SHAWANO, Wis. (WFRV) – A local animal shelter has enlisted the help of an out-of-state nonprofit for a training they hope will make their dogs more adoptable.
Over the last two days, the dogs, staff members, and volunteers at the Shawano County Humane Society have gone through an important training session courtesy of an organization called ‘Dogs Playing For Life.’
One of the main goals of the training is to teach the dogs how to safely play with each other. Humane Society officials tell Local 5 News that it helps improve the dogs’ quality of life and also makes them more adoptable since prospective adopters tend to prefer dogs who appear friendly and get along with other dogs.
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“Just watching all of these dogs outside, playing together, never thinking we could have 9, 10, 12 dogs playing together,” said Shawano County Humane Society executive director Pam Nowak. “It’s a dream come true for me.”
Dogs that come to shelters often have difficult pasts and can become aggressive and defensive when introduced to shelter life. On the other end of the spectrum, some dogs are extremely shy and don’t want to socialize with other dogs. Nowak said one of the most incredible parts about this training is watching some of the dogs that fall in these categories slowly begin to get more comfortable socializing with the other dogs.
“Dogs that we didn’t think were going to be able to be out in this yard and they are, they are here, they are doing wonderful,” she said.
Nowak said it was about a two and a half year process to secure the necessary grants and prepare the shelter facilities for the training.
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The folks at ‘Dogs Playing for Life’ also teach humane society staff and volunteers how to facilitate safe play for the dogs. They also learn how to analyze and track the dogs’ behaviors, which they can then articulate to prospective adopters so that they can make informed adoption decisions for their families.
“Definitely making sure that every dog every day gets out in the play yard, we are now scheduling it,” Nowak said when asked how she will measure the success of the training. “We have a staff member, we’re calling it enrichment and working on the enrichment every single day. And then we can watch the adoption numbers and watch those go up.”
According to Nowak, the training comes amid an uptick in dogs coming to the shelter. She said it’s been so great to see some of the pooches make real progress in the two days of training.
“It is the most rewarding job I’ve ever had in my life being able to support humans and dogs alike, improve everybody’s quality of life and hopefully get all of these dogs into their proper homes,” said Aaron Caldwell who is the director of shelter programming with ‘Dogs Playing for Life.’
For more information about the Shawano County Humane Society, please click here.
“Finding out that dogs that we thought could never ever be around dogs are out that never gets old,” Caldwell added.
