The Winnipeg Humane Society: Dog Enrichment Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The Kongs can be sanitized for reuse, and for the dogs and puppies who must go through isolation, the Kong toys become their only friends until they are healthy enough to play with other puppies. Bucky's story has been included, as he was in medical isolation and was a favorite of our staff.
If it were up to our Behavior Team at the Winnipeg Humane Society (WHS), every dog or puppy would have a Kong. Cost becomes prohibitive to providing all the items for training and care that we would like to provide. Thanks to the Petfinder Foundation Dog Enrichment Grant, the WHS was able to purchase 82 Kongs of various sizes and styles.
The Behavior Team were so excited to be able to have an assortment of Kongs to choose from. A new Kong was put in each of the 16 adoption pods, and the remainder are being used by our Behavior Team as a tool to help the dogs and puppies who have behavioral issues that prevent them from being ready for adoption. Our goal is to get the dogs and puppies to the adoption floor as soon as safely possible. "We never have this many Kong toys available for training sessions!"
How many pets did this grant help?
1,534
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Bucky was just a puppy when he came to us. He was diagnosed with parvovirus and was incredibly sick when we first saw him. He spent a few weeks in the isolation ward while he recovered from parvo. Bucky was not a very social puppy by the time he was healthy.
Due to our isolation ward policies, we were not able to spend a lot of time socializing him while he was ill. However, one of the best enrichment items he got daily was a frozen Kong filled with all types of goodies. Once he was able to be in general holding, we utilized Kongs filled with all of the yummy goodies to make friends with him so that we could work on his sociability. It wasn’t long before we decided that he was ready for a foster home in which to recover.
Now Bucky is back at the shelter, thankfully, due in no small part to the use of the Kong to help him socialize with the team and other dogs. Bucky is now available for adoption to the right home that will understand his needs, but his struggle would be far less than it ever was before because we were able to utilize such an amazing enrichment tool throughout his stay with us. The Kong allows us to socialize the puppies and dogs even when we can’t be right with them.
Included are some pictures of Bucky playing with his Kong, and ready for adoption.
To quote Yvonne, the Director of Behavior & Animal Care at the WHS, “Bucky is doing astronomically since recovering from parvo — thanks in no small part to his Kong toy!”
