Helping Shelter Dogs Through Short-Term Outings
Every year across the U.S., millions of dogs enter animal shelters and may experience stress from living in unnatural conditions. This, in turn, can affect their behavior and overall health. As such, many shelters work hard to improve dogs’ well-being while waiting for a home and, at the same time, try to get them adopted as quickly as possible.
This study aims to investigate how human interactions — specifically, short-term fostering and brief “outings” like dog walks — impact shelter dogs’ length of stay and outcomes (e.g., whether they are ultimately adopted, transferred to another shelter, or euthanized).
The authors worked with 51 U.S. animal shelters that implemented either a brief outing (i.e., 1-4 hours) or short-term foster program of 1-2 nights for select dogs in their facilities. 1,955 dogs participated in the programs while 25,946 dogs were not socialized in this way and were used as a control group for comparison. Beyond looking at length of stay and outcomes, the authors also explored characteristics of the humans participating in these caregiving programs.
Dogs that experienced a brief outing were five times more likely to be adopted than euthanized, while those who were temporarily fostered were over 14 times more likely to be adopted than euthanized, compared to those who weren’t in the program. At the end of the study period, 24% of dogs in the intervention remained at the animal shelter, while more than 65% had been adopted and fewer than 2% were euthanized.
The authors also found that shelter dogs who participated in the outing and foster programs were more likely to remain at the shelter at the end of the study compared to the control group. Furthermore, those in the intervention group tended to have longer overall stays at the shelter (35 days excluding their time spent in the program compared to 9.5 days for control group dogs). However, the authors point out that this trend may be unrelated to the programs, as intervention dogs spent an average 33 days in a shelter prior to the start of the programs. Intervention dogs who weighed more typically had longer shelter stays compared to those who weighed less.
Finally, community involvement in the fostering and outing programs was vital for success. Specifically, shelters who had more community members (vs. volunteers or staff members) willing to take dogs on outings and offer temporary foster stays were able to include more dogs in their programs, engage more caregivers, and complete the study at a faster rate.
While the results are promising, there are several limitations to bear in mind. Shelters who want to carry out these programs likely need extensive support and resources that can make it difficult for smaller, less-equipped shelters to participate. The study also relied on shelters self-reporting certain data, which may not have been accurate in all cases. Finally, shelter staff were allowed to choose which dogs participated in their interventions. It’s possible that the staff excluded dogs who may have had a harder time finding homes (e.g., dogs with a history of biting), which could have impacted the results.
Overall the study suggests the importance that socialization can have on rescue dogs. Animal advocates who work with shelters can encourage them to consider short-term fostering and outing programs. Engaging the community in these programs is also important, so advocates can help their local shelters by encouraging residents to participate when fostering and outing programs are available.
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/22/3528