Keeshond Lovers United
| 2016 Q1 | story by EMILY MULLIGAN | photo by STEVEN HERTZOG
Judy Hintzman
A lady in her 60s in St. Louis is hospitalized long-term and then passes away, but no one in her family can care for her beloved 12-year-old dog.
A family in Iowa has a 10-month-old puppy they say is too much for their family to handle.
A reputable breeder in Nebraska has a well-trained pet that has aged out of breeding but still has a long life ahead of her and needs a new home.
These are stories of a few of the dogs that have been cared for and eventually adopted through Keeshond Lovers United (KLU), a 501 (c)(3) and regional breed-specific rescue group based in Lawrence that is part of the Keeshond Club of America.
Judy Hintzman is secretary and treasurer of KLU, which was incorporated in 2001, and is the one who receives the phone calls and email messages containing stories like the ones above. KLU is a network of volunteers who are Keeshond owners and foster families who transport, take in and care for Keeshonds in need of a home because their owners have given them up for any number of reasons. KLU also culls potential adopters and notifies qualified adopters of Keeshonds that are brought in for rescue. Its adopter and foster network includes families and individuals in not only Kansas but also Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
“Because it’s so easy with the Internet to network, networking has become a big piece of this operation. We are able to zero in, so there aren’t that many of our breed looking for homes, because we have so many resources,” Hintzman says.
KLU holds an animal shelter license in Kansas and Nebraska, so the group is permitted to accept the dogs directly from their owners and care for them until the dogs are matched with a new permanent home. Often obtaining the dogs can involve driving long distances to pick them up, so Hintzman relies on her network to transport the dogs from their owners or shelters to their foster homes. She also has made use of trips to visit her family in Wisconsin to transport Keeshonds one way or the other.
KLU matches potential adopters with potential pets through a meticulous application process designed to ensure both pets and owners are happy so the match is a permanent one. Hintzman first learned about dog rescue groups and became involved with the organization when she adopted her first Keeshond in 2002.
“Within three to four months, I offered to foster another Keeshond. I was what we call a ‘foster failure’—I adopted that dog, too,” she says.
In any given year, Hintzman rescues and places up to 100 Keeshonds in the Midwest. When a Keeshond is given up, she either is contacted by the owner through the KLU website or Facebook page; or, animal shelters, such as the Lawrence Humane Society, contact her when a Keeshond shows up.
Hintzman says accepting the dogs from the owners who are giving them up is one of the saddest parts of her job.
“Some people, it just breaks their heart to let the dog go. We cry with them,” she says.
In the meantime, potential Keeshond adopters have filled out a detailed, six-page form, have gone through reference checks, including a veterinarian reference check if they have been a pet owner, and have met with a representative of KLU for a home visit.
“We talk about the needs of the dog. ‘What will the dog do while you are at work and on vacation? What activities will the dog do with you?’ We get a sense of how the dog will be part of the family,” Hintzman explains.
Once potential adopters are approved, it is a matter of waiting for the right dog match to come along. Adopters may specify the gender or age range of the dog they are looking for, but Hintzman also has a knack for matching pets and owners.
“One of Judy’s talents is evaluating a dog’s personality, and that’s not easy,” says Julie Jacob, a local Keeshond breeder and KLU volunteer. “She can evaluate the dog and its body language, even if it has come from a difficult place like a puppy mill and hasn’t been touched.”
While the dog is waiting to be adopted, it is often placed in a foster home for a period of weeks or months, depending on the dog’s condition. Foster homes do not own the dog, and all of the dog’s medical care must be approved by KLU. All of the fosters for Keeshonds through KLU are either current or former Keeshond owners, so they are familiar with the breed.
“We take care of the vet care and medications. The foster provides food, treats and beds, etc. Our foster dogs don’t know they’re foster dogs; they live in our homes like our own dogs,” Hintzman says.
Animal shelters have an important role, she says, and she serves on the Lawrence Humane Society board. But she explains that KLU providing a foster home that is familiar with the breed is particularly advantageous to Keeshonds, who are an amiable breed with a soft personality.
“They tend to shut down in shelters and get behaviors that don’t really represent that dog’s actual personality,” she explains.
Although many of the dogs come to KLU one or two at a time from a home or breeder, sometimes things happen that bring a group of Keeshonds to KLU’s network.
Hintzman says that a few years ago, the state of Kansas confiscated a large group of dogs from an unlicensed breeder, and that group included 18 Keeshonds, one of which had puppies. The shelter contacted KLU first, so Hintzman set her network into motion and put as many as she could into foster homes, including the puppies and their mother, who were kept together. Shelters in Topeka and Lawrence took some and provided veterinary care, then transferred the dogs back to KLU. Then Hintzman reached out to Keeshond rescue groups in Colorado and Texas to take in others. All of the dogs required socialization, so being with fosters who were experienced with the breed was the best way to set them on a path to adoption, Hintzman says.
Breed-specific rescue groups such as KLU do not exist to take the place of the traditional animal shelters, she explains. Rather, they are an avenue for aficionados of a particular breed to either find reliable homes for dogs they give up or to find quality dogs to adopt that they know have been recently well cared for.
“If the rescue group is not breed-specific, they are not as quick to know the responses and needs of the dogs,” Hintzman says. “It allows us to know the normal behaviors and genetic problems, and generally what they respond to best.”
Jacob says now that she is a breeder, she has even greater regard for rescues and the stringent requirements they have for foster homes and potential adopters.
“The strict policies of breed-specific rescue really do work. Until we get people to start to commit to an animal for life, you’re still going to need breed rescue,” Jacob says. “Breed-specific or foster-based rescue is best for the dogs because the shelter is not the best place to evaluate the temperament of dogs.”
She emphasizes, though, that not all “rescue” groups abide by strict standards like the KLU does. Many cities have outlawed the sale of puppies except for rescue puppies, she says, so people bring in pregnant dogs for the purpose of selling the puppies.
“I don’t think any rescue or Humane Society should allow puppies to be born. You’re there to rescue the ones that need homes, so why bring more into the world?” she asks.
Both Hintzman and Jacob agree there is no better feeling than knowing they have helped facilitate wonderful matches between Keeshonds and their owners, including their own dogs.
“If I hadn’t met Judy in 2002, my life would be totally different. I’d be missing a huge chunk of the four-legged love in my life,” Jacob says.
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