Running

head: Effective Communication and Deserving Dogs

Effective Communication and Deserving Dogs

Katherine Griffin
Antioch University

Effective Communication and Deserving Dogs

According to the ASPCA nearly eight million dogs and cats enter shelters in the
United States every year and over half will not make it out alive. This is a problem that
pulls at the heartstrings of any animal lover. Taking this statistic I looked into our own
local community of Santa Barbara for an organization that was helping to address this
issue, which lead me to the discovery of Deserving Dogs Rescue currently based in
Lompoc, California. Deserving Dogs serves all dogs in need regardless of breed or age.
By utilizing the concepts of ethos, pathos, logos, and Kairos Deserving Dogs uses their
writing to get a message across to potential adopters by going beyond just promoting
adoptable dogs in their advertisements and assuring that these dogs are provided with the
appropriate care and training through informational flyers once they are placed in their
forever homes.
To begin, I will be connecting what I have learned in this writing class with my
interview from a representative Deserving Dogs as well the artifacts that the organization
supplied to me. I will be explaining how effectively Deserving Dogs is at using their
writing to get a message across to potential adopters and I will also explain how this
organization could have done something a little differently in order to be more effective.
Deserving Dogs mission is to rescue and rehabilitate dogs from shelters all over
the state of California regardless of preexisting health conditions, age, or breed. They
also place a huge focus on after-care, which means they provide follow-up training and
health services for the dogs they adopt out.
My informant was the Founder and Director Angela Adan. Angela states that
Deserving Dogs does not discriminate based on breed, health status, or age (personal
communication, February 1st 2015) when she pulls these dogs from various shelters.

Running head: Effective Communication and Deserving Dogs

After pulling each and every dog from the shelter and finding him or her all temporary
the search for a permanent home begins. She also is the lead trainer for the organization
as well as a registered vet tech. She deals with a vast majority of the health problems she
comes across on her own in order to keep the cost of vet care down. She also works with
the dogs pre and post adoption to make sure they are adjusting into their new home and
that their new families are keeping up with the necessary training and health care. Even
though Angela has her hands full with all her daily responsibilities to keep the dogs
happy and healthy she must step out of the role she loves and put on her next hat and do
the job she described as disliking the most, which is finding ways to reach future
adopters.
The first way in which Angela appeals to future adopters is through a strong
presence of ethos. She does this by illustrating her own credibility to appeal to potential
adopters ethical appeal, its no secret that readers believe authors who seem honest,
wise, and trustworthy as stated by Lunsford and Ruszkiewicz (2013). Another way she
reaches potential adopters is through pathos. In chapter six of Reading and
Understanding Arguments they speak about how emotions can add real muscle to
arguments. She applied pathos through the use of stories of dogs with troubled pasts,
from being left abandon on the side of a street to being beaten and left for dead in a
backyard. She also uses pathos through a photograph showing a poor puppy that suffers
from mental delays and has been left homeless because of it. Angela does a great job of
taking her potential adopters past just hooking them with a sad picture or story but into
the logos realm. Angela does an excellent job of making a plausible claim and offers
good reasons for your to believe it through these pictures on the flyers and

Effective Communication and Deserving Dogs

advertisements. She provides follow-up training and health care to her dogs she adopts
out. She wants to appeal to a persons logical side. Almost everyone can fall victim to a
sweet photo but reality will quickly set in once you get that sweet puppy home. By
offering these classes and after care she hits all three rhetorical strategies with her writing
and I believe does so very effectively.
The first piece of writing in which I believe Deserving Dogs effectively reaches
her audience through the use of logos is in a flyer about a free training seminar class.
She uses, appropriate language for the situation [and] always takes into account your
likely audience and purpose for writing Graff (2007). Angela mentioned that she sends
a copy of her most recent flyer home with all new adoptees. These training sessions are
open to the public but she says she makes a special point to gear her flyers toward her
adopters. She does so by the placement of these flyers. By specifically sending a flyer
home with someone who has just taken in a new family member she is directly choosing
her audience for this message. She also provides a few bullet points on the flyer that
include things new dog parents might be interested in learning such as behavioral
training for both dogs and owners (Training Flyer, 2014). She points out that she will
go over basic training techniques, potty training skills, and puppy proofing your home.
All three of these things will be of special interest to the people that just took one of her
dogs into their home. Another flyer she says she has lots of success with are the ones in
which she advertises current adoptable dogs. In our interview we spoke at length about
the many ways in which she has tried and failed to get this message out there. Angela
has found through all of this trial and error that including a picture of the dog and a few
bullet points about the past will grab the readers attention and pull them in (personal

Running head: Effective Communication and Deserving Dogs

communication, 2015). This is another example of how she applies her ethos strategy.
She also shared that when she uses this method when people will call her about a
particular dog they will in fact say something about being moved or touched by the photo
on the flyer.
Deserving Dogs uses the Internet as their primary resource to get their
information out and does not spend a great deal of time placing flyers around town. She
is very active on her Facebook page and finds she gets a remarkable response that way.
She will however keep some flyers of current dogs in her car and if she happens upon a
spot that looks like it has a high traffic area of some dog lovers she will post a few. For
example she posts at the entrance to dog parks or pet supply stores most often.
Occasionally she will leave some at coffee shops or even some bars on State Street. This
illustrates an excellent use of her Kairos because it shows she is aware how [her] writing
occurs in different situations (Losh, 2012). Her understanding of appropriate
environments where her writings will be received only benefits the organization.
Although she said that she doesnt get to hung up on worrying about where she posts
these her method of stumbling upon the right place is really quite genius.
Another aspect of her job requires her to take the dogs that she is not only
adopting out but also training to different cities all over the state. This also helps further
the message of Deserving Dogs because it allows her to leave her flyers wherever she
feels is appropriate. She recently took a trip up north to San Francisco where she came
across a dog friendly bar and because she always carries a stack of adoptable dog flyers
she was able to post a couple in the bar. One the day of our interview she actually had a
couple from the bay area driving down to Santa Barbara to meet one of her dogs that they

Effective Communication and Deserving Dogs

had seen from the flyer. Again this plays into her ability to be thoughtful about her
Audience. If she had just a flyer at just a regular old bar in San Francisco she may have
not found a dog loving couple stroll through but because she knew the clientele this dog
friendly bar would pull in she knew it was the right place to put a flyer.
The last piece of writing I was able to get from Deserving Dogs was a health and
wellness flyer that along with her training flyer goes home with new adoptive parents.
The clinic is aimed at helping new dog owners feel more comfortable with the needs of a
pet. The example Angela shared with me in our interview was that many times new
families are unfamiliar with the the routines of shots and vaccinations as well as reading
the body language of dog that something may be amiss. This clinic that Deserving Dogs
puts on not only supplies affordable vet care but also takes the time to explain all the
medical dirty details that go into owning a pet that a typical vet may not have time to
do. This plays into the logos strategy very strongly because she is showing the logical
side of owning a pet and making it less foreign and scary for the first time dog owner, or
even third or forth owner. Her flyer for the wellness clinic has a brief list of services
offered as well as before and after photos of dogs that have come to clinic.
While it was initially difficult to think of a way that Deserving Dogs could be
more effective with their writings I was able to come up with one suggestion that I think
would be really helpful for Angela. I believe that if Angela started a blog and added the
web address to all of her preexisting flyers and a link to the organizations Facebook page
it would really benefit her ability to get her message out. A blog would allow Angela to
elaborate in more detail about current dogs situations. She could provide a photo with a
paragraph about the how the dog was found and taken in by Deserving Dogs. She could

Running head: Effective Communication and Deserving Dogs

also provide more information about the types of training she specializes in in order to
bring in outside business in for training services. Another thing that might be included in
a blog could be some helpful tips about how to solve some health issues at home. Angela
is very knowledgeable about how to solve as many issues at home as possible and her
knowledgeable would be extremely valuable to the average pet owner. Overall I believe
that through the use of a blog that is regularly updated with new adoption stories, and
advice would really help Deserving Dogs with the message of saving dogs.
Deserving Dogs is an incredible organization that is devoted to rescuing dogs
despite any attributes that may otherwise get them overlooked by any other dog rescues.
Deserving Dogs uses many rhetorical strategies to get their point across. The concept of
ethos, pathos, and logos are demonstrated in their ability to create advertisements for
current adoptable dogs. They also use the rhetorical strategy Kairos effectively by the
placement of flyers that describe the services they provide such healthcare and training.
Angela at Deserving Dogs has extensive knowledge about how to find homes for
adoptable dogs. She is focused not only on the initial adoption but also all the love, care,
time, and effort that goes into keeping both dog and family happy in their new
arrangement for years to come.