Everett Animal Shelter problem-solves

Shelter introduces method to save dogs that were otherwise doomed

The Everett Animal Shelter’s behavioral trainer Christina McBride works with Wade, one of three dogs brought in together, in the shelter’s dog play yard Tuesday, July 8. 
Her role is to retrain dogs that come into the shelter which are marked as too volatile, too aggressive or too bitey to be available to adopt out, but her contract currently only runs through this year.

The Everett Animal Shelter’s behavioral trainer Christina McBride works with Wade, one of three dogs brought in together, in the shelter’s dog play yard Tuesday, July 8. Her role is to retrain dogs that come into the shelter which are marked as too volatile, too aggressive or too bitey to be available to adopt out, but her contract currently only runs through this year.

EVERETT — Merrill the mastiff was on death row.

Trapped after an extensive chase, the stray dog was brought to Everett Animal Shelter as a possible safety risk. He was earmarked for euthanasia.

But after working at the shelter with contracted behavioral specialist Christina McBride, Merrill was soon scratched from the kill list and ready for a foster home.

Last week he was formally adopted.

“Without Christina, he wouldn’t be here,” said shelter director Glynis Frederiksen. 

Merrill’s story exemplifies what Frederiksen calls the “missing link” in addressing the shelter’s declining rate of how many leave alive, which has fallen from 92% to 84% over the past four years. (Some animal welfare organizations treat a 90% or better live-release rate as a measure that the shelter is performing well.)

McBride joined earlier this year. Through a grant-funded contract with McBride’s company Bark Better, shelter workers and volunteers are learning behavioral techniques for handling troubled and aggressive dogs.

Now canines such as Merrill, previously slated to be euthanized, have a chance to be turned into adoptable pets.

“What we really have been lacking is a behavioral program for the animals,” Frederiksen said.

As the only open-admission shelter in Snohomish County, Everett accepts strays and animals declined by private adoption shelters. It also houses dogs impounded for bites or other court cases in the 19 jurisdictions with which it contracts.

Since the end of Covid, the shelter has seen an uptick in aggressive dogs and pets with severe separation anxiety, Frederiksen said.

During the pandemic spaying and neutering was limited, leading to a rise in unwanted pets. Training classes were shut down, resulting in a generation of canines that lack socialization.

And when people began returning to workplaces after the pandemic, they abandoned their traumatized animals at Everett and similar shelters across the country.

So Frederiksen was keen to use a $53,000 grant last year from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to pilot the behavior training program.

“We’re working on making it more structured, trying to build consistency with the volunteers,” McBride said.

Much of her task involves teaching how to avoid endangering a problem dog, for example by reaching out hands to pet it. Her training extends to foster parents and adoptive owners as well.

Some dogs cannot be tamed enough for adoption, and Everett prohibits the shelter from adopting out dogs labeled dangerous or potentially dangerous.

But “aggression can generally be prevented through proper socialization and training, and in many cases dogs that already display aggression can be trained and managed,” Frederiksen said.

The shelter has no time limits and euthanizes only animals that pose community bite risks or have serious medical issues.

Last year it euthanized 491 animals at the shelter, and another 365 by owners’ request (these do not count against its live-release rate).

Through this program, many more dogs that were previously at risk for behavioral euthanasia will be successfully adopted into homes, Frederiksen said.

There’s a catch, though. The one-year grant that funds the behavior program expires in December.

Frederiksen hopes to get the grant funds incorporated into the city budget. The shelter receives $2 million a year from Everett and another $500,000 through donations and fundraising.

The shelter also accepts private donations. While the shelter is for-profit, donations are tax deductible because it serves the public good.

“We really rely on community support,” Frederiksen said. “We want to make this a permanent program. The city can only fund so much.”


photo A dog in a window at the Everett Animal Shelter Tuesday, July 8.
Photo by Jim Scolman