When people come through the barn for a tour, they always ask about what the notecards on the doors mean. Lillie, our founder says that 'You sure have a lot of dogs named Thunder' is a common remark.
The notecards are one of the ways the staff communicates with one another, and generally they signify something of importance; for instance, if the note says 'BONE' like it does in orange above, the dog has a knuckle bone in the room... which is something to be aware of if one of the staff was to put another dog in there. Rooms that have 2 or more dogs do NOT have bones, because we don't want to create dog/dog issues by giving them access to a valuable resource, like a juicy bone.
If the card says 'thunder,' like it does above, this does not mean their name is thunder, rather it signifies to the staff that the dog is noise-sensitive or is thunder-phobic. This is something to be aware of if we are outside with the dogs, and, for example, the weather turns or (like it is currently) it's hunting season and a gunshot goes off; the dog may panic, which the staff needs to be prepared to handle.
The other two green cards seen above, saying 'no towels in crate' and 'crate Nim in PM' simply mean that the dog in question, (Nim, as seen on our website!) may chew towels which we want to prevent, and does better in the crate overnight, as some dogs do--usually to help with house training.
There are many things we may write on notecards and place on the dog's room door, (where they are easily seen) like: 'no soft toys' (since the dog chews or destroys them) 'dog aggressive' (if the dog interacts poorly with other dogs, 'allergies' (if the dog can only have certain treats, etc. If the dog has something important that needs to be known about their behavior or personality, we'll tack it on a notecard and tape it on the door, to make sure that everyone is able to manage them properly, using techniques that work the best for each individual dog!
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