Animal Welfare Professionals

If you are helping walk, bring someone and get good pictures, especially close ups. I am part of a very small rescue and promotion is hard, but we share all our dogs on local community Facebook pages in our area, and that is where the majority of our pets are seen and where we make connections for adoption. There are lots of rescues in our area and WAY too many homeless pets, but this has been a good strategy for us since we are small (we only have about 15-20 dogs max at a time, we are foster based with no facility). We just started posting on Instagram too...any social media outlet is great, just look for rehoming/adoption/rescue groups in the area. We are members of probably 10 groups and the page admins have to approve the posts. Some of the groups yield better results than others. And give as much info on each pet as you can. If the rescue is not doing it, you can still do it as a volunteer.

I volunteer at a large municipal shelter in Indianapolis.  We (as many shelters) do "Doggie Day Outs". We take our pups to festivals, farmers markets, breweries, etc--anywhere there are people (especially families). It is possible that not all of your dogs will do well with this but we have found MOST do great.  It is time for socialization and  out of the shelter. There is no reason this could not be done by rescues (and even volunteers for rescues taking them out for their foster parents). I can attest that many of these dogs have found their forever homes from the visibility of the DDOs and quite frankly even if they don't they seem to be adopted within a week or so. You'd be amazed how many people approach you, interact with the dogs, take pictures and share them. It is also an opportunity for you to get pictures of the pups. Photos  with people (including children) and these pets in public places allow potential adopters to see themselves--very powerful marketing. So grab your "adopt me" harness, leash or bandana and experience what we have come to call "the magic of the Doggie Day Out"!!

Susan,

We are trying to implement a Doggy Day Out program here at our shelter. Do you have any SOPs, guidelines, or any sort of paperwork for your program? I'd love to take a look and share it with our team to see if we can utilize some of your shelter's tips and tricks!

I volunteer at a large municipal shelter in Indianapolis.  We (as many shelters) do "Doggie Day Outs". We take our pups to festivals, farmers markets, breweries, etc--anywhere there are people (especially families). It is possible that not all of your dogs will do well with this but we have found MOST do great.  It is time for socialization and  out of the shelter. There is no reason this could not be done by rescues (and even volunteers for rescues taking them out for their foster parents). I can attest that many of these dogs have found their forever homes from the visibility of the DDOs and quite frankly even if they don't they seem to be adopted within a week or so. You'd be amazed how many people approach you, interact with the dogs, take pictures and share them. It is also an opportunity for you to get pictures of the pups. Photos  with people (including children) and these pets in public places allow potential adopters to see themselves--very powerful marketing. So grab your "adopt me" harness, leash or bandana and experience what we have come to call "the magic of the Doggie Day Out"!!

Susan,

We are trying to implement a Doggy Day Out program here at our shelter. Do you have any SOPs, guidelines, or any sort of paperwork for your program? I'd love to take a look and share it with our team to see if we can utilize some of your shelter's tips and tricks!

I volunteer at a large municipal shelter in Indianapolis.  We (as many shelters) do "Doggie Day Outs". We take our pups to festivals, farmers markets, breweries, etc--anywhere there are people (especially families). It is possible that not all of your dogs will do well with this but we have found MOST do great.  It is time for socialization and  out of the shelter. There is no reason this could not be done by rescues (and even volunteers for rescues taking them out for their foster parents). I can attest that many of these dogs have found their forever homes from the visibility of the DDOs and quite frankly even if they don't they seem to be adopted within a week or so. You'd be amazed how many people approach you, interact with the dogs, take pictures and share them. It is also an opportunity for you to get pictures of the pups. Photos  with people (including children) and these pets in public places allow potential adopters to see themselves--very powerful marketing. So grab your "adopt me" harness, leash or bandana and experience what we have come to call "the magic of the Doggie Day Out"!!

Susan,

We are trying to implement a Doggy Day Out program here at our shelter. Do you have any SOPs, guidelines, or any sort of paperwork for your program? I'd love to take a look and share it with our team to see if we can utilize some of your shelter's tips and tricks!

I volunteer at a large municipal shelter in Indianapolis.  We (as many shelters) do "Doggie Day Outs". We take our pups to festivals, farmers markets, breweries, etc--anywhere there are people (especially families). It is possible that not all of your dogs will do well with this but we have found MOST do great.  It is time for socialization and  out of the shelter. There is no reason this could not be done by rescues (and even volunteers for rescues taking them out for their foster parents). I can attest that many of these dogs have found their forever homes from the visibility of the DDOs and quite frankly even if they don't they seem to be adopted within a week or so. You'd be amazed how many people approach you, interact with the dogs, take pictures and share them. It is also an opportunity for you to get pictures of the pups. Photos  with people (including children) and these pets in public places allow potential adopters to see themselves--very powerful marketing. So grab your "adopt me" harness, leash or bandana and experience what we have come to call "the magic of the Doggie Day Out"!!