Bainbridge Decatur County Humane Society: Orvis Dog Enrichment Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
We purchased dog playground equipment for our play yard. This included weave poles, jump bars, large and small seesaws, large and small open tunnels, a hoop jump, and a dog walk.
We are a certified Dogs Playing for Life organization and run playgroups daily and had the space to set up a nice course with the equipment. We knew that introducing toys in groups is not advised, but this equipment is something that we felt would help the dogs exercise and play without issue and enrich their time outside their kennels while awaiting their forever homes.
Having enrichment time for the dogs is not only beneficial for their dogs themselves, but we feel it shows potential adopters much more about the dogs' personalities than simply viewing them in a kennel does.
How many pets did this grant help?
450
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Johnny was brought to us by Animal Control when he was found roaming. We felt sure that he would be reclaimed quickly, but no owner ever showed up.
He is a Beagle mix, so we knew that he would be high-energy, intelligent, and very vocal. We were not wrong. When potential adopters have stepped into the kennel area, they have been put off by how vocal and energetic he is.
Since getting the equipment set up, we have been able to take Johnny to the play yard to expend some of his energy and put his mind to work figuring out how to use it. He is still getting used to some of it, but tackled it head-on from day one with no hesitation!
He went to an adoption event last weekend on Feb. 25, 2023, and was the star of the show and behaved very well! Hopefully he will be adopted very soon now that he has an outlet to show his best self!
We feel sure that this grant has allowed us to give Johnny, as well as many others, the ability to enjoy their time at the shelter exponentially and it gives the employees something to look forward to and the ability to tell potential adopters even more about our dogs’ personality traits!
