OUR PROGRAMS
Our weekly no contact community pack walks are a great way to socialize your dog and encourage them to be calm around others on leash. Pack walks build confidence and strengthen the bond between human and canine, and can be an opportunity to help work through reactivity, overexcitement, or anxiety within a supportive group.
Dogs don't meet on our pack walks, and maintain a distance of at least ten feet. For more information about our pack walks & to sign a release to attend, click the button.
The Urban Dog Workshops provides free behavior & management help for people & their dogs. You will learn how to fulfill your dog's need for engagement and species specific enrichment.
Our curriculum will help improve your communication with your dog, increase your skills as their handler and practice safety in daily situations encountered in densely populated urban environments. For information on our workshops or to request a behavior evaluation, click on the button.
Our Safety Net program provides resources and counseling to community members who need support to keep dogs in their homes and out of the shelter.
We assist with housing issues, behavior challenges, medical & other challenges. We provide these resources remotely and through community events across the Southland. Please donate to our community assistance program so we can continue to offer assistance. To find out more, click on the button.
Blockheads About Town takes shelter & rescue dogs out of the kennel and out about town, providing exercise, enrichment and social media exposure. This greatly reduces dogs' stress & lowers cortisol, making them more appealing to potential adopters. These breaks in kennel life greatly improve dogs' wellbeing and offer increased exposure. For information on our shelter dog field trips, click the button.
Block By Block Housing Initiative advocates for inclusive housing policies to end the practice of discrimination against animal family members. Through outreach to property owners, renters, home insurance companies and other organizations, we are building a coalition to share secure housing information and to increase properties that have an open door policy for families with pets. Providing support for ESA letters is another goal of our fair housing initiative.
We advocate for progressive, humane shelter policies and programs. CEO Laura Vena, MFA, UW-AAB, was a rep on LBACS Visioning Task Force, and worked closely with the community, shelter staff and consultants to create a strategic plan to bring about changes called for by a city audit. CFO, Jennifer Rethwisch, was the lead auditor in charge of the investigation into shelter practices, culminating in a well respected audit report used to advance change.
