Hanging with the Humans

Quality time for shelter dogs

For most dogs, human companionship offers the highest quality enrichment. For most shelters, however, staff and trained volunteers who can provide this enrichment are often in short supply.

Mackenzie’s Animal Sanctuary strives to provide at least five 20-minute sessions a week with a human for every dog, and provides more whenever possible.

To make the most of their limited time, Mackenzie’s varies the activities that dogs and humans do together:

• Walking
• Playing in the exercise yard
• Exploring the enrichment yard (This two-acre yard has a small pond, a climbing mountain, steps, and barrels with the bottoms cut out for dogs to crawl through.)
• Making offsite trips to the local village to experience people, traffic, and ordinary human activity
• Reading and relaxing together in the dog’s kennel
• Training and TLC in a real-life room

These activities are richly stimulating, mentally and socially. They also provide a variety of sensory experiences.

Materials

• Leashes and collars for walking, other offsite activities, and training
• Treats for training
• Toys for play time in the exercise yard and TLC
• Reading materials and a chair for reading and relaxing

People

Staff and trained volunteers can perform these tasks. When assigning volunteers, you’ll need to consider their level of experience and ability to safely handle specific dogs.

What to Do

If possible, plan to have each dog participate in every activity at least once a week.

Walks and Play Time

• Walking
• Playing in the exercise yard
• Exploring the enrichment yard
• Making offsite trips to experience ordinary human activity

Biking, hiking, or jogging with the dogs also provide a great experience if you have staff or volunteers who enjoy these activities. Physically demanding outings are especially good for high-energy, active dogs who are otherwise difficult to tire out.

Read and Relax

Read and Relax is an in-kennel activity in which a volunteers sits in a dog’s kennel and reads aloud for 30 minutes. This social experience helps the dog learn:

• Good things happen inside the kennel, and that the fun begins when the dog presents calmly at the kennel door
• How to enjoy human company without having to be the center of attention (Yup, they learn to just hang out.)

Read and Relax is especially beneficial for dogs who need to learn to be calm in the presence of humans.

For the complete details of Read and Relax, see the Read and Relax page.

Training and TLC

This 20-30 minute activity is probably the most socially and mentally intensive enrichment experience for shelter dogs. The activity takes place in a real-life room, which is a room with a couch, chairs, and other objects commonly found in a home.

Mackenzie’s tries to provide this activity for each dog at least once a week. If you have enough staff or trained volunteers, daily sessions would be ideal.

A staff member or trained volunteer interacts with the dog in a number of highly positive ways, including:

• Approximately five minutes of reward-based (positive-reinforcement) training on basic cues, including sit, stay, down, come, leave it, and give it
• Playing with toys, especially those favored by the dog
• Grooming, if the dog chooses to participate
• Any other tender, loving, care that the individual dog enjoys (belly rubs, anyone?)

Photo courtesy of Mackenzie’s Animal Sanctuary