October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, so all month long we’ll be taking a look at adopting a dog and supporting your local shelters! We thought we’d get started with a few easy ways to celebrate all the lovely shelter dogs that are patiently waiting for their soon-to-be families to arrive and adopt them:

1. Volunteer at your local shelter: Maybe you don’t have the time or energy to volunteer as a regular dog walker (if you do, please run to your nearest shelter – they always need volunteers to exercise the dogs!), but there are plenty of other ways you can help. Need ideas? Offer to stuff Kongs with wet food or peanut butter, stop by to do a few loads of laundry, spend some time sitting with dogs in their kennels, man the table at a weekend event, take photographs of the dogs for their online bios, or assist at the front desk with admin jobs. Shelters are always in need of more helping hands.

2. Donate. If you can’t donate time, you can never go wrong with a financial donation. General donations are perfect, but if you have a soft spot for senior dogs or medical cases, ask if your shelter has a special fund and direct your contribution to those funds. If you’d prefer not to donate money, shelters often need tough toys, like black Kongs, soft blankets, and wet/dry food.

3. Open your home to a temporary buddy. Foster families are the angels of the shelter world. Many dogs need a temporary stay in a real home in order to get ready for adoption. They might have a medical issue and need a quiet place to rest or perhaps they need a little extra training and would benefit from learning the ropes in a real life home environment. Or it might just be a space issue – the shelter is full and they need temporary foster homes for their dogs. Foster homes save lives. It’s not always easy, but the rewards are huge!

4. Adopt! That’s kind of obvious, huh? We’ll talk more this month about adopting a new dog and how to find the right match for your family.

In order to create a humane community, where shelters are thriving, adoptions are plentiful, and no adoptable dog is put to sleep, it’s up to all of us to support them. They won’t make it without our help!

Have you adopted a dog from a shelter or rescue? Post their photos on our Facebook page – we want to see their cute faces!