East Bay SPCA: Dog Field Trip/Short-Term Fostering Grant Report

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

With this grant from the Petfinder Foundation, we were able to purchase essential equipment so that community volunteers could take shelter dogs on enrichment field trips to support their health and well-being. Equipment purchased included: branded “Adopt Me” vests and patches, leashes, and seat-belt clips for safe transportation.

Dog field trips for dogs in our shelter and community volunteers include examples such as:
1) Hikes in a local park or natural area
2) Neighborhood jogs
3) Walks on the beach

These field trips are essential to the overall well-being of the dogs in our shelter’s care. Animals get space to decompress from the shelter environment, receive more in-depth exercise, benefit from longer interactions with humans in a non-shelter environment, and benefit from being outdoors for longer periods of time with more space to move and exercise.

These field trips also help us get to know their personalities better so that we can better describe them in adoption materials and help them meet their best match for a forever home. New research shows that brief outings of about three hours and temporary fostering programs can boost the likelihood of adoption by 200-1,400%!

How many pets did this grant help?

We anticipate at least 100 dogs will be supported with the equipment purchased through this grant, which will allow them to participate in enrichment field trips.

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

Meet Miska! She is a sweet, playful, energetic, and adventurous pup who benefitted from a field trip to stretch her legs in January 2024.

Miska is a Siberian husky who loves exercise! She is a goofy sweetheart who also loves ear scratches, belly rubs, and long walks or jogs. Happily, Miska was adopted into her forever home on Jan. 13, 2024.