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Introducing new protocols to Shelters and Board Members
A long time ago I had the pleasure of volunteering over at St Hubert’s and learned a lot. I have taken what I learned from my experiences and helped a shelter implement some protocols to help set dogs and humans up for better success.
I am thinking of getting back onto a safety committee for a local shelter and was thinking of some new out of the box ideas to talk about with the committee.
Some things I learned from others was:
-Color coding dogs by colors and levels
-treats on kennels to reinforce all 4 paws on ground, quiet and relax
– how to walk a dog down the aisle in front of kennels (dog in kennel side)
– hanging body language posters around the shelters
-offering basic training for volunteers
-all volunteers need to attend a seminar with all the info above plus more
-Taking some very unsocialized or new dogs out to an area and let them do some nose work ( grated cheese, small treats and tossing them in a wide area of grass on a long lead) this way a dog can start to trust handler and desensitize to surrounding area
-double leashing dogs
Etc….
All protocols like listed above and was curious if I/we can use this forum for passing ideas around?
Thanks
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1 Reply
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@vinnymickey Somehow this post got lost in the shuffle. Sorry about that! I’m commenting and tagging a few shelter lovers to bring this to the top DD activity.
Color coding worked well in the shelter where I worked. We also had training for the volunteers and they were color-coded by skills, too. Then, everyone knew which dogs they were able to walk. If I used this system again, I’d use colors that were not intuitively “bad” like BLACK, RED or YELLOW. Green, Blue, Pink and Orange are alternatives.
What other ideas do you all have for increasing safety in a shelter setting?
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