Wood County Humane Society: Orvis Dog Enrichment Grant Report

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

The Orvis Animal Care Grant monies allowed us to provide more hours for our dog trainer, Scott Beard, to work with the dogs we house in our shelter, and also allowed for several home visits to dogs adopted from our shelter.

The Wood County Humane Society employs a part-time dog trainer to work with all dogs that enter the shelter, as well as after they are adopted, in an effort to keep them in their forever homes if any issues arise post-adoption. Being awarded this grant allowed us to provide more hours for our dog trainer to work more with our dogs, to do home visits for some of our dogs (post-adoption), and to train our volunteers how to handle the dogs in our care.

How many pets did this grant help?

All dogs entering and leaving our shelter between December 2014 and February 2015 (33).

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

The Orvis Animal Care Grant helped 33 dogs between December 2014 and February 2015. It is hard to highlight specific dogs helped during this period, because they were all helped! Of the 33 dogs we took in during this period, 18 have since found their forever homes. Our dog trainer, Scott Beard, works with all dogs entering our shelter, and also does a post-adoption follow-up to make sure the dogs and adopters are adjusting well after adoption. When dogs arrive at our shelter, they are assessed to see what they know and what they need work on. Scott then works closely with the staff and volunteers so they are able to continue training during all interactions with the dogs.