Animal Welfare Professionals

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  • 1.  Doggy Day Out

    Posted 8 days ago
    Hi there,
    I am in Australia and we are running a Doggy Day Out pilot program next week. (I am very excited).
    HR department would like to know if anyone has done a risk assessment before running this program, and if yes would you be able to share this information with us?
    Does your program ever had any incidents and were they major and what kind of nature were they?
    We are concerned potentially regarding bite to humans and dog to dog bites etc.
    One more final question, do you have an emergency response process/procedure, and if so what do you have in place.
    I really hope you are able to share this with me.
    Cheers,
    Danielle Griggs

    #FieldServicesandPublicSafety*
    #FosterPrograms

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    Danielle Griggs
    Foster Care/ Rescue group Manager
    AWL Animal Welfare League South Australia
    AP
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  • 2.  RE: Doggy Day Out

    Posted 7 days ago

    Hi Danielle, 

    I'd love to hear from everyone else on this too, but I have some resources for you in the meantime. I don't believe a formal risk assessment has been done, but there is research on short-term foster that has shown very few bites. You can find links to the research in the document linked here.

    You can find best practices in this toolkit.   Generally, organizations only  offer their easiest-to-handle dogs to the public for field trips, at least until they get a sense of their skill levels at handling, which can help prevent incidents. Here are some other resources you might want to check out:

    St. Hubert's field trip program (3 min. video)

    Fredericksburg SPCA's Adventure Tails program (2 min. video)

    Beyond the Shelter: Expanding Foster Capacity with Foster Innovation at SBCAS (60 min. video)

    I'm happy to chat with you more about this too--you can email me at duer@maddiesfund.org



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    Kelly Duer
    Senior Shelter Solutions Specialist
    Maddie's Fund
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  • 3.  RE: Doggy Day Out

    Posted 7 days ago

    We did not do a risk assessment prior. We were very hesitant and nervous about it, I won't lie. We visited a nearby municipal shelter who does a similar program and when we asked all our fears, they said they just had to be okay with not controlling every single element.  We started it with limiting it to a few select adoptable dogs. As it became more popular we opened it to all available dogs we have. I will say we started the program in April 2024 and have only had 1 bite occur that happened to be from our longest term resident. We allow the public to bring their dog to meet our prior to taking home as well. We do conversation based adoption and counseling regard introductions. The biggest issue we have had is dogs getting loose from their fosters. I have a manual I send out with every trip that has any information they would need regarding a dog getting loose, bites, behavior issues, etc. Our county has a non emergency telecommunications number that dispatches our on call officers, and that is our back up plan for after hours issues. That way the on call officer can get in touch with leadership and make the call on what should be done. They also sign  a waiver. I will attach what we have to this reply. Mutual Rescue has a great starter kit online as well. It helped me make the manual for ours. 

    I hope this helps! 

    Here is what our stats looked like from April 2024 to the end of the year. Today we hit our 60th adoption through the program! 

    2024 Yearly Stats 
    5 Barks
    Total Dogs Thru Program 82
    Adopted Thru Program 49
    Overall Trips 124
    Returned 2
    LTR Adopted Thru 19
    Program Started 4/21/2024
    LTR Adopted Thru LOS 60+ Days


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    McKenzie Cook
    Canine Placement Coordinator
    Lincoln County Animal Services
    Lincolnton NC
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    Attachment(s)



  • 4.  RE: Doggy Day Out

    Posted 7 days ago

    thanks so much for all the responses, I really appreciate this.



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    Danielle Griggs
    Foster Care/ Rescue group Manager
    AWL Animal Welfare League South Australia
    AP
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