Islip animal shelter partners with nonprofit to improve doggy playtime, help pups find homes

A nonprofit is helping the Islip Animal Shelter create more play time for pups, an initiative the shelter says could make the dogs happier and healthier — and better match families with furry friends. 

The Islip shelter is among nearly 400 across the country, including five others on Long Island, that have worked with Dogs Playing for Life, a nonprofit dedicated to socializing shelter dogs. 

The group is holding a four-day workshop through the first week of April to train shelter staff how to manage play time for larger groups of dogs. The program is paid for by Petco Love and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals at no cost to the town or shelter.

Jessica Abbate, assistant supervisor at the Islip shelter, said the program will teach staff and volunteers there how to group dogs based on personalities and play-styles.

“It’s better quality of life for the dogs inside the shelter,” she said. “They’re happier in their kennels because they get to express all that energy.”

It also “shows us which dogs are great with other dogs,” she added. “A lot of people that are looking to adopt ... look for dogs that are dog-friendly, so we can really get a better idea about how the dogs interact with other dogs.”

The shelter has nearly 100 dogs in its care right now, Abbate said, making it difficult to exercise all of them individually or even in smaller groups on a daily basis, which staff tries to do as much as possible.

"We want our staff and our volunteers to feel comfortable running these playgroups, whether it's a couple of dogs or ten dogs," she said. 

Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter said the program will help staff at the shelter learn how to “classify dogs” and match them with future families.

“It’s mostly education and comfort, more than anything else. Dogs already know how to play,” said Emily Grossheider, chief operations officer at the nonprofit.

The goal is to teach shelter staff the skills needed to “read dogs,” she said, as well as “how to minimize conflict when possible, and then how to let the dogs resolve it.”

The nonprofit says that, according to surveys of participating shelters, playgroups helped shelters make better adoption matches 99% of the time and allowed staff to better assess dog-to-dog concerns 98% of the time.

Jolean Clarkin, a dog trainer for 21 years and owner of K9 Advanced Training in Holbrook, said a lot of Long Island shelters have started incorporating group playtime for dogs in recent years.

Other towns that have partnered with Dogs Playing for Life to train shelter staff how to manage larger dog playgroups include Hempstead, Brookhaven, Southold, Southampton and Huntington, according to the nonprofit. 

She said starting a play initiative is “great” but cautioned it’s “extremely important” for shelters to “have people very experienced in doggy playtime, and who know how to read dogs' body language, because a situation can arise where there’s a dog fight.” 

More than one person is needed to supervise larger playgroups, she said, and they should know how to safely break up a fight among dogs.

Dogs should also be assessed by veterinarians before interacting with large groups to limit disease spread in the shelter, she said.

But, overall, she said play initiatives like the one at Islip animal shelter are a positive for the dogs. 

Large playgroups at shelters can help staff better assess the personalities of individual dogs, and whether they’re friendly to other dogs, she said. “Also, the dogs are getting exercise so they don’t have behavioral problems in the shelters. Kennel life is very difficult on a dog, so that would be very positive."

Dogs Playing for Life said a survey of participating shelters found that all believe the benefits of large playgroups outweigh the risks, and 99% said playgroups improved the quality of life for dogs at the shelter. Nearly 90% reported that dog fights requiring vet attention "never" or "rarely" happened in playgroups.

Every dog at the Islip shelter “will benefit from the program," Abbate said.

“Even if they just give us tips for the more difficult dogs, or the dogs that aren’t dog-friendly per se, they can give us more information about in-kennel enrichment,” she said.

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com

Brianne Ledda covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.