NOVELTY, Ohio — It is a beautiful, but chilly spring day in the North Chagrin Reservation. It appears to be an ordinary outing for a couple and their dog, unless you know the extraordinary lengths it took to get here.
"When we first met her in the shelter she looked very pitiful and kind of shut down, sad. We could tell she'd been through a lot," said Halle Crtalic of her dog Millie.
Adopted last November, the Caucasian Shepherd walks comfortably on a leash and accepts hugs from Halle. Millie is a far different dog today compared with a few years ago.
Back in 2022, Millie was one of 300 dogs rescued from backyard breeders in Nye County, Nevada. The conditions of the dogs were so bad that more than half of them could not be saved. Fortunately, Millie's body recovered, but she remained broken inside.
"She spent her whole life in a cage outside. So she went to the BRC to learn how to be a dog." Crtalic is referring to the Behavioral Rehabilitation Center, which the ASPCA started as a pilot program back in 2013. It was the first and only facility dedicated to providing behavioral rehabilitation for severely fearful, unadoptable dogs - like those rescued from puppy mills and hoarding situations.
"Dogs who were coming out of those situations, many of them were extremely under socialized, had fear that prevented them from having good quality of life or being able to live as companion animals," said Tristan Rehner-Fleurant, Senior Director of Behavior Rehabilitation at the BRC, located in Weaverville, North Carolina.
We spoke to Rehner-Fleurant about the issues these dogs face. "They have never really had exposure to people, interacting with them in a positive way - to doing normal things that we, those of us who have dogs, don't even think about. Such as reaching down to pet them, putting a leash on so that they can go for a walk or putting them in a car so they can go to the veterinarian," she said.
After the pilot program successfully graduated 267 dogs, in 4 years, a new permanent facility was built that can house up to 65 dogs at a time.
The BRC works solely with homeless dogs, whose fear impacts their quality of life - and makes adoption impossible. Rehner-Fleurant says theirs is not an obedience program.
"It's designed to give them the skills that they need to be able to go into a home function, do normal pet dog things, and have a good quality of life."
That included Millie - who required months of slow and thoughtful rehabilitation before she could be ready for her next stop - at Rescue Village in Geauga County, where Crtalic adopted her.
"They get here, and they spend a little more time with us sometimes. Part of that is being in the shelter, part of that is being out in foster care — which is super important. But we get to know them," said Rescue Village's Executive Director Kenneth Clarke.
The BRC works with its partner shelters, like Rescue Village, to help continue to rehabilitation they started.
We also met Kenzie, who, like Millie, came from the BRC. Kenzie was rescued from a hoarding situation in Georgia. He is looking for a forever family - a patient one that would also have another dog for him to befriend.
"He's more comfortable with dogs. He is kind of like an introverted dog person. He's going to be that guy that's right beside you. An excellent walker," Clarke said.
It's a team effort - between the BRC and its partnered organizations to mend the minds and lift the souls of these animals - so that just like Millie - every "tail" has a happy ending.
"She's the best dog. She's such a sweetheart," Crtalic said of Millie.