County Innovations and Solutions - Aug. 24, 2015

A Walk in the Park Proves Worthwhile for Shelter Pups

Pitbulls aren’t bad dogs, you just have to get to know them.

Now, by holding walks in the park for shelter dogs, Maricopa County, Ariz. is giving them a chance to show off their personali­ties and possibly find a new home.

“They’re one of the breeds that’s harder to find homes for,” Melissa Gable said about pit bulls and pit bull mixes. She’s the spokeswoman for the county animal care and control department. “A lot of dogs are easy to adopt, but others need to make a bond with a prospective owner.”

That’s where field trips to Usery Mountain Regional Park come in handy. Once a month in cooler weather, since 2013, volunteers take sets of dogs there for walks, where they can be paired with families interested in adopting. It gives the animal care and control department all sorts of opportunities with the dogs, and the parks and recreation department demonstrates that its parks are dog-friendly.

And it works, with 10 dogs and counting finding new homes.

A recent pitbull mix, Bentley, had been at the county shelter for about six months.

“They’re resilient breed,” Gable said about pitbulls. “The shelter environment doesn’t seem to affect them as harshly as other breeds, which helps, because they are around a little longer. They carry a stigma of being vicious.”

But getting them out of the shelter offers an opportunity to imagine a life away from the cages in which they live. It gives dogs like Bentley a chance to social­ize in a more relaxed setting, but also offers the animal control and care department a glimpse into how the dogs react riding in cars, walking on leashes and interacting with children.

It turned out Bentley got along pretty well with a young boy and his dad who came to a “wag ‘n’ walk” last winter. They had lost another dog to cancer a few months before, and the father told his son that when he saved up enough money for the adoption fee, they could get another dog.

“They just gravitated to each other,” Gable said. “It was pretty clear they were right for each other.”

All of the requisite paperwork is at the park already, so dogs could conceivably go home with families that day. But Gable also said the department made it clear the absence of a match wasn’t failure.

“Sometimes it will take a few months for a dog to find a new home,” she said. “We’re patient, and so are they.”

Gable relies on a long roster of volunteers and hopes roughly 10 can make it to each wag ‘n’ walk. Those volunteers keep the costs of the program minimal, but the impact remains positive.

“Even if the dogs aren’t adopted, they get time away from the shelter and a change in pace,” she said. “Nothing is wasted.”

The animal control and care department is considering holding similar events in the western part of Maricopa County, and doing similar one-day events at other county parks.

County Innovations and Solutions features award-winning programs. Maricopa County’s Wag ‘n’ Walk program was named best in category for Parks and Recreation among 2015 NACo Achievement Award entries.