Animal Welfare Professionals

Advice needed! I have recently pitched the Idea of a local business foster program in my town. The Idea is business owners would come to our shelter at any point in the day starting at 9am, bring a pre-screened adoption ready dog to their shop for a few hours, or the whole day, but no later than 4:30, as we close at 5. I did not want to discourage anyone from participating if they could not provide transportation during these hours, if they manned their shop alone, and they close at 5:30. I suggested we reach out to our volunteer network who could help with transportation, as our town is small and getting anywhere never takes more than ten minutes.
My plan was to automate things with a google form sign up sheet asking them to give us a date and time they wanted to foster, and tell us whether or not they would need help with transportation.
My administration immediately told me that it sounded too complicated and they were worried that dogs would end up not getting picked up, and stranded there after shelter hours.

Does anyone have any good examples of where something like this has already been successful? How can I help to ease their minds and convince them any extra work would be worth it?

I think it's a fantastic idea! Ask your board/administration if you could start with one dog at one business, and have a form ready for the day foster to fill out, and a volunteer ready to pick up the dog at the correct time. If they see that it can be successful with one dog, perhaps they'll go for two dogs at two businesses and with three, you have a program going!

I agree with Anne. Keep it simple at first and propose a pilot program.

Start with one business, one volunteer, one day a week for, say, three weeks. Ask that business what day of the week and time they get the most foot traffic and find a volunteer who is available at that time. Then write up a little one page proposal that outlines the pilot program:

• Benefits
• Logistics and responsibilities - who walks the dog, answers questions about him/her
• Duration - how long will pilot program last
• Evaluation - how will you measure the success of the program
• Cost
• Potential challenges -  demonstrate that you are aware of ways this could be challenging but keep the message positive
• Next steps - if the initial trial is successful, suggest another 3-6 weeks, then a second business, etc.

Set yourself up to succeed, show them that you've covered all the bases and that it's worth a try.

I wouldn't get too complicated with the Google form as first. If the program is successful you can get fancier later. To keep things simple, ask the business if all the supplies (cage, bowl, flyers) can be left with them so the volunteer only has to transport the dog.

I know shelters are very busy places, often overwhelmed by new projects but don't give up! Let us know how it turns out!

Be sure to get a bandana saying "ADOPT ME!" for the dog.

What a fantastic idea, in so many ways.  I don't have anything to add, other than making sure the businesses can keep the dog safe.  Please keep us posted on how this goes.  I can see so many benefits to this program.

My local shelter does something similar. They let people take dogs for the day, a few hours, weekends, etc to give dogs a break from the shelter.  They close at 5 most days and at 3 on weekends.  There has to be some responsibility on the part of the business owner too.  I think it's a great idea.