201812.27
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Orange County shelter starts doggie playgroups so they are happier and easier to match for adoptions

by in News

Dogs who frolic with other dogs are happy.

Happy dogs have fewer behavioral issues.

Happy, well-behaved dogs are more adoptable.

These principles are the foundation of Dogs Playing for Life, a program recently launched at OC Animal Care’s shelter.

  • Staff at OC Animal Care observe dogs during a play session, which is part of the recently launched Dogs Playing for Life program. The play sessions give staff the chance to assess the dogs’ personalities so they can make better choices for adoption. The sessions also improve the dogs’ behavior, making them more attractive to potential adopters. (Courtesy of Lou Ponsi)

  • Harrison, a resident of the OC Animal Care shelter, enjoys rolling and frolicking during a recent play session, which is part of the shelter’s Dogs Playing for Life program. (Courtesy of Lou Ponsi)

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  • Canine residents at OC Animal Care participate in daily playgroup sessions, as part o f the Dogs Playing for Life program, which is designed to improve their temperament and correct behavioral problems. (Courtesy of Lou Ponsi)

  • A schedule regulating playgroups is posted at the OC Animal Care shelter in Tustin. The shelter recently launched a program called Dogs Playing for Life, designed to improve behavior and therefore raise adoption rates. (Courtesy of Lou Ponsi)

  • OC Animal Care director Mike Kaviani enjoys interacting with a canine resident during a recent play session. Kaviani started the Dogs Playing for Life program at the shetler, designed to make dogs happier and improve behavioral issues. (Courtesy of Lou Ponsi)

  • Canine residents at OC Animal Care’s shelter participate in daily playgroup sessions as part of the Dogs Playing for Life program, which is designed to improve their temperament and correct behavioral problems. (Courtesy of Lou Ponsi)

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“In animal sheltering, we have dogs that are unfortunate enough to find themselves homeless and living in an animal shelter, segregated in concrete or metal kennels,” OC Animal Care director Mike Kaviani said. He launched the program using monitored doggy playgroups after being hired in August. “They are bored. They are frustrated and now we are asking people to adopt them and we’re asking (the dogs) to behave themselves.”

Dogs in shelters need to have the opportunity to be a dog, and engage in the same activities as dogs in loving homes, he said. “We give dogs the opportunity to get out, to run around, to de-stress.”

Kaviani, who has been in the animal care for 14 years, was relatively new to the industry when he implemented similar canine playgroups at the Irvine Animal Care Center more than a decade ago.

“That was more just doing what felt natural,” he said about making the change. “It just seemed like the right thing to do for a dog.”

In 2009, Kaviani worked at a shelter in Long Island, New York, under the guidance of Aimee Sadler, founder of Dogs Playing for Life. Sadler has been the director of training and  behavior at the Longmont Humane Society in Colorado and the Southampton Animal Foundation in New York.

Sadler was a trainer when she was hired to work with dogs at the public shelter in Southampton and realized letting dogs play together in groups made them more responsive during training.

“Logically, happier and satisfied animals are generally less stressed, which equates to less disease and extreme behavior that puts people and animals at risk,” Sadler wrote on the Dogs Playing for Life website. “Subsequently, shelter animals are safer in the process … so more animals are finding their way into loving homes.”

While running play groups at the Long Island shelter, Kaviani said he noted a positive impact adoption rates and lengths of stay.

Kaviani then ran play groups as the director of life saving operations for the nonprofit Austin Pets Alive in Texas, a program with a 90-percent save rate.

Before he moved on to OC Animal Care, Kaviani said the save rate for dogs in Austin spiked to 99 percent.

“Much more thoughtful adoption matches” can be made, Kaviani said. “Because we know their personalities, we know how they interact with other dogs.

“But they are also interacting with so many people during the play group process,” he said, “that we really get to know then so much better than just the occasional walk.”

Typically, about 40 dogs a day participate in monitored 20-minute play groups at the Orange County shelter, with between two and 15 dogs in a single group.

The facility plans to increase that number over time, Kaviani said.

The new, much larger shelter facility opened in Tustin in March with more space for such programs.

It is too soon to measure the overall impact of the program at OC Animal Care’s shelter, Kaviani said, but at least one long-term resident dog was found a home after participating in play groups.

“We are able to really change the whole game for the dogs  here,” Kaviani said. “We can immediately see dogs that have far less shelter stress. They are having their needs met. They are just a mentally happier and physically healthier dog.”

 

***Communities served by OC Animal Care’s shelter

Anaheim

Brea

Cypress

Fountain Valley

Fullerton

Huntington Beach

Lake Forest

Orange

Placentia

San Juan Capistrano

Santa Ana

Tustin

Unincorporated county

Villa Park

Yorba Linda