Evidence-based enrichment programs for shelter dogs that reduce stress, improve behavior, and increase adoption success.
Shelter dog enrichment is one of the most welfare-impactful investments available to animal sheltering organizations. Dogs in kennels without enrichment deteriorate behaviorally — increasing stereotypic behavior, anxious vocalization, and social withdrawal over time — in ways that simultaneously reduce their welfare and their adoptability. The interventions that help most are also the interventions that require the most human time: play groups, training sessions, foster placements, and structured exercise. Volunteer programs that provide these time-intensive enrichment activities are among the most direct welfare contributions available to members of the public who want to improve shelter animal welfare without formal employment in the field.