Let Love Live: KONG Toys Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
We were awarded a Kong Toys grant. This grant allowed us to have enough Kongs to have added daily enrichment in our kennel building for the dogs in our program.
On average, our dogs do spend about 18 hours in their kennels each day. Implementing daily kennel enrichment creates activities for the dogs to be able to do in their kennels during those extended periods of time.
Research has shown how the Kong also provides mental enrichment. So while outside time can wear them out physically, the added Kongs can help calm and tire them mentally. Our program intakes a lot of medical cases that require strict crate rest, and kennel enrichment is so vital for these pups, too!
We are a very small rescue and when every penny counts, we are so very thankful for being selected for this grant to help the pups in our program. Thankfully, Kongs are very well made and we are able to wash and sanitize and reuse them over and over, so these Kongs are truly the gift that keeps on giving and will help many more dogs for months to come!
How many pets did this grant help?
1,300
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Cora and Angel were two dogs who had been adopted and quickly returned to our program. They had some “stranger danger” and just needed some additional socialization and intros into the big world to learn it wasn’t so scary.
They hopped right into our enrichment schedule, and Kong time quickly became one of their favorite times of the day. They mastered how to get every treat and dollop of peanut butter or wet food out of the Kong.
Having Kongs in our program helped these two have some good down time and focus on something they truly enjoyed. This activity made kennel time enjoyable for them and distracted them from the goings-on around them.
Also, doing Kong time after coming back from their walk-abouts and socialization time always made the experience more enjoyable for them because they knew what came afterwards.
Angel: https://youtube.com/shorts/SE0hlYKK8Aw
Cora: https://youtu.be/-jvGTzlNyX0
Thank you for this grant opportunity. These KONGS truly have made a huge difference and impacted our pups with additional enrichment throughout the day and allowed us to make sure each dog has a kong at least once per day.
