KC DOG BLOG

KC Pet Project spends week with Aimee Sadler - thoughts on shelter playgroups

Last week, KC Pet Project had the pleasure of hosting Aimee Sadler for the entire week (and thanks to  Animal Farm Foundation for making this a reality for us).

For anyone not familiar with Aimee's work, essentially, she is, in my opinion (and the opinion of many others) one of the foremost experts in the country at creating playgroups for shelter dogs as a way to burn off extra energy, increase socialization, and reduce the stress of kennel life for shelter dogs.

Shelter playgroups are different than your standard dog park experience. Dogs at the shelter come from a variety of different backgrounds: some good, some pretty bad. And it's often tough to predict how dogs that come out of the shelter environment will behave around each other in a playgroup format. So understanding how to read and match dogs is essential for success. But when done well, the outcome is great.

Before I get into the playgroups experience a bit more, I would be remiss if I didn't mention a bit about the shelter experience for the dogs.

Shelter life can be tough for dogs -- and depending on the shelter construct, it can be a very tough environment for them, even under the best circumstances. Our shelter is like many urban shelters. It's 40 years old. It has one main housing area where all the dogs are kept. In many of the rows, kennels are stacked -- with smaller dogs on the top, larger dogs on the bottom. And every time a dog gets let out by a staff person, or volunteer, the dog and handler go down the row and the dogs on both levels bark: most because dogs are social creatures and they want to meet the other dog and are frustrated because they can't. Over time, this frustration builds until dog=frustration. The more the dogs get out, the better it is, but even under the best circumstances the dogs are in their kennel for 23 hours a day. While some handle this environment fine, it is very stressful for others, even under the best of circumstances.

Over the past 6 months, thanks to some volunteers and supporters, we've been able to build multiple playyards for our dogs (pictured).

 Some other volunteers have instituted weekend playgroups for some of the dogs, which has been great. But with Aimee's visit, playgroups are becoming a regular occurrance, and the benefits are telling.

Because of the shelter environment, over time, many dogs develop "barrier reactivity" -- which would be a negative reaction toward other dogs when separated by a barrier (whether that barrier be a fence, a kennel, or a leash). In many shelters, it's easy for dogs that show barrier aggression to be kept separate from other dogs and be labeled as "not good with other dogs". This not only enhances the problem for the dogs, it also makes it harder for them to be adopted -- which at best makes their kennel stay longer, at worst, a candidate for euthanasia.

One such dog for us was a dog named Lucy. She is a Dogue de Boudeaux at our shelter. She was surrendered for having issues with other dogs, and after some time at the shelter, had developed a fair amount of barrier reactivity. She seemed uncertain meeting a dog through the fence, so Aimee muzzled her so she could interact with the dog, but everything would be safe. After analyzing the body language of both dogs, she opted to take off her muzzle. And Lucy....played.

Here's a video of Lucy on her second day of playgroups:

 

This is the power of playgroups for an open intake shelter like ours -- that dogs can get the socialization they need -- and that they WANT -- as well as much needed exercise. Aimee says that she believes 30 minutes in playgroups is about the equivelent of a 2 hour walk -- and I believe it. It also provides proper mental stimulation and socialization.  And the tired dogs also create a quieter/less stressful environment inside the shelter. We also learn a LOT about the dogs, which helps our staff make better recommendations for adopters. And all of this leads to helping make the dogs more adoptable -- which decreases their time at the shelter, and overall, reduces stress. It's a huge win.

There is a lot about Aimee's playgroup model -- in handling play-types, when to interrupt play, how to handle corrections, etc. I think some of this is easily misunderstood if you don't get to hear the 3 hour presentation she gives before going into playgroups that helps define the why's. She is also very big on letting dogs communicate and work out their differences -- some of which she explains in this clip:

 

Overall, we're working on modifying some things to fit our particular staff and situation, but as a whole, I think playgroups will continue to make life better for the dogs at KC Pet Project. I think our staff and volunteers had a great time with it and are really enjoying seeing the dogs be, well, dogs. And it's also fun to watch stereo-types be bunked as we watch pit bulls playing with Labs, unneutered male dogs interacting well with other male dogs, etc. As would be expected when you start semi-randomly throwing 120 dogs with unknown backgrounds together, but most ended quickly, with a lot of ruckus but not much more than that. Break it up. Play on.

I'm excited about this being added to the curriculum at KC Pet Project. Over the past 9 months we've been able to maintain a 90+% live release rate by instituting programs that have proven themselves to be successful in other shelters across the country. This, is one of those programs.

And a big thanks to Fox 4 in Kansas City who had some great coverage of our playgroups -- in what was a very challenging news cycle last week.

For more on the Play for Life Program:

Serious Fun -- by Best Friends Animal Society

Aimee Sadler changes shelter experience for homeless dogs - Philadelphia Dogs Examiner

Socialization -- Notes from a developing country redux

The wife and I are in Belize again for what has been an awesome week -- and once again we have managed to make a large volume of friends -- both people and animal.  One of the things that strikes me when I'm here is that the people here - for the most part -- have a completely different view of animal ownership than we have in the U.S.  First of all, apparently pure-bred dogs do not do very well here as they tend to be more prone to diseases that exist here than the mixed breed dogs.  Secondly, it is very rare to see a dog on leash here - and if they are on leash, in the majority of cases it is an American at the end of the lead who has either moved here or is here on vacation.

The dogs themselves are very well behaved -- and very friendly.  Because they have been allowed to roam free, they are very well socialized with both people and other dogs. If the dogs have a disagreement, they work them out amonst themselves and almost never with anything more than a growl and a snap.

It is hard not to compare this to our situation at home where most of our laws are designed to isolate dogs from other dogs and humans.  Leash laws, fencing requirements, etc have all led to dogs being more isolated from others -- and thus, not getting the socialization that they would receive if wandering at-large.

While I'm not advocating that we get rid of leash laws in the US, as I believe they serve a very good purpose, I do think it's interesting the unintended consequences of some of the dog restrictions we have in place -- and to realize that as we create more restrictions, these unintended consequences for further de-socializing of dogs become more apparent. And that many of our restrictive dog laws have actually had the opposite effect as what they were originally designed to do.

I wrote a post about this three years ago when I was here -- that I think still applies (and is also a testiment to how writing styles change over time).   

Meanwhile, it is a reminder to all dog owners that even with leash laws, it is still your responsibility to be sure your dog gets adequate socialization.

Socialization, dog bites and muzzling

There were two separate articles in different places (and different countries) about how socializing dogs can help prevent dog bites.  You can read the two stories here and here.

By socialization, experts are referring to getting dogs used to different environments: Different people of different sizes, shapes and colors, other animals, around things like crutches, bicycles and wheelchairs, etc.  The idea is that once a dog has been introduced to a certain type of enviornment and have learned that it is ok, they will be able to handle it better the next time.

There are obviously key times for this - -when a puppy is younger, they are much easier to socialize because everything is new to them and they're  used to the newness. However, this doesn't mean that older dogs adopted from shelters can't be socialized, it just takes a little more work.

I bring this all up because one of the major flaws that many cities that approach "restrictions" on certain types of dogs are basically promoting anti-social behavior.  So let's take a city that wants to "do something" about their dog bite problem and has decided that instead of banning certain types of dogs, that it would be better to enforce restrictions on certain types of dogs.  So what do the laws entail?

Being sure animals are "properly confined" so they aren't intermingling with the public

When they are in public, let's make sure they are leashed and muzzled (muzzles will cause dogs to become skittish, especially around other dogs, because they have no means at all to protect themselves).

So what have we done? We've actually encouraged, and forced, the dogs we deem to be problems into situations where it is virtually impossible to adequately socialize them.  By passing these types of laws, we're actually INCREASING the likelihood that a dog will become aggressive, not lessening it.

This is yet another reason why we need to listen to animal experts when making animal laws. These are the people who understand behaviors, and consequences, of the actions of a city council.

For more on socialization, here's my take -- and a wonderful article from Marjorie at Good Pooch on the topic.

BTW: Hat Tip to Bad Rap for the photo which I blatantly stole.