8 easy ways to reduce dog bites in your animal shelter

As we head into the busy summer season, many animal shelters are at or above capacity. Unfortunately, with crowded conditions, dogs are often less likely to get exercise and kennel breaks, shelters are generally louder and more stressful, and safety incidents may increase. Though bites in shelters are usually minor, even a nip can be scary to the person and put a dog's life at risk, so taking measures to avoid bites is crucial.

The very best way to create a safer shelter is to put more of your time and resources into building high-volume foster and volunteer programs because engaging your community will have the biggest payoff in safety, lifesaving, and even cost savings! For the dogs that will be housed in your shelter, here are a few simple, inexpensive things you can do right now to keep staff, volunteers, and the public safe and avoid euthanizing dogs due to kennel stress behaviors.?

1. Put emergency safety buckets in every dog housing area of your shelter. These should be red or another unique color and be clearly marked with the words, “Emergency Safety Equipment.” Contents should include an air horn, a whistle, a leash, a bite stick, and compressed air spray (pet corrector is my preferred brand), along with anything else that is part of your usual safety equipment stock. Train all staff and volunteers how to use these tools in an emergency situation.?
2. Assign radios to animal caretakers, veterinary technicians, supervisors, managers, and any other staff who move around the building and/or interact with dogs. Create a simple emergency phrase that can be used so when help is needed, a staff member can simply pick up their radio and say something like, “Code Orange, Medical Isolation Kennel 5” and all hands on deck can quickly move in to assist. In some cases, radios should be given to volunteers as well, especially for volunteers that handle more challenging dogs and those who work with dogs when the shelter is closed and there are not many other people around.?
3. Provide important safety information on your kennel cards. The front side of the kennel card should offer information to the general public and the back side of the card should contain pertinent information that volunteer and staff handlers should know before getting the dog out of the kennel. This is one of the simplest ways to keep people safe and this is a critical step to reducing bites and other safety incidents.?
4. Give every single-housed dog something to chew on all the time. Benebones are my favorite choice because dogs seem to really like them but Nylabones are also a good option. They can stay in the kennel with the dog for multiple days and can be washed right along with the dishes.

The sharp edges that develop over time can be easily smoothed down with a dremel tool and volunteers love the job of creating fresh, newly-prepared Benebones! Once you start giving the dogs something to chew on, you can expect to see a reduction in bites in the kennel area because you’ve given the dogs a consistent chewable outlet for their frustration! To learn how to purchase Benebones at the special shelter rate and see all the products I recommend, visit my website.?

5. Use a dot color handling system. You don’t need special collars to indicate the handling level of each dog. Simple sticky dots you can buy at any office supply store will do the trick. The dot color does not indicate anything about the dog’s overall history or temperament, but tells people who is permitted to handle each dog based on a brief handling assessment done at intake and any other information gathered since.

A green dot indicates a first-time volunteer can handle that dog. A blue dot may indicate a dog is shy or scared or may be a flight risk. An orange dot can indicate the dog is strong, pulls, and/or is barrier reactive and needs a more experienced handler. A red dot can indicate that no one but approved staff should handle the dog.?

6. Use appropriate handling equipment. Each dog should be outfitted with a flat or martingale collar and staff should use regular flat leashes rather than slip leads (except in some special cases where the dog is more easily restrained with a slip lead). Freedom Harnesses and Easy Walk Harnesses are great options for stronger dogs with the leash clipped to both the front of the harness and the collar for security. If your shelter does not currently put collars on dogs, find a way to change this. Many shelters get all their collars donated and others purchase them at a bulk rate. The bonus is this allows you to send home dogs with their collars with tags already on!?

7. Install walk boards. Walk boards help you track the movement of dogs and indicate how often the dog has gotten out and any special issues to be aware of, such as if the dog is highly potty trained and needs more frequent breaks. Walk boards should form the center of activity for volunteer dog walkers who should be trained to track their activities there. Many of the ideas in this blog are things I learned from the amazing folks at Dogs Playing for Life when I was leading large shelters, and walk boards are necessary to making playgroups run efficiently as well.?

8.Teach staff and volunteers how to introduce dogs to each other. Playgroups are the foundation of this, but even if your shelter is not able to do daily playgroups right now, you can still safely introduce pairs and small groups of dogs, followed by cohousing dogs that get along with each other. Cohousing compatible dogs can get those dogs adopted more quickly because people can see the dogs that are friendly towards another dog or dogs at the shelter. It can also be a great way to reduce the effects of shelter stress and prevent behavioral decline. It’s pretty common to see cohoused dogs playing with each other in their kennels or sleeping snuggled up together. Even the Association of Shelter Veterinarians updated Guidelines recommend selective cohousing!?

When shelters get full, you can expect the dogs’ stress level to increase, but by taking these simple measures, you can keep people and dogs safe even through the busiest times of year.?