Ark-Valley Humane Society: Dog Enrichment Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
This grant allowed us to purchase much-needed agility equipment for the dogs in our care. This equipment, which includes weave poles, a platform, and four high-jumps, was set up in our large outdoor dog yard.
Over the past few years, we have seen an increase in longer-stay shelter dogs. This is, in part, due to adoptable dogs arriving with unique behavioral challenges, often requiring them to be placed into a specific type of home (cat-free, kid-free, dog-free, etc.). We have limited foster homes that meet these dogs' unique requirements, which means many of these dogs must remain under the shelter’s daily care.
With more dogs lingering in the shelter environment, seeking techniques to decrease kennel stress and deterioration of our shelter dogs is at the top of our team's minds. Since purchasing this agility equipment, our volunteers and animal-care technicians have been able to utilize the equipment to keep our adoptable dogs physically healthy and mentally stimulated in ways that other activities do not achieve.
Additionally, working with the shelter dogs through agility training has had huge impacts in helping our more fearful dogs to gain confidence and gain sociability with new, unfamiliar people. Further, this equipment provides us with a new way to highlight our adoptable animals on social media. We are very grateful to now have these tools so we can better serve the homeless dogs in our county.
How many pets did this grant help?
We anticipate helping a similar number of animals in 2024 as in 2023: approximately 330 dogs.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
This grant helped Molly, a 1-year-old Australian cattle dog mix who recently came into our care after her previous owners could no longer address behavioral challenges she had begun displaying in the home.
Upon arrival at the shelter, Molly exhibited wariness towards strangers and new situations. She was reluctant to go through any open door and was slow to trust those unfamiliar, barking and cowering when new people interacted with her.
Our staff implemented a training plan to help Molly build confidence by working with her on agility training and through slow introductions to strangers. With dedicated work from our staff team and incredible volunteers, Molly started to gain confidence and trust as she slowly learned to clear the high jump, sit on the finishing platform, and test the weave poles, all while successfully interacting and bonding with new handlers.
It was through the use of our new agility equipment, patience, love, and some enticing treats that Molly blossomed into a more confident and social dog. We also got some great photographs of Molly on the agility course, which further helped her adoptability! Molly was recently adopted into a wonderful home and we know her future is bright!
