Champaign County Humane Society: Dog Enrichment Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

We sought this grant for the materials to begin providing frozen treats to our dogs. Volunteers are invited to bring dog-safe foods such as cereals and certain vegetables, and use the equipment purchased with this grant such as choppers, graters, and silicone molds to create enriching frozen lick treats.

Frozen licks help combat boredom by providing a long-lasting activity to engage dogs, as well as presenting new flavors and textures in foods. Importantly, licking also relieves stress in pets by releasing endorphins, and is already fundamental to our daily enrichment programs in other ways. This new program, generously funded by the Petfinder Foundation Dog Enrichment Grant, is a way for us to offer more variety to our pets. As we have seen the average length of residency increase, we've been looking for new ways to engage, enrich, and reward dogs in our care.

Critically, we also wanted to have more opportunities to engage interested volunteers with "ready-to-go" projects. In particular, the equipment funded by the Petfinder Foundation Dog Enrichment Grant lets us offer volunteer opportunities to people under 18, as they are not eligible to train as animal handlers in our shelter. With this age inclusivity in mind, we focused on sourcing kitchen equipment that also provides hand-safe ways to break down foods. Volunteers, including youth-focused groups, are already responding to this new opportunity to help. We have had three volunteer nights (producing over 260 frozen treats for our dogs), and more are scheduled.

Thanks to the Petfinder Foundation Dog Enrichment Grant, we launched our frozen lick enrichment project with high-quality, age-inclusive, long-lasting equipment for volunteers to use year-round. Volunteers have expressed excitement about contributing to pets’ well-being through fun, delicious treats that improve their mental health. Most importantly, our dogs now enjoy additional variety in their routines, consistent access to food novelty, and hours more of engagement. We are grateful to the Petfinder Foundation for making this possible and look forward to continuing this program and enriching animal lives!

How many pets did this grant help?

1,500+

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Bella came to our shelter over three months ago after major changes in her relinquisher’s family. Her previous home shared that she was playful and inquisitive, but in the big transition and as time passed, she lost interest in a lot of play, including her favorite toys.

With the introduction of a frozen lick, Bella begins the interaction as alert and people-focused, but soon returns to her bed to get comfortable and enjoy the enrichment treat and almost ignoring us! It’s a “treat” for our team to see her so relaxed and easy inside her kennel instead of hyper-focused on leaving the enclosure. Bella is still at the shelter, but her adoption is finalized and she will be going to her family soon! (You can see her enjoying a frozen lick in the first photo.)

Beyond Bella’s experience, the Petfinder Foundation Dog Enrichment Grant has had a noticeable impact at our shelter. Our dog holding building has pets who are still acclimating to the shelter, need additional behavioral assessment, or are recovering medically. In short, it often holds stressed, noisy dogs! On the first day of delivering frozen lick enrichment to dog holding, there was “virtual silence” in the building as they explored the treats. What is usually a space filled with their audible anxiety became calm and quiet. It was a remarkable change! While we had anticipated that each dog would experience stress relief, giving the entire group of dogs a quiet moment together was its own relief, and an unexpected reward.

Thank you for making that possible for our dogs in holding, and at the shelter! Of that group of dogs in holding that day, only Charles is still in our care. He is not currently available for adoption, and therefore not on Petfinder, but should be able to start looking for his family soon! (You can see Charles in the second photo.)