Animal Welfare Society: Dog Enrichment Grant Report

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

This grant allowed us to purchase durable, quality training equipment so that our training team and animal-care staff can provide our adoptable dogs with enrichment activities indoors in our training classroom. This is especially important in Maine during the cold and frozen winter months, when dogs tend to spend less time outdoors (some dogs like the snow, but most prefer indoor enrichment).

How many pets did this grant help?

1,000+

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

Today was the first day we used the equipment. Santiago is a dog who loves to be outside, running and playing. He’s 3 years old and has lots of energy and a true zest for life. He is available for adoption, and he’ll do best with people who have an active lifestyle and who can take him on long walks, hikes, and trips.

Our volunteers and staff have been engaging him in activities like that during his time at AWS. However, today is a cold and rainy day, so outdoor activities are limited. Santiago did take a walk with one of our volunteer dog walkers in the morning, but he needs more activity and daily enrichment.

So he spent a few hours in our training room with one of our certified professional dog trainers and an animal-care staff member. They set up an agility course using, among other things, the new ring gates that your grant helped purchase.

Throughout, Santiago wore one of our new balance harnesses, which comfortably reduces pulling and is an excellent choice for dog training.

Santiago loved the one-on-one active time indoors with our staff today. That one-on-one time gives us time to observe more about his likes and dislikes and better inform his future adopters on his training abilities and needs.

This equipment really ups our game and helps us provide a much more enriched and meaningful time for the dogs in our care.

Santiago is available for adoption and is currently listed on Petfinder. You can meet Santiago here.