Good Shepherd Humane Society: Play Group Training Grant Report

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

This grant was used to cover the tuition for our Animal Services Supervisor to attend a Dogs Playing for Life mentorship.

After Terry completed his mentorship, we made some adjustments to our play yard and starting hosting playgroups. We saw an immediate positive response from the dogs in our care. Our first playgroup had 10 happy dogs in it!

The playgroups, while still a new program here, have already taught us a lot about the dogs. Two dogs were previously classified as "dog-aggressive" based on their in-kennel behavior. However, when Terry introduced them to the playgroup using the training from DPFL, we found out they actually love playing with other dogs!

How many pets did this grant help?

This will help hundreds of dogs every year.

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

Tucker has been a long-time resident here. He was classified as dog-aggressive and recommended to go to a single-dog home. He often lunged and growled at other dogs who passed by his kennel. Admittedly, some of the staff were hesitant when Terry said he wanted to try Tucker in a playgroup. We were all surprised that Tucker loved playing with other dogs and got along well. We learned more about Tucker in 15 minutes of playgroup than we did in all the previous months he has been with us. You can meet Tucker here.