4 Things a California Shelter Learned When They Started Day Trips for Dogs

Field trips for dogs are great for boosting their adoptions and engaging with your community (research shows that dogs taken on a field trip are five times more likely to be adopted!), but those aren’t the only benefits. Shelters and rescue organizations are seeing advantages for volunteers and staff as well!

When Sarah Aguilar became Director of Santa Barbara County Animal Services, starting a field trip program for their dogs was high on her to-do list. The program started small, scheduling just three field trips per week. They began to see benefits in community engagement and canine wellbeing immediately. In just the first quarter of 2024, their community took their dogs on a whopping 895 trips with SBCAS dogs! “That’s animals out of the kennel during the day, off campus, getting that break from the stress of the shelter,” Aguilar explains.

Here are some of the things they’ve learned:

Want to help long stay dogs? Start with the easy ones. Since many participants were new to handling the shelter’s dogs, they began the program with dogs who were suited for beginners.  “Start with what you’re most comfortable with,” Aguilar suggests. As participants gained skills, they were able to safely handle dogs whose behavior was more complicated to manage, like dogs who are jumpy-mouthy or leash reactive.

Using their regular foster agreement made it easy for staff and participants. Since they used their regular foster procedures and paperwork, staff didn’t need to learn a whole new process just for this program. Even better, since participants signed the shelter’s regular foster agreement, this made it easy for them to convert their day trips into longer foster experiences.

Students are some of their best advocates. Not only do students often have flexible schedules, but many are already skilled in the art of social media. Aguilar says some of their most enthusiastic, marketing-savvy field trip participants are high school and college students.

The dogs aren’t the only ones who benefit! “It’s had a huge impact not only on the animals’ wellbeing but also the staff and the volunteers,” says Aguilar. “The level of empowerment they feel to take animals and get them seen…it’s so motivational for them to see that shift and see the dogs outside of the shelter. It connects them to the power they have to make a difference in the lives of animals.” 

You can learn more about SBCAS’s program in this webcast and see the presentation slides in Maddie’s^® Pet Forum’s Resource Library. Looking to start a program of your own? Check out the Short-Term Foster and Field Trips course on Maddie’s^® University!