WAUKESHA, Wis. — The Humane Animal Welfare Society of Waukesha County has been hard at work implementing a new program to help hundreds of dogs staying at the shelter.
Over the past year, HAWS has seen an uptick in the number of dogs having longer stays. That’s why they’ve created a program to help; it’s called the K9 Task Force.
HAWS is known for taking in animals and finding them a forever home, but recently, they’ve seen that process take a lot longer for some of their dogs.
On average, a dog will stay with HAWS for a few days to up to two weeks. Now, more dogs are staying months before finding a forever home.
“After months in the shelter, it gets pretty stressful,” HAWS Behavior Department Program Director Kendall Sypult said.
Sypult is part of the launch of the K9 Task Force. The task force was put together to add additional resources and care for dogs that are spending longer amounts of time in the shelter.
The program allows dogs to have outings multiple times a week, behavior training and access to an enrichment team. It also helps them through practice viewings and overnight stays.
“We start to see dogs like Chief starts to gain weight and start to get happy when they see people and again, going on overnights and outings, we get to learn about their personality and see what these dogs are like outside of the shelter,” Sypult said.
It’s a team effort and Mod Squad volunteer Merry Jaeger said she can see the impact this program is making on the lives of these dogs.
“It makes me very happy to know that we can get through to shy dogs like Kate,” Jaeger said.
The extra outings and socialization is ultimately helping to better the dogs and increase their chances of finding a home.
“Seeing them get their forever homes and finding the right people who have the patience and the knowledge to work with them is fantastic, it’s wonderful,” Jaeger said.
Since June 2022, nearly 200 dogs have been adopted with the help of the K9 Task Force. The team said this stat is something they’re proud of and that they hope they can continue their success in 2023.