CARE Humane Society: Dog Field Trip/Short-Term Fostering Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The Dog Field Trip grant through the Petfinder Foundation helped both our large dogs and our volunteers explore our community and make doggy dates more accessible and easier to participate in through the purchase of adventure backpacks.
Volunteers can sign these prepacked backpacks out whenever they feel it is beneficial to their adventure and take advantage of the dog seat belt, water bowl, "Adopt Me" bandana, leash, and treat bag hidden away inside!
By taking the hassle out of gathering and keeping up with supplies for their day out of the shelter, volunteers extended their interaction time and were enticed to give some of our harder-to-handle canines more time out of the shelter.
Additionally, volunteers utilized this new system to check out car-seat covers and longlines for their adventures at our local state park, which happily extended free passes for volunteers bringing shelter dogs for exercise.
How many pets did this grant help?
300
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Heimdall is a very large and goofy canine who has resided at our shelter for 200+ days. His size and puppy-like behavior can be pretty intimidating at first and, to many volunteers, the prospect of loading him up in their car seemed like a car wreck waiting to happen.
Thanks to the addition of the seatbelt buckles and the ability for volunteers to store their belongings and supplies away while walking him, Heimdall has been able to get so much more enrichment time outside of his kennel and off of the shelter property.
Heimdall has not found his forever home yet but, thanks to his dog field trip outings, more and more people are learning about this lovable goofball.
