We had a new paravet at the shelter who had been informed about a dog whose kidney was in bad condition and was still recovering and he needed fluids. I watched him attach IV and the fluid pace was faster than usual. I'd watched and somehow didn't correct or ask him. He gave about 450ml for RL in about 15mins through IV, and left. The founder saw him leaving and asked me is he done with the work, i needed to show him a thing or two but he rushed out. Then we realised the amount of time taken for this fluid session and that this could be bad. I went to check the dog and he was almost unconscious, was peeing and pooping in almost asleep condition with lots of saliva coming from mouth. I mentioned this to the founder and we rushed to hospital.

By then the condition deteriorated more. We took blood test and it was all bad. I felt so anxious and tried ask every option possible to save him and I will bare the full cost whatever it is. But there was nothing to be saved, we had to eurhenise him. I've euthensed multiple dogs before but this one....this one was on me. This one had to leave the world because of me. I almost never cry but today I was sobbing by the sheer carelessness of my actions made that dog lost it's life. I really don't know what to do now... Founder haven't told me anything or scolded, and while I was kindda having a breakdown she said this crying and all will not help these the kind of cases we will be dealing with and we can only do what we can, these dogs are not in this situation cause of us. And ur giving too much importance to yourself, ur nothing. I don't even know what and how I feel about all this and why would she let me still be around dogs

(I'm a volunteer and I do this full-time at this ngo and some freelancing to sustain, also right now we are short staffed so handling 100+ dogs by 4 ppl, just sharing)

Episode 70 - September 23, 2026

Description:

This week Tom is joined by Amy Fitzsimmons from Dog Possible Austin for a really practical chat about life for dogs in shelters. Amy brings along plenty of real dogs she has worked with, and it's their stories that shape the whole conversation, showing how small, simple changes can make a big difference to how a dog copes in kennels.Tom and Amy talk about getting more out of the time dogs spend with staff and volunteers, why every dog doesn't need the same thing, and how slowing down can actually be better for both the dog and the person holding the lead. They also chat about the social side of shelter dogs, and why there is so much more to it than whether or not a dog can go to playgroup.Along the way they touch on shelter culture, being open to change, and why trying the easy things first often makes the most sense. If you've ever felt there just isn't enough time in the day, this episode is full of ideas you can try tomorrow.

To find out more about Amy's work, visit dogpossibleaustin.com or follow @dogpossible on Instagram.About AmyAmy is a Certified Behavior Consultant Canine (CBCC-KA) through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers and a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) and Certified in Shelter Behavior (CSB-D) through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. She is also a Fear Free Certified Trainer (FFCT), a Pet Professional Guild Canine Training Professional, and holds several certificates in ethology, animal learning, and behavior from the Ethology Institute. Prior to transitioning to dog training and behavior modification full-time, Amy was a long time public educator, working in at-risk early childhood education and serving as a teen and family crisis mentor. Her passion for providing humane, effective behavior modification and improving quality of life for dogs in homes and in shelters has only grown during well over a decade in the field. She also loves getting to work with the amazing humans who share that passion, whether for their own dogs or dogs they’re trying to help find their way home. Amy is dog mom to elder muppet/luckdragon mix Monkey and honorary house coyote Socks!

Hello all,

I work at a municipal shelter. We have no adoption fees, and we offer a 90 day return window for any animal adopted. However, we still have people who are horrified at the thought of returning an animal, and people asking if we have a foster to adopt program.

I realize a lot of this is branding - people are more ok with the idea of taking a chance on an animal if they feel its just a foster. Adoption feels like more of a commitment and there's much more guilt about returns. I know a lot of shelters have just rebranded their return periods as foster periods.

Theres a few problems with doing that for us. Chiefly it's a liability issue - our foster program is very conservative because we do not want to be liable for unsafe dogs. Additionally, we don't want animals technically staying "ours" for three months after going home, and we can't afford to supply vet care and supplies that long. However, just calling it a foster or trial adoption period and keeping everything else the same feels like it would be misleading to adopters about who the animal legally belonged to.

I'm considering implementing a very short optional foster to adopt period of somewhere between 3-7 days, and keeping our return policy as-is. However I'd love to hear feedback.

Has your shelter tried a foster to adopt program? What worked and what didn't? Did you see a notable increase in adoptions or decrease in returns?

I'm a design student researching how ordinary people respond when they find animals in distress. I have experience in fostering cats and caring for dogs in and around my house.

And I'm trying to understand the information gap between finding an animal and knowing what the appropriate action is.

For those involved in animal rescue:

What mistakes or misunderstandings do you see people make most often?

And:

What is the one thing you wish people knew before trying to help an animal?

I want to understand the practical problems people encounter, so I can come up with some design solutions that could help. (Feel free to suggest any ideas you have in mind, it would be much appreciated)

Real examples would be really helpful!

Thank youu!!

I work at an animal shelter and a pretty large city and we are over run with cats. This is causing us not to be able to take any non emergency surrenders. This is causing the general public to be extremely rude and just be doen right awful to me in my coworkers. I understand that people are upset that they cannot surrender their animals but I am a firm believer that people should have other alternatives for rehomeing on animal that is not the shelter. Today we had multiple call ins and they was only 4 of us taking care of 100+ animals and doing adoption. First as soon as we open we had someone yell at us for 10 minutes because we wouldn't give the dog she was adopting a bath. We don't have a bath at our shelter. We told her she could bathe the dog when she brought it home that was not good enough for her and she plans to come back everyday until the dog goes home to complain. The dog is on stray hold so get to see her for another week That was a great start to the day. Than we had someone come in to try and surrender an animal. Told her we have no staff to intake animals on the weekend and she could come back Monday. She started freaking out saying it was an emergency, we ask her why she need to surrender. Guess what it wasn't an emergency she just didn't want the animal anymore. Told her no and to come back when our surrender services were open on Monday. She left a negative google review claiming we were not helping her during an emergency and that we were allowing the animal to suffer and that we should all be trained on intakeing . Than we had one of our animal control officers bring in a rabbit. I guess a person was sitting in our parking lot for 30 minutes with the rabbit and call animal control to take. He claims it's a stray but I'm about 100% sure that was his rabbit and he didn't want to wait till Monday to surrender it. And we're required by law to take all strays.

I feel like everyday I work some member of the general public is not happy with us. Me and my coworkers are trying our best and we love animals more than anything but we're extremely full and understaffed. We are struggling every day and I feel the general public does not understand that. I want to know if this us common at other shelters. I have only been working at the shelter for 6 months and I feel like its getting worse every week

For Animal Welfare Week, I want to recognize the people here who keep showing up for animals and for each other. The person working through another mountain of laundry. The volunteer sorting donations so someone can actually find what they need. The staff member helping a family access pet food. The person updating records, writing adoption bios, or making sure tomorrow’s supplies are ready.

Thank you. Those tasks take time, patience, and care, and they deserve recognition even when there isn’t a happy adoption photo attached.

When I asked shelter staff what volunteer help they needed beyond animal handling, I appreciated how many people took time out of already busy days to answer. Your responses helped me put together a podcast episode about the many ways people can support shelters.

One thing I wanted listeners to understand: volunteers should ask what would help your team before arriving with a plan. Your time matters, and you deserve support that actually makes your day easier.

For anyone working or volunteering in a shelter, who on your team deserves a little recognition this week? Or what’s something a volunteer did that made you feel supported?

You don’t need to name anyone or identify your shelter. I’d just love to make some room for appreciation of the people behind the work.

There is a stray animal capture service operating here, and—in violation of the rules—they destroy the animals; at least, that is what people say. Volunteers from the shelter learned that residents of a certain neighborhood had filed a complaint about a mother dog and her puppies, and that the animal control team was coming for them. The volunteers rushed over and brought the mother and puppies back to the shelter.

I’m considering quitting fostering for my local shelter because the staff I work with is too disorganized, makes illogical decisions, communicates too slowly and negatively impacts my life over and over without regard.

I had no onboarding or training, no introductions to staff, when I try to have a discussion about my foster in person the staff acts like they have zero interest in having a conversation with me. Nobody tells me their names or asks for mine

They have me come in for foster support during open shelter hours where I have to wait in line for help behind the general public in the middle of my workday. Why wouldn’t you have volunteers come in before you open to save everyone time and effort?

I try to hold space for how much the staff is juggling outside of my specific needs. I understand things get messy, etc - but still - I’m pretty burnt out pretty quickly and it’s 90% because of how disorganized and disconnected they appear to be to me.

I think fostering isn’t aligned with my goals and capacity, as much as I love supporting the dogs, the shelter isn’t supporting me in that enough with resources or even consideration. Ex, shelter wouldn’t give my last foster dog with recurring emergency diarrhea a different food option

I chose this one because they seemed to need it the most - which is clearly true - but it’s exhausting for me to deal with them. I’m constantly on edge because I have zero framework or guidelines. My fosters are fed the cheapest cornmeal food and I’m told them having diarrhea is expected. I’ve had to hand cook food for all of them, as every single one of them gets emergency diarrhea that has kept me up all night, had accidents indoors, ruined my belongings

I could say a thousand positive things as well and I do have empathy behind my frustration but I’m exhausted.

How would you handle this? What is fair for me to expect? How can I prevent burn out so I can remain patient and empathetic?

I know I am being single minded in my frustration but the way they handle support and resourcing IS the cause for my burnout, not the dogs

Though it may equally be a lack of an ability to hold my own boundaries in the face of a dog in need.

Signed - exhausted and overwhelmed foster

I started walking dogs at a local CA county shelter. I’m constantly getting emails from the volunteer coordinator saying they don’t have dog walkers signed up for a given day.

I went last weekend and there were only 3 of us, by the end of my 4 hour volunteer shift we still hadn’t gotten to all the dogs, I asked the volunteer coordinator if there were more people coming in the afternoon shift and she said barely, only two. I know a lot of retired people volunteer, but I also meet people who work and can only come on weekends like myself.

From what I’ve been seeing over the last 2 months, there’s such a heavy need for volunteers. So my question is, are there people employed by these shelters that also help get dogs out to go potty? And if not how is that even possible?

I started volunteering at a local CA shelter. I’m constantly getting emails from the volunteer coordinator saying they don’t have dog walking volunteers signed up for a given day.

I went last weekend and there were only 3 of us, by the end of my 4 hour volunteer shift we still hadn’t gotten to all the dogs, I asked the volunteer coordinator if there were more people coming in the afternoon shift and she said barely, only two. I know a lot of retired people volunteer, but I also meet people who work and can only come on weekends like myself.

From what I’ve been seeing over the last 2 months, there’s such a heavy need for volunteers. So my question is, are there people employed by these shelters that also help get dogs out to go potty? And if not how is that even possible?

Hey all!

Are there like official statistics out there around survival rates for kittens that get separated from mom too soon? (I.e. well-meaning individuals find kittens and assume they are in need of help and bring them to a shelter, removing them from mom's care when she likely just went away to hunt or hide from the human.) I think stats around this could really help highlight how important it is to NOT do that...

I am currently in my husband's home country (South American country) visiting his family and working on some business we have out here, but most of the time we live in the UK. Every time we come here I hate to see the state of the animals, I know it's a different culture and there's not the education or facilities for animal welfare that I am used to but I wish I could do something about it. Every time I end up with an animal or a few to take care of, this time I have a tiny kitten who was brought home from a building site where she was found without her mum when I'm sure she probably still should be with her, and a puppy we found abandoned on a road far away from anywhere and doused in gasoline. I took them both to the local vet yesterday and asked if there is any sort of organisation for the welfare or rescue of animals out here and there's nothing in the local area, the closest would be over an hour away. The vet has also only been in practice for a few years and before that there were no small animal vets in the area. At the moment she is offering spay and neutering services at a heavily discounted price but still a lot of people won't pay it or don't believe in it. If we were staying permanently I would start up my own rescue setup but we don't plan to move out here for a few years yet, I am trying to put together a plan to maybe start a remote funding charity and work with the vet to offer free spay/ neutering and vaccinations, but I've never done anything like that before and so would appreciate any advice or ideas of how to go about it!

Just finished scrubbing the most disgusting well‑used toilet at the shelter.
Seconds later a kitten put on a live pooping show for me.
There was even another cat standing there supervising, making sure it buried its poop correctly.

Typical shelter cat chaos 😂

I quit my job almost a month ago and taking time off for an upcoming surgery, luckily me and my partner are well off enough financially where we won't go into debt with me not having a job until next year (recovery will take a few months for me to be back at 100%)

I don't know where to go from here. I'm in a very small town with less than 10 possible jobs for me to move onto that involves a shelter or rescue of some kind. But honestly my last job had me questioning the animal shelter jobs all together. I've seem the worst of the worst, dogs being neglected to the point of death, people who should have felonies get off with misdemeanors when they should rot in prison like the dogs they left to die. My boss had a problem with me for some reason unknown to me, since I quit my other coworker has put in their two weeks and my other coworker (the only one remaining other than the director, aka my boss) says she's going to quit if the workload falls onto her, which it sounds like it has been. That same coworker has been taking about opening her own boarding buisness, which she already said I'd be the first person she reaches out to to hire, but idk.

I know you have to be mentally and emotionally tough for this kind of work. Honestly the drama with my boss hurts worse than the abuse and neglect I've seen. I gave over 2 years of my life to this place when I could have been in college getting a degree that might actually mean something some day. I've fostered over 20 kittens in the last 5 months and even though I'm not working there I'm currently fostering 3 bottle kittens because we simply don't have enough people to keep up with everything. It's funny because my boss says we rely on our volunteers so much yet here I am sill volunteering my unpaid time while also stressing about surgery prep. I don't know what to do anymore, I've never been more drained than I am now. I used to think "well it can't get any worse than it is now" and yet here we are with the shelter on the verge of shutting down for good just because no one can fill the space I left and coworkers are quitting ever since I stood up for myself and put in my 2 weeks.

Idk what response I'm looking for here. Should I even continue working with animals at all? Should I just say fuck it all and get an office job and be even more miserable with a good paycheck and benefits or tough this out, move on to a different shelter and hope and pray it's not worse than this last place? I just wish I had the funds to open and run my own business, me and my partner are saving up for a big farmhouse where I can do my own board and train thing, but that's years if not decades down the road and who knows what the economy will look like then, not any better that's for sure.

I don't know, I feel hopeless. I'll have a few months to do job searching but I just don't know where to go from here. I feel like nothing I do will ever be good enough for anybody, but then I get told it's awful without me there, yet my boss hasn't begged me to come back yet. I was told by my boss I was the best employee they've had in over ten years so for me to be so underappreciated just really sucks because I know that place won't run as good without me there, but for my own mental and physical health I just couldn't stick around any longer.

for staff that work with dog volunteers: what do you think volunteers miss/don’t see? What frustrates you? What has been helpful that you wish more volunteers knew/did? Common mistakes volunteers make? Basically, what feedback would you give your volunteers?

(context: volunteer at a shelter on dramatic flux where front line staff and volunteers are both working hard. trying to think as much as possible about how to help dogs, but also not be a burden to staff).

Has anyone taken the classes for certification to euthanize? Whats it entail?

I was the backbone of that place. I was the muscle, the quick thinker in separating dog fights, catching feral cats/kittens. I've officially quit and I'm still fostering 3 kittens, these will be my number 20-23 fosters in the last 6 months.

After I quit my other coworker also put in their leave, will be quitting in a few weeks. That leaves only my boss and one other coworker. I won't be surprised if my boss begs me to come back and my boyfriend says if that happens to stand my ground and not give in. But then I think about what will happen to all those animals if the shelter ends up going under. If they end up having to be euthanized for lack of staff I would forever feel guilty, and that would be the only reason I ever go back is to keep those babies alive. It's a very small town and ebwy shelter in a 3 hour radius has full kennels. We're at compacity already, hence why I have bottle kittens right now even when I don't work there currently, I guess I'm technically volunteering my time off.

Idk, i feel guilty for quitting but I also know I was working in unsafe and unfit conditions for the animals/myself so I had to save myself and my mental/physical health and get out of there. My final straw was getting bit by a dog who has bit over 4 people now and we have no way of properly managing or handling that dog in any way when it's reactive, hence why I got bit. Multiple coworkers have been blamed for getting bit by dogs who had behavioral problems which went unaddressed and unreported when a bite occurred.

Idk, part of me wants to go back because my coworker told me how much it's sucked since I've left, but another part of me hopes my boss realizes how much effort I put into that place and that I managed more of the workload than she truly realizes and man's up to ask me to have an adult conversation instead of tiptoeing around her reason for not wanting me to work there.

Idk if I'm looking for advice or just to vent. But if it comes down to animals getting euthanized due to no one being there to take care of them, I don't think I can not go back. Some of those dogs and cats I've known for years and can't let myself do that to them.

I just wish it were easier to be on the same page with people, but anytime me or my coworkers brought up a concern we were dismissed or dumbed down so it just seemed pointless to even try to put in any effort to begin with. Feeling conflicted with what to do and how things will end up with this shelter, I don't know how to feel but I can't let those animals suffer bad management.

I spoke with an animal control officer today to report a stray dog on my street. He informed me that they are at capacity and can not take in any animals as they only have 10 kennels in the shelter. Our city has a 30,000 population. I called the surrounding cities of similar size, and they have between 35 and 40, each.

That is abysmal. This is the 3rd dog I have reported that could not be taken in because the shelter doesn't have enough kennels.

I want to change this. The officer recommended emailing the city council, mayor, and city manager, so I am drafting one now.

What else can I do to improve this? Has anyone had any luck getting an expansion for their local shelter?

Our vet team said to feed a “bland diet” to the 4 dogs who have diarrhea. But as far as I can see the staff is still feeding kibble.

I come from boarding and there when my old manager said to feed a bland diet she meant white rice with canned chicken. So I asked my current boss at the shelter what we should be feeding them and she said “biome or I/D” (both are varieties of kibble)

So I’m confused. Why didn’t the vet team just say “biome” or “I/D” instead of “bland diet”?

When someone instructs you to feed a bland diet does that mean digestive formula kibble with no wet food or toppers mixed in? Or literally rice and canned chicken? Thanks!

For context, my previous shelter had about a 90% LRR, was medium to large, and private with a municipal contract. Dogs who weren’t good adoption candidates or who had poor QOL were generally euthanized without being publicly advertised, and we only reached out to rescues when we thought they might be a good fit. We had a really positive reputation in the community and strong adoption numbers.

I now work in a municipal shelter in CA. We are about the same size if not a little smaller. Our live release rate for dogs is also about 90%. That’s where the similarities end. When a dog is deemed not a good adoption candidate here, they are put on a euth list that’s sent around to all the rescue partners. They are posted on our website and used to be posted in our lobby though I ended that. When an adoptable dog has a euth date it is highlighted brightly on their kennel card. The euth date is set to a week out, but we get so much pressure from the community we usually end up extending it by a few weeks.

During that time, “networkers,” who are really just private citizens who are on FB like it’s a full time job, blast these dogs everywhere. It’s the typical “MAX WILL BE MURDERED TOMORROW ‼️” bullshit. They get mad we don’t advertise euth listed dogs more, but when we do post about them they flood our comments with the same shit.

The thing is, a huge amount of these dogs DO get pulled by rescues and it’s part of why are LRR stays at 90%. Are they great rescues? Who knows. Often not. But my shelter’s interpretation of Hayden’s law is that we have to publish this list of dogs and send it to them. What makes things harder is that while no one at the shelter is exactly happy about how things are, a lot of people think pushing euthanasia so heavily is the only way to get dogs out. They work with the “networkers” because they think without their alarmist posts dogs wouldn’t be pulled.

Sadly it’s somewhat true-rescues only seem to pull when the situation is dire (unless it’s a small fluffy thing of course.) I’ve had so many rescues tell me “oh I would pull so-and-so, but they aren’t on the euth list.” Even making them available for adoption while still euth listed reduces rescue interest. Preversly, this has led to staff making borderline but adoptable dogs unavailable because they think rescue will be a faster path out than adoption.

Our image in the community is awful. We are seen as this horrible, super high kill shelter, even to other shelters and rescues in the area. People come in all the time with the craziest misconceptions about us: that we euthanize automatically after 3 days, that any dog that gets returned is automatically euthanized, etc.

My feeling is if we didn’t make the euth list public, only shared it with rescues, only made them available for a short time before doing what needed to be done, and refused to work with anyone posting alarmist shit, our image would theoretically improve and we’d have many more adoptions. However I know this would get push back from pretty much everyone because yes, without “networkers” pushing these dogs so heavily and so many rescues pulling, our euth numbers would probably rise at first.

Also, if we did this people would lose their minds and claim we are hiding euthanasia, and probably go to the city council about it and tie our hands.

If anyone has any ideas on how to improve this situation I am all ears. Compared to every shelter I have ever worked in I feel like we are 30 years behind and I don’t know how we can begin to change.

TL;DR: I work at one of those typical CA municipal shelters whose euth listed dogs get blasted everywhere on social media. Because of that, my shelter is seen as extremely high kill despite our 90% live release rate. How can we begin to address our image?

I got a cat on Friday from the humane society. She’d been there the longest out of all the cats (over 13 months) which is why I chose her. I was told she takes a while to warm up to people and will “never be a snuggly cat.” She warmed up to me by Sunday and she is the cuddliest cat I have ever had. She loves to curl up on my stomach/side (she’s laying on her back next to me right now), wakes me up at night demanding attention, and she seems very happy and it hasn’t even been a week!
Anyway, I’d love to update the shelter because she was there for so long and a lot of the staff did say that they liked her but I’m not totally sure if they want/appreciate any updates… let me know :)