Olympic Animal “Sanctuary” Success Story #4 – Walter/Goofy

Olympic Animal “Sanctuary” Was No Sanctuary

December 24th marks the one year anniversary that the 124 dogs imprisoned in the Olympic Animal Sanctuary in Forks, WA by Steve Markwell were turned over to the Guardians of Rescue in Kingston, AZ.

Markwell promoted the “Sanctuary” as a place where dogs with severe behavior problems could escape from euthanization and live out their lives peacefully and happily.

Sadly, it was no sanctuary for dogs.

This is Walter (right) inside the pink warehouse at the Olympic Animal “Sanctuary.” Photo from OAS-Life inside the Sanctuary.

Markwell kept up to approximately 160 dogs locked in crates 24/7 inside an unheated warehouse and forced to live on top of filthy straw soaked with their own urine and feces. They got no exercise. He fed them starvation rations that mainly consisted of maggot-filled meat stored on the dirty warehouse floor for days. They had no reliable access to fresh water.

While the dogs suffered, Markwell continued to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.

“Sanctuary” Now Shut Down

Fortunately, the “Sanctuary” is now gone, and Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued Markwell last summer for Washington’s Charitable Solicitations Act and Consumer Protection Act for failing to maintain records of how he spent $300,000 donated to the “Sanctuary.”

Markwell insisted that these dogs were extremely dangerous and unadoptable. He liked to say the dogs at the “Sanctuary” were the ones people “would rather see dead.”

But as you’ll see in my series of posts about these dogs, many of them are not dangerous.

Rehabilitation of a Puppy Dog – A New Start On Life

(This update on Walter/Goofy was written by Aiko Shinseki, the Kennel Manager at Safe Haven Rescue Kennel. Safe Haven took several of the dogs that survived their stay at the Olympic Animal “Sanctuary.”)

Although Walter (now named Goofy) is a cheerful natured fellow who greets people looking for human touch and affection, he came to Nevada in March 2014 full of stress and anxiety. It is unfortunate Goofy’s brother, Darril, (larger and with a bigger head) did not make it to AZ for rescue. But like Goofy, he too had no manners and was pushy.

This is Goofy in December, 2013, shortly after arriving in Arizona. Photo from OAS-Life inside the Sanctuary.

The two of them arrived at the Olympic Animal “Sanctuary” as very young pups.

Goofy is a pull and play, jumpy and licking young dog who turned three this year (2014) and never experienced a socialized life outside of Olympic Animal “Sanctuary.”

Starved for Human Affection

He is a sweet dog…but a handful. When Safe Haven pulled Goofy in March he went to live with foster mom Debra Ross. He clearly did not have any self-control and craved human affection.

Happy sounding and quick moving humans drove Goofy into an out-of-control, attention getting, over excited and licking dog. Externally, he may have looked like a happy family dog, but in fact, he was all tied up in knots.

When he was out in the yard, he spent his time nose down sniffing the ground like crazy and ignores everything unless you engage in a game of fetch. This told us he needed to chill out and start focusing and learning to relax himself.

Goofy Gets Training

As a good natured and strong dog starting to physically mature, it was decided in August Goofy needed rehabilitation to refocus and learn new skills. We quickly learned Goofy is a smart young dog but that intelligence was handicapped by a pushy nature and a determination to have it his way tied around fear/anxiety with the lack of socialization from the outside world.

Walter/Goofy last February in Arizona. After living in a kennel for years, he had virtually no muscle tone. Photo by Guardians of Rescue.

In addition to this resource guarding toys and food, and he doesn’t play well with other dogs. It saddens us to know he never learned good dog play or dog socialization skills. We can only assume his poor early socialization coupled with bad experiences in the past has resulted in growing up displaying traits of dog aggression, on-leash aggression and inappropriate play.

To quote the late Sophie Yin on Counterconditioning a Dog That’s Fear Aggressive to Other Dogs; “…The goal here is to train the dog to perform alternate desirable behaviors that he enjoys. That way he’ll learn to associate the situation with good things and his underlying emotional state will also change…”

Slow Start

With that said, we worked on lots of attention exercises but he wasn’t particularly motivated to learn or work. His diminished sense of sight, hearing, and smell hindered his progress. His weak hearing and sight are not reversible but his scent abilities can increase. This led us to work on nose-work exercises to increase his scenting abilities and increase his personal confidence level.

We also started working on holding his “sit” and “waits” which gave him the ability of learning self-control. When Goofy arrived, he completely lacked decision making skills (self-control management), a root cause of negative behaviors of jumping, bolting, and demanding attention.

The bottom line is that it does take time to get to know “the” dog. Learn all his quirks. Figure out what the good and bad triggers are before applying any successes as building blocks towards a better healthier Goofy.

Goofy Begins His Transformation

In the past few months, Goofy has transformed into a more settled, focused student. More importantly, he is increasing his confidence levels and reducing his anxiety and fear that plagued him from moving forward! We are just at the beginning stages of his rehabilitation work and we are very proud of Goofy and his personal progress!

The damage done during the time at the Olympic Animal Sanctuary in Forks, Washington will take time and dedication on our part to unravel. We keep our eyes open for when they tell us they are ready for their next step. Our focus is around rescue, repair, rehabilitate, educate and re-home.

Here’s Walter/Goofy last May after he was rescued by Safe Haven. Photo by Debra Ross.

For the first time in years, Goofy gets to run and play.  Photo from Safe Haven Rescue Kennel.

Goofy is looking more buff. Photo from Safe Haven Rescue Kennel.

In this picture taken last month, Goofy looks completely content. Photo from Save Haven Rescue Kennel.

Goofy is learning what it’s like to play.

This is Safe Haven’s video documenting their work with Goofy. You should note the massive amount of time and effort that staff and volunteers invested in helping him recover from his incarceration in the “Sanctuary” and changing the behavior he learned there.

You don’t rescue a dog by locking it in a kennel with no exercise, no training, and no human interaction. As the people in the video show, it takes a lot of time, effort, and, most importantly, love.