This month the Montgomery County Animal Shelter put out a plea for volunteers. They had planned a training program at the facility on SH 242 but the response was so overwhelming that they needed another location. Montgomery County Judge Keough who has taken on the shelter to help in any way possible was able to secure the use of Woodlands Bible Church on Pinyon Pine in The Woodlands. Not only that he had it catered for the morning and at lunch. The session went very well and the following day was the day that, Dogs Playing for Life, the group brought in to do the training on new techniques and put those to the test at the shelter. Aimee Sadler’s “Dogs Playing for Life”…an enrichment program for shelter dogs” has been introduced to over 170 shelters around the United States and Canada. The program is designed to enhance the quality of life for shelter dogs, help shelters better assess canine sociability and enhance the adoption matching process to ultimately save more lives! It is normal for volunteers to take one dog out to the walk/play area at a time. However, this does not allow any interaction with other dogs. What has been introduced is turning several dogs out to the play area one at a time and observing them for any aggression against each other if they get along another dog is introduced. The dogs get more exercise and it has been found it is a lot quieter inside the kennel rooms as the barking was cut drastically. Shelters implementing daily playgroups report more positive outcomes. Happy animals are generally less stressed which results in less disease and extreme behavior. Subsequently, shelter dogs (and the people eager to attend to them) are safer in the process, so more dogs are able to find their way into loving homes. None of the Dogs Playing for Life behavior programs discriminate due to breed or category. Whether it is embracing co-housing or playgroups for dogs, there is no doubt that offering a more natural environment helps shelters to better assess behavior, maintain health, and arrange better adoption matches.
