Interview with Erika Fields of Brown Dog Coalition

Aug 21

Interview conducted by: Stephanie Keesey-Phelan, Ph.D., BCBA-D, CSAT, CCUI, FFCT

At DBI we believe that no person, no family, and certainly no dog trainer or behaviorist is an island. If you read our blog regularly, you already know that we believe that if you are a behavior analyst by profession, you are not your dog’s behavior analyst. But you may not know that we often collaborate with other dog training professionals to increase our knowledge and skills, and when we are working with a client whose behavioral presentation falls beyond our scope or expertise. Collaboration with other qualified professionals is a huge part of our work. It allows us to provide the most ethical and effective treatment for the dogs we work with, and also helps us build a wonderful community committed to making lives better for dogs and their people.

To that end, we are expanding our blog to include interviews with some of the amazing professionals who we collaborate with and who work with dogs across a variety of settings and locations. Our goal in doing this is to introduce you, our readers, to people who work in a variety of areas in the dog world but who share a common mission of increasing your dog’s welfare.

I (Stephanie) had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Erika Fields from Brown Dog Coalition. Brown Dog Coalition (BDC), as you'll learn below, is an incredible foster-based rescue organization based in Massachusetts. Last year, Ran and I began to partner with BDC to provide free office hours once a month for the organization's foster and adoptive guardians. We just love everything that BDC does and are excited to share more about them with you this week!

Tell our readers a bit about yourself. How did you decide that you wanted to volunteer with animals (and dogs in particular)?

I adopted my dog Mack with my husband back in 2018. We adopted him from Brown Dog Coalition and were green pet guardians. We knew nothing, we just saw his photo online and said “That looks like a great dog, let’s adopt him!” It wasn’t until after we brought him home that we realized we might have gotten in over our heads when we adopted this adorable 5 month old puppy. Thankfully for us, Brown Dog Coalition (BDC) checks in with all of their adopters at 3 days, 3 weeks and 3 months. It was during one of these check-ins when I was feeling overwhelmed at this wild puppy we had just welcomed into our life that one of their adoption volunteers reminded me about the importance of pursuing positive reinforcement training. I had heard of positive reinforcement training before, but wasn’t really aware of what it meant. Luckily for us–and Mack–Brown Dog strives to ensure that all of their adopters avoid using avesive-based training methods.

It would have been easy for us to turn to those types of tools to help us when we were feeling beyond overwhelmed and unsure if we had made the right decision adopting him. But they provided me with the resources I needed to understand that you don’t need to use scare tactics or fear or pain to live with this being in your life - it was through those first conversations with their adoptions team that I realized this is something that really resonates with me.

Flash forward a few years. During this time, I had stayed in touch with the BDC adoptions team, following them on social media and sharing their adoptable dogs all the time. They reached out to me and said “we love what you’re doing with Mack and we love seeing how he’s thriving with positive reinforcement. If you ever want to get more involved let us know!” And of course I was like, “You’ve opened the door, let’s have a conversation!” So I started by helping out with their social media on occasion, filling in when others weren’t available to post about the adoptable dogs. Then I realized I wanted to do more and threw my name into the hat to help out with reading adoption applications. It’s a lot of work but I realized that being part of those initial conversations and helping match prospective adopters with dogs fills my cup.

Since then, I have taken on more of a role helping adopters work through training challenges and connecting the dots with adopters and fosters who could use training support. I feel like Mack has set me up well for having those conversations. I can relate to a lot of people with similar dogs because I’ve been there– “you’re not alone in this” is something that I share regularly. I hope they feel relieved from that, because I know Mack has been a challenging dog, we love him dearly, but we’ve been through a lot together over the last 5 years. Initially I did feel a little bit alone, so for me, being able to come in and be that resource for people, it feels like a nice full circle to say, “Hey I was in your shoes 5 years ago. Mack has changed my life and I’m hoping that we can have the same journey for you as a new adopter.” All in all, it’s just been a really fun and rewarding experience.

Can you tell us about what Brown Dog Coalition is and what your role is there?

Brown Dog Coalition is a foster-based rescue organization based out of Hopkinton, MA. Though we are based primarily in Massachusetts, we adopt all throughout New England. What made me want to get involved and stay involved has been the fact that our rescue very much lives and breathes that positive-reinforcement mentality. It’s part of our adoption contract, which is pretty rare. I haven’t seen that a lot of shelters or rescues lean into having that actually written within their adoption contracts. We also vet all of the trainers that our adopters are looking to potentially work with, and kind of get them moving in the right direction if they’ve identified a trainer who uses aversive tools. If they pick someone randomly on a list they find online, they may not understand who that trainer is or what their training methods are. So we not only will guide them towards a better option, but also have conversations with adopters who maybe previously chose to use different training techniques, just because that is what they knew at the time. A lot of our conversations are around education of “this is why we do what we do. This is the science behind it.” It’s really eye-opening for so many. People often say they had no idea or no one has told them this before, or that this information is life-changing. It’s such a nice feeling to know that we are helping not only our dogs going into a life where there’s no pain or fear, and that they’re building that relationship with their new family; but also for future dogs too! If that person decides to buy a dog or adopt elsewhere, they now have the understanding of why we believe in this and they know that it works.

So that's who we are and what we do up here in New England. We have partners down in the south that we work with–we have a whole team of volunteers down there that help us vet the different animals that we’re bringing up. Our rescue’s name is a little deceiving: we say brown dog, but we also have cats, not just dogs. Cats were an addition to the rescue a couple of years ago now.

As far as my role, I don’t have an official title, I kind of do everything–we’re a small but mighty team so it’s often all hands on deck! My main priorities are certainly around social media which is where many of our adopters find us or see our dogs. We try to put as many resources as we can into spreading awareness through social media. I also spend quite a bit of time reading adoption applications and determining who is going to be a good fit. Most of the time people are pretty good about self-identifying a dog they think would be a good fit, but we definitely spend a lot of time having conversations and making sure that we’re setting everyone up for success. The last thing we want to do is place a dog in a home where the dog is not going to be happy or the people won’t be happy. We jokingly call ourselves matchmakers but we really just spend time making sure that we are finding a good fit for everyone. We always want to make sure that even if we don’t have a dog at the time that we can make a connection for, we keep lines of communication open because there are a lot of dogs in need and we certainly will be able to find the right dog for everyone. Even if it’s not the same day that we’re having the initial conversation.

What special interests do you have within volunteer work?

One thing I have found really fulfilling is helping people work through different behavior challenges. I was that new adopter who knew nothing and adopted a dog because Mack was really cute in his photo and I didn’t even know what type of dog made sense for our lifestyle. We learned quite a bit and truthfully, I cried probably the first four months we had him every single day asking myself: What did we do? What did we get ourselves into? I don’t know if this is the right fit. Being able to be a resource for our adopters, to tell them what they’re seeing is normal behavior and to help them not with intense behavior plans but something like management, like a baby gate, I love being a resource in this way.

We sadly hear from a lot of adopters who previously adopted elsewhere that no one from the last rescue or shelter they worked with ever reached out to them, their calls went unanswered, their emails went unanswered, they don’t even know if the rescue is still in existence. Our adopters and fosters love the fact that we’re always here for them. We try to go above and beyond, we offer our adopters and fosters office hours with you (Note for readers: DBI provides office hours to Brown Dog staff, fosters, and adopters once a month). I’m hoping that other rescues and shelters can recognize the value of this instead of just placing animals and calling it a day. It’s a lot sometimes when you are trying to find hundreds of dogs a year a new home,, but it’s important to remember that people can often benefit just from being heard. They don’t always even need an answer or solution, they just need someone to say “I’m hearing you.” We’ve always offer a vetted trainer list and provide other training resources to all of our adopters, but it’s a great feeling now to be able to also say “by the way, we have these office hours where you can get some insight” or we can jump on a call and just let the person vent about whatever is going on or the struggles they’re feeling. It’s funny sometimes it’s even something as simple as saying, “you’re struggling with the leash, what length are you using? 5 feet? Have you tried 10 feet?” and they’ll often come back and exclaim “you just changed my life!” Without these little things, the adopter is frustrated and might decide this isn’t a good fit, when sometimes the solution is an easy conversation.

Could you take a moment to tell our readers about the difference between a dog rescue organization and an animal shelter?

Yes! Rescue and shelters in theory aren’t that different other than where the animal is living before they move on to their adoptive home. Shelters are where many of our dogs come from before we place them into our foster homes. Since we’re a foster-based rescue, we’re able to help our partner shelters open up space so that when dogs are being surrendered or strays are found, they have open kennel space. For our rescue in particular, what’s really different is every dog or cat that comes through our rescue has to be in a foster home for a minimum of 2 weeks. Not only do we want them to have that time to decompress from the stress of being in a shelter environment, but we want to make sure we get a chance to know them, know their likes, their dislikes, their personality. Are they the type of dog that wants to go on long walks? Do they do great with kids because they are being fostered with some kids and love running around with them or on the flip side, maybe kids terrify them and we need to make sure that their new home doesn’t have kids. It’s not that you can’t get that insight from a dog or cat you adopt from a shelter because certainly shelters do have a lot of that information. But we really just have a lot more insight, given how long they’re in a foster home.

Our fosters are very involved in who we are. They fill out questionnaires, they’re always available to answer our questions or prospective adopters’ questions. Sometimes we even reach out to them after adoption saying “Hey this adopter just had this interesting thing come up, did you also see it? Did you work through this same challenge?” Our southern fosters spend so much time with the animal before they come up here, so it’s really helpful for our adopters to get these in-depth insights, especially for those who this is their first pet or they haven’t had a pet in their life in a while. It can be daunting going to a shelter and walking by a kennel and wondering “I guess this dog would be a good fit?” We try to provide all the information we know, have a conversation, unpack what the potential adopter is looking for and dig into some of those nuances to understand if it's a good match because we have insight into who the animal is.

Although we follow the protocol that our adoptable dogs need to be in a southern foster home for at least 2 weeks before they travel up from the south (and every state has their own specific laws around this too), we have had some dogs stay much longer in their southern foster home. We had a really sweet dog in the south whose brother came up and he was adopted right away, but she needed more time to decompress from being a stray for so long and we didn’t want her to come up and just be terrified of people and sounds. We wanted to give her a chance to adjust to family life before we put her on a transport and brought her up to Massachusetts. That’s just one example. We also have many dogs who have to go through heartworm treatment which could be 6+ months long. But ultimately 2 weeks is the minimum.

Pictured above from left to right are some of BDC's current adoptable pups: River, Aiden, Oliver, and Poppy. Interested in adopting one of these pups? Check out the Adoption Application on BDC's website linked here.

What are some common misconceptions that people have about dogs who end up with rescues or animal shelters?

We see a lot of unsolicited feedback out in the world or on our social media posts about how shelter and rescue dogs are all broken. These individuals claim that all rescue/shelter dogs are going to have medical problems or behavior challenges. But every dog is a unique individual. I don’t think you could ever compile data to say one way or another that shelter and rescue dogs are definitely going to have more medical or behavior issues long term. We all know that early experiences are going to be a factor, and breed will be a factor, but sometimes it’s just luck of the draw too. Looking at my dog Mack, he’s a wild child and is always injuring himself. So that’s a factor! But ultimately we recognize the individuality with all of our dogs and we’re not going to place a dog into a home where it’s not a good fit, where the dog will be terrified, chase the cat, stress out the other animals in the home, etc.. You go through the same thing regardless of where you get your animal, whether it’s a shelter, a rescue, or buying the animal from a breeder. All dogs can end up needing more training support or medical care.

If anything, the nice part about going through a shelter or rescue is that they do have some time to get to know the dog. A breeder also does that, but it’s the shorter period of time right - those initial baby days when they’re just a little potato and you know they certainly are starting to have personalities at that age but compare that to a one- or two-year-old dog. As an older puppy or adult, they’re in a different stage of their life - you really get to know a lot more about them and see their full personality. I’m probably a little biased in saying that, but I do think going through a rescue or shelter is a great option for everyone out there.

Sadly, I would say one other thing we see a lot of people saying is that you can’t get a purebred dog from a rescue. We’ve had multiple purebred dogs come through our rescue like huskies, dalmatians, all different types. We are seeing an increase of breeders who will dump a whole litter at a shelter because they can’t sell them. And so we’ve certainly found ourselves in those scenarios where we will commit to a full litter, send them to our local foster homes and then find all of them loving homes. You may need to be a little patient if you do have certain requirements that you’re looking for or certain goals you’re hoping to get out of welcoming a new dog or cat into your life, but there’s just so many out there that I find it very hard to believe that you couldn’t find a good fit eventually if you really wanted to.

What is one thing you wish everyone knew about the dogs who come through your organization?

I think a lot of people just don’t understand how our adoption process works and it’s fairly unique to each rescue and shelter. We primarily rely on our direct adoption model. This means we partner with our southern coordinator and work with our southern fosters to get a queue of dogs that we are going to bring up to Massachusetts. Then we begin to find adopters for those we’ve identified will be traveling up on our next transport. For dogs who come up on these transports, we aim to have them be adopted the day they are released from Massachusetts’ required 48 hour quarantine period. They’ve been 2 days on transport and 2 days in quarantine, it’s a lot and we don’t want to then put them in a foster home for a day or two and then have to shift them around more - we try to find adopters who are ready to take their dog home on the day the dog can be adopted.

For dogs who don’t have an adopter lined up when they arrive, they go into one of our local foster homes. On average we have anywhere from 15 to 20 dogs being fostered locally, sometimes a bit more based on the time of the year. In those scenarios, people can meet the dog ahead of time. They can bring their resident dog, the whole family, and spend time, however much they want or need, getting to know the dog. Depending on people’s own availability and timelines, we can work with our adopters across both options. We work with our adopters to understand their preference on which way they want to go (adopt from a foster dog already up here versus a dog that was fostered in the south and coming up on a transport), since each option means they’ll have a different group of dogs to choose from. I think it’s nice that we have some people who have seen the dog’s questionnaire, photos, and videos, and had conversations with our adoptions volunteers and are ready to commit where other people want to get the vibe in person. Neither is wrong–it's really about personal preference.

We go through this journey with our adopters and I get the impression that every shelter or rescue doesn’t do all of that. We offer flexibility to make sure that it works for our adopters. We are certainly always aiming for that lifetime commitment. We would hate to set the dog up for failure or the adopter up for failure or disappointment. Things can happen but maybe that’s what is different about us too, we will take any of our dogs back. We don’t just say “sorry it didn’t work out, good luck finding the dog a new home.” As long as we have the ability to take the dog back, we will. When this happens, we spend time with the adopter to understand what didn’t work out and make sure we get as much detail as we can so moving forward we can make sure we aren’t putting the dog in the same scenario where it isn’t going to work out again. We do recognize that we aren’t perfect, the world isn’t perfect, and scenarios are going to change for people. Someone might lose their job and no longer be able to afford to care for their dog, or need to move somewhere like a city where their dog wouldn’t be comfortable, etc. There are all the realities of this life we live so we do try to be a resource to make sure that the dog ends up in a new, safe home if their original home doesn’t work out.

What recommendations do you have for someone who is interested in adopting a dog from a rescue?

My recommendation is really just to sit down and figure out what you are looking for from adding a new dog to your life. Are you looking for a running buddy? Are you looking for a couch potato to binge Netflix with? Do you tend to spend a lot of time at friends’ or family’s homes or have people over to your house? I think asking yourself all those questions and really being truthful of your current lifestyle is important. Don’t do what I did when I was like “I’ll just pick him because he’s cute and I have no idea personality-wise or behavior-wise what’s good.” You can certainly change your whole life to adapt to the dog that you welcomed into your life, but we know that’s not always the right approach for a lot of families.

So spending that time I think will not only help make sure you’re applying for the right dogs but also that you’re having the right conversation initially from the beginning with your adoption counselor. It can help make sure that you aren’t wasting your time and also that you don’t miss out on another dog who would have been a better fit. So before starting your search, writing all those things down is a great way to kick off the journey on the right foot.

Do you have any thoughts on common experiences that new adopters or fosters may have?

I think one thing we find is that people tend to rush a little too quickly once they do welcome a dog or cat into their home, thinking “okay, they’re here! Let’s do all the things we used to do.” While that certainly can work for some animals, understanding all they’ve been through in the transition, their past experiences, it can be a lot. They might need a moment to adjust to their new reality. We try to live by the “3-3-3 rule”: 3 days to adjust to their new environment, 3 weeks to start getting into the new routine, and 3 months or longer to finally understand they are home. Some dogs need a lot more time, other dogs need less time, but it’s always better to go slow and let the animal take the lead in terms of how comfortable they’re feeling. This is especially important whether or not they’re ready to interact with another dog, kids, or family members.

We get a lot of panicked emails and calls from new adopters who adopted their dog on a Friday and took them to a family party the next day, and now they’re worried because the dog hid under the table the whole time. We try to reassure them that’s normal, the dog just had a really stressful week - in a few weeks they might be ready for something like that but not yet. I have said more times than I can count: “Your dog isn’t broken, they’re having a hard time!” Most people really get that and understand it, but I hope we get to a point where across the board, regardless of where you’re getting your dog from, people head into these situations understanding it’s going to be a big transition for everyone.

What recommendations do you have for someone who has recently adopted a dog?

We always recommend our adopters to start thinking about training before things start to pop up! Not that you need to dive headfirst into “I need to teach them how to, for example, shake my hand with their paw and spin in a circle” - those things can come later. But jumping into potty training is a big one. Or if your dog isn’t worried about the outside world, going on walks and getting that off to a good start so walks will be enjoyable for both the human and the dog.

Some people tend to wait a little bit before bringing in a trainer, and it’s not that you can’t tackle things later because dogs are always learning - even the older ones - but it can make a big difference when you’re being proactive vs. reactive. And training can be a great bonding experience with your new canine pal!

What are some ways to become involved with Brown Dog Coalition?

We are always looking for more people to join our mighty little rescue! Foster homes are definitely our biggest need. We get a lot of people who say “I would love to foster, but I don’t have a backyard” or “I work full time”, or "I have kids or other pets.” It doesn’t matter what your lifestyle or environment is like, we have enough dogs coming through our rescue that we can find the right dog for you to foster to make sure you aren’t overwhelmed or put in a scenario that isn’t going to be successful. So that is certainly the best and most important way to get involved with a rescue like ours.

To become a foster is pretty straightforward. We have a short application to collect different pieces of information such as if there was an emergency, where’s the closest emergency vet that you are nearby? Do you have other pets? Do you have kids? Do you have a fenced in yard (though this is not required!)? We can match you up appropriately using all this information. Once we receive your foster application and everything looks good, we start figuring out who is coming up soon that doesn’t have an adopter lined up, and we’ll make a match. I think one thing that is great about fostering once they’ve been transported to Massachusetts is that we don’t have a timeline commitment. It’s great if someone can foster until their dog is adopted, even if that is a few weeks or months, but we always need short-term fosters; whether that’s coverage for another foster who is going on vacation or if they need to go out-of-town for work. Sometimes we might have an adopter lined up but they can’t adopt until 48 or 72 hours down the road so we still need to find a home for that dog to go to temporarily. We also have plenty of people who love to have their foster dog with them for weeks and weeks. They get to know them and help us promote them on social media and in-person at events, and to bring them places with a cute little “adopt me” sign on their harness - stuff like that. But we recognize that long-term commitment isn’t the right fit for everyone.

That being said, we are 100% volunteer run! Because of this, we are always looking for more volunteers beyond just fosters who are interested in things like marketing, fundraising, writing, website design, event support and transporting our dogs, to just name a few areas. Sometimes dogs need to go to the vet and the foster is at work that day or they’ll be switching to a different foster home for one reason or another so something as simple as volunteering to transport a dog from one place to another is a HUGE help!

If you have an idea and you’re interested and passionate about helping dogs, feel free to reach out! We can certainly find a way to get you involved. There’s always more to be done than we possibly have enough people to do it. And I personally might feel a little biased, but I think we’re a fun group! We’re really close, always talking with one another, and so dedicated and caring of all the animals that come through our rescue.

What is one resource that you like to share with people when it comes to dogs adopted from a rescue or shelter?

A lot of our adopters have really appreciated the Doggie Language book by Lili Chin. It’s so simple, it’s one of those things you could leave with your pet sitter when you go away for the first time or pass along to your family and friends to help them get more educated in dog body language. Regardless of how long you’ve had a dog in your life, I think you could always improve in understanding what they’re trying to tell us.

I personally love long lines (note for reader: at DBI we really like long lines made by High Tail Hikes in case you are looking for a recommendation). I think that’s really helpful especially with newly adopted dogs. They aren’t necessarily used to walking on a leash. Some of them have never even had a collar clipped to them and walks are going to be a bit chaotic at first. It will really help ease the frustration that you on the human end might be feeling, and gives the dog more freedom of movement so they’re going to have a more enjoyable walk themselves too.

In terms of other resources/tips, always bring treats and having a variety is really important. What my dog likes might not be the same as what your dog likes. Doing a little taste testing at home can be really beneficial, and bringing those treats out and rewarding the things you like - not even asking for anything new, can make a big difference. You’re building fluency in the skills that you hope your dog will do. It’s so easy to forget especially on short outings like potty time, bring a treat with you! It’ll make a difference, you never know when that neighbor is going to pop up or something else unexpected and it always seems to happen the time you don’t have treats!

The last resource I would recommend is pet health insurance. There are so many different options out there, but getting pet insurance from day one can save you so much money in the long run. Do your research to figure out what’s going to work best for you and what you feel comfortable with. It can be the difference between rushing to the ER at 9:30 on a Friday night and having to wait it out until your primary vet opens on Monday morning. Definitely learn from my mistakes - I didn’t get it when we first adopted Mack and have paid $10,000 for his knee surgeries out of pocket! There’s a lot going on when you first adopt a dog and it’s easy to overlook some of the details but this is an important one. (Note for readers: some pet health insurances will cover behavioral support in addition to medical costs now! Check your policy!)

What do you like least about volunteering with Brown Dog Coalition?

My least favorite part of my volunteer work with BDC is when I feel like I’ve made the perfect match: the adopter sounds amazing, the dog sounds like it’s going to be a great fit, and within 24 hours we realize we’ve missed the mark. I think you just start second guessing yourself like “Where did I go wrong? What did I miss on this one?” In reality, that’s life, it happens, we can’t get it right every time and it just means that dog’s perfect home is still out there somewhere.

What is your favorite part of volunteering with Brown Dog Coalition?

My favorite thing is when we have adopters come back months or years later and thank us so much for being there for them and their dog. They might say things like “You know, we might not have had the smoothest introduction to one another, it was a little rough going there for a while, but I literally cannot imagine my life without [Dog’s name].” That is just such a great feeling, and I know I feel it every day. I don’t know if we adopted elsewhere I would feel the way I feel about dogs and having them in my life and the power of positive reinforcement. Brown Dog really just put me on that path and introduced me to it from the start. And being able to see that with others, I’m just like “yes! This is amazing!”

What advice would you give to someone who was interested in getting involved with their local shelter or rescue?

Just raise your hand! Every shelter or rescue out there is looking for more people. Sometimes it’s one of those things that they don’t even know what they need help with until someone comes in and says “hey, can I get involved in this way?” It’s the same thing with us at Brown Dog. We certainly had training resources and support there in terms of answering questions and making connections with full-time trainers and everything like that. But I came in and was like “I think we can up-level this one step further” and the response was “Yes that’s amazing! Why didn’t we think of this years ago!” So don’t be afraid to speak up and say “Hey I have this interest” or “I’ve had this experience before and I’m noticing there might be opportunities to do this one step differently…” No one should take offense to people offering to help. That being said, keep in mind in the rescue world as with everything else, there will be bad days. You have to have some resilience there in terms of recognizing there will be heartbreaking stories. Some of the hard things and my least favorite thing is always when I thought something was going to go differently than it did, but I try to recognize in the grand scheme of things there’s just so much good happening. There’s so much to be done!

I’ll also say with BDC, if someone wants to help for one hour a month, great! If they want to help for 15 hours each week, amazing! I think having time requirements for volunteering has prevented people from wanting to get involved in the past and we don’t have those at Brown Dog. If you can only help once every 6 months by driving a cat from one foster to the vet and back, that is still going to make a huge impact for us. You can always start slow, or you can be like me and dive head first into doing all the things all the time. You can be as involved as your schedule allows. There’s so much to do, the more hands the better. We would never turn someone away who only has a few minutes to help - it will still make a big difference. There are four adoption counselors in addition to our director, and we all have full-time jobs, take vacations, and need a break from the internet sometimes so there’s never any judgment or hurt feelings or anything like that. We recognize that there are other things going on in your life, and we’re always going to jump in and help and support one another as needed.

What events are coming up for Brown Dog Coalition?