Jodi’s Volunteer Spotlight

 This is a Volunteer Spotlight article written about Jodi  Little and her volunteer work as a Foster and Trainer with Big Bones Canine Rescue, a non-profit no kill shelter located in Northern Colorado.

Introducing foster  spotlight, Jodi Little! In just a little over a year, Jodi has become  one of our most inspiring and dedicated foster moms. 

She is an  experienced “dog person” and has 10 dogs of her own. ​3​ of them are  BBCR alumni. In addition to her 10, ​she ​has fostered up to 8​ dogs at a  time. Most of her daylight hours and many evening hours (6 am to 10 pm)  are spent going back and forth between her two“packs.”

Jodi is married to​ her​  helpful husband, Wade, who is very supportive of Jodi’s interest and  affection for the dogs. Jodi and Wade run a successful flooring business  out of Fort Collins. In terms of fostering, Wade offers a male  perspective and helps dogs who are gender selective or gender fearful.​  

J​odi’s mom, ​Helene,​ resides with Jodi and Wade and offers an  additional opportunity for learning about a dog’s personality.​ Despite  being 89 years old Jodi has taught her mom how to work with all the dogs  in the house. ​

According to Jodi’s mom,  Jodi began working with dogs when she was ​4 years old. She’d​ walk all  of her neighbors dogs and bring home ​every ​stray​ she found. In  college, she continued to work with strays. She and Wade have lived in a  few different zip codes, but once they found their acreage in Fort  Collins, she knew this is where she could realize her training center  dream. Jodi offers dog training to the public for a fee, but her heart  is in rescue.

Jodi’s training philosophy  is built around ​studying each ​dog’s natural instincts and habits. ​  ​She models her strategies ​from studying wolf and dog behaviors​ for  the last several decades. She teaches her clients to read their dog,  calm their dogs fearful or over excited behavior and then gives the  clients training techniques to help any behavior the dog is  demonstrating. . 

When she trains volunteers, she encourages them to  watch​ her friend​ Doggy Dan’s training videos to understand the  philosophy. She maintains a relationship with Doggy Dan​ who is one of  the top dog trainers in New Zealand​ for encouragement.

Jodi’s vision of working  with rescue dogs has never wavered. Her practice has undergone several  iterations. 

She began by trying to teach the “rancheros” how to approach  and settle new dogs. We were receptive, but it is time consuming and we  were more focused on getting them fed and cleaning their kennels. 

Then  she tried working with a few folks at the ranch who volunteered for just  the training. 

There were other hurdles and eventually she formed a  Sunday afternoon group of volunteers who are committed to learning about  her training strategies. 

These volunteers can bring their own foster,  or their own resident dog, or they can work with Jodi’s foster dogs. She  has found this a much more successful and satisfying way to teach  additional people.

​Jodi’s ​goal is to ​find​  additional fosters ​and train new and existing fosters to specialize in  different types of dogs, she would like to train fosters to help ​any  type of behavior that keeps the dogs from being adopted or to help the  dogs that get returned due to behavioral issues. Her goal is that no dog  would be left in a shelter due to behavioral issues, which is why she  named her business FurEver Home. Jodi specializes in ​fearful​ / anxious  dogs​ and dogs that are overly excited and / or reactive or aggressive  in any way ​. Jodi is open to more volunteers, especially those who  might work with her foster dogs and learn to foster th​ese​ special  group of dogs. Hint hint.

At Jodi’s foster home, her  focus tends to be the fearful dogs. She recognizes they are a special  group and need time first to decompress, then to trust, and then to  integrate with other dogs. She also fosters dogs that are more reactive.  The strategies are similar. They need to rest, rest, rest. Then she can  assess what they need. Most often, too much adrenaline is running  through their veins. Once they are rested, and relieved of the  adrenaline overload, she can teach them how to settle down and get along  with others.

Jodi has fostered 1​60 dogs  with Big Bones in her first four years as a volunteer for Big Bones.  She has had some of the most challenging dogs. Remember, Max? He was  highlighted in the last newsletter. Jodi worked and worked and worked to  help Max into a wonderful home. It took many months, but with time and  patience, Max is living happily with his forever family. More recently,  she helped sweet, sweet Susie find her forever home. Susie was a “mess.”  She had phantom pain and was obsessive with chasing her tail or a toy  or ? She became rested. Even with rest, she was a bit dog selective, but  the right family found Susie. Jodi continues to be available to the new  family for training, but Susie is thriving!

The more challenging pup  right now is Khaleesi. Khaleesi had been in shelter for a long time.  When a spot opened up in her foster center, Jodi stated that Khaleesi  was “on my heart.” Now, Khaleesi is described as “easy peasy.” Once she  had a reputation for being dog aggressive. At Jodi’s center, Khaleesi  mingles ​and plays ​with other dogs with NO problem. She is a beautiful  girl, just waiting for her forever story to materialize.

Jodi is truly an inspiring  foster mom and Big Bones volunteer. She has developed a wonderful  training center where she mentors fosters and she wishes she could do  more. She is an excellent example of what a foster family can do for a  dog. Most of us already know Jodi. If you don’t, look her up on the Big  Bones Volunteer and Foster page. Get to know her. She’ll inspire you  too.