Doggy Day Out!!!!.
Doggy Day Out is a unique program that allows people who might not be
able to have a pet to enjoy the benefits of pet ownership while doing something great
for a shelter animal. It encourages people to take shelter dogs on outings and field trips
in the community. Common Doggy Day Outs can include a hike, a trip to a beach or lake,
a sleepover in a home or even a nice dinner in a pet friendly restaurant. By offering low
barrier to entry and minimal time commitment to participants, it encourages members
of the public who normally wouldn’t have time to volunteer to engage with their local
shelter and advocate for the animals. Participants don’t have to commit to a minimum
amount of outings or undergo arduous training, making it easier for staff to implement
and manage.
How To Participate:
Joining Doggy Day Out is easy. We’ll go over some basic steps for getting the program
up and running in this toolkit and link you to handy templates for needed forms. We do
ask shelters to follow a few basic guidelines.
• Social Posts. We ask all Doggy Day Out participating shelters to post photos and
videos on their social channels and tag us in the posts. We are @MutualRescue
on both Facebook and Instagram. Please also use the hashtag #doggydayout.
This allows us to repost your content, getting your shelter and adoptable pets a
wider reach.
• Low Barrier to Entry. One of the most important tenets of the Doggy Day Out
program (and what makes it such a success) is the low barrier to entry for
volunteers. While some shelters have existing programs that allow volunteers to
take dogs out for excursions, Mutual Rescue Doggy Day Out encourages
members of the public who can’t make a long-term volunteer commitment to
participate. While a brief orientation is fine, they shouldn’t be expected to
attend classes over several weeks or months or make a minimum time commitment. This toolkit will provide information on how to run the program
safely and effectively without necessitating lengthy training.