Garland Animal Shelter and Adoption Center: Dog Field Trip/Short-Term Fostering Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
Volunteers were requesting supplies to take a dog on an outing for the Borrow a Buddy program. They never could find harnesses or Adopt Me vests to take the dogs on field trips. Most also didn't have a way to restrain the dog in the car or have a treat pouch so they could reward good behavior on the outing.
Having the appropriate supplies on-hand at the shelter allows us to encourage more participation in the program. The dogs get a much-needed mental break from the shelter, and they are exposed to potential adopters. We are striving to increase Borrow a Buddy participation to 50 outings per month, which would mean 600 dogs get to go on field trips.
How many pets did this grant help?
600
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
On the very first outing where volunteers used the new supplies, one of the dogs, Webb (first photo), was adopted. A group of volunteers loaded up multiple dogs, each in their own car, and headed out to our local outdoor mall on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.
The highly visible yellow shirts worn by Friends of Rescue Animals volunteers coordinated nicely with the newly purchased bright yellow Adopt Me vests. The seat belt restraints kept dogs in the back seat, and the harnesses helped control the dogs on their walk.
A total of 10 dogs went on an outing that day, and one was adopted by a family who couldn’t resist his charming personality. Webb can be seen in one of the photos relaxing in the air conditioning from his outing while his adopters completed the paperwork.
The volunteer who took Webb on the field trip even shared a photo of Webb trying to drive the car as they were leaving the shelter! He clearly needed to use one of the seat-belt restraints.
Pope (second photo) is another dog who is still available for adoption who has gone on Borrow a Buddy multiple times, and it’s a running joke: Where will he get to go for lunch this week? You can meet him here.
