We are very excited to announce a brand new APA! program called Healthy Dogs, Healthy People!
We have an adoption/dog borrowing site on the Lady Bird Trail* under the Mopac bridge, on the south side, Saturdays and Sundays 9am-noon.
You can meet dogs and take them for a walk or run with you.
We plan to have dogs of varying fitness levels available, although we really hope to find running buddy adopters for some of our more active dogs.
We're excited about this site because it provides so much enrichment for the dogs, especially the ones who have been homeless for awhile and perhaps living in a cage at TLAC for months (TLAC volunteers are also bringing some of their long-stay dogs to get them more exposure).
Some people are surprised at what great dogs we have at the site. They wrongly assume that something must be wrong with a dog who has been waiting for adoption for 3-6 months. If you're on the trail, please come meet them!
In addition to the site on Lady Bird Lake, the Healthy Dogs, Healthy People program will serve as a strong behavior and enrichment support system for our dogs. We are partnering with professional trainers to enroll our dogs in obedience and enrichment classes, and to provide training and support to our fosters, volunteers, and staff.
We want to run this as a daily site, but are not able to afford it yet. We are looking for donations and sponsorship to help us increase our time there and build sustainability. We also need volunteers to help manage the site.
*You may remember that we opened a trail adoption site a few months ago. Unfortunately, we couldn't continue that site with our current model because adoptions were low and the donations from passers-by would not sustain us there, like they do at other locations. However, the site offers TONS of other wonderful benefits - socialization, exercise, and a change of scenery for our dogs as well as a wonderful outreach and PR opportunity for APA!. Rather than give up those benefits because the site couldn't sustain itself financially in the way our other adoption sites do, we created the Healthy Dogs, Healthy People program!
