Local Holiday Heroes: Atlanta Woman Helps Shelter Dogs Find Forever Homes

We all love a feel-good story full of inspiration and encouragement. This story of love and hope begins with a local Atlantan woman, Jean Haworth, who has spent the last six years volunteering her time to help train and rehabilitate orphaned dogs, in order that they may receive their “fur”-home. Haworth is currently a PAWS Atlanta volunteer, and provides routine training, patience, and love extended to those who are otherwise hard to handle and have previously been mistreated or neglected.

One such animal by the name of Audrey used to be painfully shy and tense and would never come up to the bars when one would try to pet her; now, she’s happy and carefree, and lets people pet her quite gracefully. Audrey came from a high-kill animal shelter to PAWS Atlanta, which is a “no-kill” animal shelter. At this shelter is where Ms. Haworth earned Audrey’s trust. Jean Haworth volunteers at PAWS several hours a day, three days a week, and talks with the animals, along with the employees and other volunteers.

Jean Haworth has the inept ability to delve into the mind of a dog, and has the patience to socialize and train the most difficult of them. She states that it’s “my firm belief that the more the ‘special’ dogs are talked about and the more people they meet, the more likely their adoption.” A side credit to Jean is that she was also an avid dog sport competitor. Her training consists of walking them around PAWS’ premises several times, introduces them to stairs, and provides mild obedience training, if needed. Her guidelines are as follows:

*Allow the animal to come to you; never come at them.
*Don’t stare at them.
*Follow your gut instincts when it’s time to interact.

The dogs she trains are very respectful of and responsive to her, and the executive director of PAWS Atlanta, Nancy Longacre, wishes she could “clone her,” because of her “coming in for six years that’s a tremendous commitment. She can know more about the animals than the staff because she spends so much one-on-one time with them.” Haworth also has animals of her own, consisting of four Border Collies, and does get a little emotional saying goodbye to one of her fellow canine students. However, she’s excited that they are able to find a home of their own, where they can be loved and adored like they should be.

Article Source: http://www.ajc.com/news/lifestyles/holiday/holiday-heroes-making-dogs-more-adoptable/nTcys/

Find out more about PAWS Atlanta at http://www.pawsatlanta.com.

Do you have a local hero in your hometown helping to make life better for orphaned, mistreated and/or abandoned pets? We’d love to hear from you!