Humane Society of Young County: Dog Enrichment Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
With this grant, we were able to purchase agility equipment and nose-work tools that will allow us to provide a variety of enriching activities to the dogs in our care. We currently have a variety of dogs, all with different activity/enrichment-level needs. This equipment lets us offer different options to keep the dogs in our care mentally and physically stimulated, hopefully mitigating some of the stress of being in a shelter environment.
How many pets did this grant help?
HSYC averages approximately 30-35 dogs
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Taz, a black Belgian shepherd mix (photos 1 and 2), is one of our longest residents. He is very high-energy and loves to be challenged. We let him explore all of the equipment, but he did best on the bar jump, weave poles, and the tunnel. We will continue to work with him, as he needs a lot of mental and physical stimulation in order to relieve kennel stress.
Bean Dip (photos 3 and 4) is a young female boxer/husky mix. She is young and full of energy. She loved the pole weaves and the seesaw. She is always up for trying something new. She was somewhat hesitant on the ramp, but with more practice, she should do well. She will also likely be good for nose work.
Eros (photo 5) is a Lab mix. He was able to master the ramp and the seesaw equipment. He struggled a little with the weave poles but likely he was more interested in the cheese we were using to help him along. He is laid-back and seemed to enjoy the attention of the trainers more than the actual training!
Oakley (photo 6) is a young pit bull mix. She is full of energy, like most young dogs. She picked up the basics of nose work quickly. She seemed to figure out how to get the treat pretty quickly! We will continue to work with her on the nose work, as she seem to enjoy it!
Dingo (photo 7) is a mix of Australian cattle dog, German shepherd, and heeler and he excelled on all of the equipment. He is a very smart pup! We only had to work with him a little bit before he got the hang of the different equipment. He definitely showed off his working skills!
