Hi all,
I'm looking for some feedback on best housing practices for puppies on site. At my organization, all puppies under 8 weeks are in foster homes but once they're old enough for surgery and adoption they return to the shelter and are housed on site until adoption. Depending on our population and specifics about the puppies (large vs small breed, etc), puppies might be on site for a few days or up to a few weeks.
Our puppy care practices focus heavily on disease prevention which means that puppies under 4 months do not go on walks, and are only interacted with in their kennels or meet and greet rooms. This works out okay for the puppies who only stay on site for a day or two, but is not beneficial for longer stay puppies.
We are working on creating a puppy socialization program for our volunteers to give them more interaction and socialization while on site. Does anyone have an outline of such a program to share? Any advice on the balance of disease prevention and socialization?
We are also working on trying to not completely ruin any housetraining progress they made in their foster homes, but haven't landed on a good way to set up their kennels that promotes a potty area. The puppy kennels do not have guilletines and are just an open space. Staff clean up poop throughout the day but we go through SO much bedding with poopy puppies. We've placed potty pads in their kennels but they're instantly ripped up and just create a bigger mess.
Does anyone have a puppy set up or material suggestions that promote a potty area and is not easily destroyed by puppy teeth?
Thoughts?
Thank you!
#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms#Behavior,TrainingandEnrichment#EducationandTraining------------------------------
Jeannie Lambert
Animal Care Manager
Humane Society of Utah
UT
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