and enrichment classes found on the Zoom Room main page, but the Watsons consider their business to be mainly a doggie-lifestyle place. The franchise doesn’t seem, well, franchisy — there’s a summer camp feel to it, and Jennifer and Mike are omnipresent counselors.
The addition of the Zoom Room to West Long Beach, which has long been somewhat of a pet-care desert, is an asset to the community there. The business’ parking lot is a site for pet-adoption events and CAMP-LA mobile vaccination clinics for dogs and cats.
Classes and enrichment
Workshops include private training and enrichment, small classes and larger ones, which never exceed six dogs. As in real life, the participants are at all levels of reactivity or obedience training. Most of the workshops take place in the roomy, air-conditioned 59-square-foot classroom.
“We don’t just do 50-minute classes in obedience — we also do different types of enrichment,” Mike said. “Sometimes it’s agility, which helps build confidence in dogs. Sometimes, we’ll do scary things, like wheelchairs and skateboards to desensitize the dogs. Sometimes, we play games and incorporate them into life situations where there’s a lot of motion going on Like the beanbag game — you put your dog into down or stay, and then you go steal beanbags from other people. If the dog gets up, you have to drop the beanbags you took. After a minute and a half, whoever has the most beanbags wins, and you’re practicing sit/stay with movement!”
I was interested in the scent-training workshop through which dogs can learn to locate animals through their superior sense of smell.
“Dogs smell in the billions, and we smell in the thousands,” he said. “That’s how dogs ‘see’ the world — through scent.”
Yes, Mike told me, they can be trained to help you find where you last put your keys.
The schedule, capsule class descriptions and pricing links are accessible on the upper-right corner of the Long Beach Zoom Room page.
A field day for Fido!
Agility classes take place in the large indoor “park.” The classes culminate in a six-week Agility League for graduates. It’s like a school field day, with music, coffee, prizes and a trophy. I pictured a gold-plated squirrel on a pedestal.
Dogs and their humans train for the Agility League in the climate-controlled classroom. “She’s done really well,” said Soilimar Salas, the human of the little fluffy dog Kalakai. “We reinforce with commands we learn here. It made her able to respond to commands and self-regulate.”
Watch this video on Instagram by Kate Karp, edited by Jake Gotta
Addressing reactivity
Reactivity is a common reason for the return of a dog to the shelter. A dog may have fear or aggression toward other dogs, unfamiliar humans, children,new babies, the family cat or being on a leash. And squirrels, of course.
“We work on reactivity a lot,” Mike said. “A lot of people don’t realize that when they take a dog to a dog park all the time, they get really excited every time they see another dog. Say you’re on a walk, and your dog sees another dog, and he gets really excited, but he can’t go over to it because he’s on a leash. He gets frustrated and will start barking at the other dog. We identify what the reactivity is and work towards that. The goal is always to get the dog from the least reactive situation into a group setting so the person can start working on socialization around other dogs on leashes.”
Mike brought in two of the Zoom Room “helpers”: a little stuffed beagle and a larger stuffed black dog with a penetrating stare.
“Dogs are not verbal — they read body language. And they’re very, very good at it,” Mike said. These dogs are made up for that purpose. “I can take the little dog out to a reactive dog, and he might not bark. Then, I’ll take the black dog, and the real dog will go crazy because the dog doesn’t like to be stared at. We work on the reactivity, and when you get that reactivity down, you can use a real dog, in real-life situations.”
Consistent follow-up at home to reinforce the lessons is of uppermost importance, the Watsons stressed.
“We have a lot of clients who say, my gosh, my dog is perfect when he’s here. But when he’s home, we can’t do anything!” Jennifer said.
Reinforcement of the commands are best done gradually, Mike said.
“When you go on a walk, for instance, there may be too many distractions,” he said. “The first step is to not go down a busy street. The next step is to go to a park that doesn’t have a lot going on. The dog will finally learn that no matter where you go, he sits.”
The Watsons hope that their offer of a free evaluation and a training session will help put the “forever” into “home.”
“Our goal is to give these dogs and the owners that now have them even the smallest foundation to start building their relationship, so they don’t have to be returned,” Jennifer said.
The Zoom Room is located at 100 E. Willow St., Long Beach. There is ample parking in the lot.
Yours drooly
Any dog adopted from our shelter at Long Beach Animal Care Services — or any shelter or rescue — will be treated to a free evaluation and a private training session from Zoom Room Long Beach! The staff and volunteers at LBACS have set the groundwork for socialization and commands, and the Zoom Room staff will help them continue the journey to be a forever pet. Here comes the usual sample, and you can meet them all on the shelter’s adoption page.
Not ready to make it final? Try fostering, which will give all dogs (and cats!) a break from a kennel and a rest on a soft couch, a carpet or the clean laundry. To speed the adoption/foster process, email PetAdopt@longbeach.gov or petfoster@longbeach.gov, or call (562) 570-7387. Better yet, meet them in person at Long Beach Animal Care Services, 7700 E. Spring St., Long Beach, at entrance to El Dorado Park (no parking fee for shelter visitors). Visiting hours are Wednesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m., and Saturday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Chevy (ID#A717826) is a super-friendly 2 year old mix of what the shelter thinks is basset hound and rottweiler. He’s now celebrating his 5-month shelter-versary. He was also found roaming the neighborhood happily approaching people and all sizes of dogs being walked. But attempts to find an owner failed. As you can see in the video, Chevy shines in the yard and just wants to play with pups and people alike! He’d love to go to a home with both; failing that, just a human will do fine, and he’ll love the playgroups at Zoom Room! Video by Amber Rood Durfee
Doesn’t Sailor (ID#A727124) remind you of a sea dog looking longingly out toward the horizon, hoping for a safe harbor? Sailor has only been at the shelter for a couple of weeks, and he’s already getting bummed out about being stuck in the brig. He was picked up in August after reports of a dog abandoned at the Catalina Express loading area. With no owner coming forward to redeem our matey, it looks like he's sticking it out until he finds a home through adoption or rescue. This 2-year-old English bulldog mix is friendly and frisky and enjoys spending time with other dogs. Hope it’s “Land ho!” for him soon!
As you can see from this pose, Quill (ID#A716230), a 3-year-old German shepherd/husky mix, is excited about life and loves to play in the yard with his doggie buddies. Things weren’t always like this for Quill — someone tied him up outside the shelter one evening and abandoned him there, for whatever reason. But now, Quill’s learned some commands and is outright silly with the ball. Can you guarantee him a happy future?
Libby (ID#A717085), a 4-year-old German shepherd/Shiba Inu mix, was picked up by animal control officers one night in March. Someone had reported her roaming at large with another dog for several days. Neither dog would let people get too close to them, but Libby had moderate wounds on her face and legs that required medical attention, so catching them was of uppermost importance. So, with help from animal-rescue service CatchingPaws, both dogs were brought to the shelter. It’s now over two months later, and Libby has made a full recovery! She looks gorgeous and needs to find a caring home with good socialization.
Tail-waggin’ and nose-boopin’ events
Pets Ahoy! fundraiser
Calling all you seadogs and ship’s cats! Seal Beach Animal Care Center announces Pets Ahoy!, a luncheon fundraiser at the Seal Beach Yacht Club! The idea is to help assure smooth sailing for all the animals in the shelter there! Enjoy a lunch from Finbar’s Italian Kitchen paired with Riboli Family wines, listen to soulful music by Tiffany Dennis and her guitar, and bid on great treasures! All proceeds go to the pets in the shelter.
Pets Ahoy takes place Sept. 15, noon–3 p.m., at the Seal Beach Yacht Club, 255 N. Marina Dr., Seal Beach. Tickets are $75 prepaid and $85 at the door — purchase tickets here.
SoCal Bulldog Rescue needs foster homes
SoCal Bulldog Rescue is asking responsible humans to give temporary, loving homes to their overflow of dogs whose previous owners couldn’t, for one reason or another. Fosters need to separate the bulldog from any other pets or have none in the home — many of the dogs been tested with other pets, but they will be as time allows over the following weeks. Most of dogs also haven’t been around small children, so homes with very young children may not be selected to foster. Foster homes will need to keep veterinary appointments in some cases and meet with possible adopters, so “foster parents” should either live near the selected veterinary clinics or be willing to drive long distances. Southern California Bulldog Rescue covers all medical care and finds the approved adoptive homes. Access this link for foster information. Oh, and yes, if you fall in love with one of these droopy, drooly darlings, you can apply to make it permanent!
Helen Sanders CatPAWS annual Show Us Your Kitties calendar contest
Time to submit your favorite photos of your favorite pointy-eared people so that they can live on in purr-petuity, or at least through 2025! Helen Sanders CatPAWS’ annual contest raises funds for medical bills and food for CatPAWS rescues, and it also helps power the rescue’s spay/neuter mobile van. This year, the goal is to reach $10,000, which will be used to continue the lifesaving work they do in our community and beyond. Follow the instructions on the link to enter your cat. The top three submissions will be offered a personal sketch of their photo! Because every dollar counts and to encourage people to share their beloved kitty photos, CatPAWS has waived the entry fee this year! The organization will strive to put every photo on the calendar, whether they’re top 12 or not. You can even reserve a special day for a thumbnail on your calendar: a birthday, a “gotcha” day, or a memorial to a beloved cat for $15 a space. So go ahead — show us those kitties! We know you want to!
Follow this link for instructions to enter the Show Us Your Kitties calendar contest. Entries may be submitted until 11:59 p.m. PDT on Monday, Sept. 30. Voting ends Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 9:00 p.m. PDT.
Need a low-cost veterinarian, information about trapping community cats, places to volunteer — anything pet related? Follow this link for resources. Please add your own ideas in the Comments section.
We need your support.
Subcribe to the Watchdog today.
The Long Beach Watchdog is owned by journalists, and paid for by readers like you. If independent, local reporting like the story you just read is important to you, support our work by becoming a subscriber.
