Dog Day Adventures led to adoptions for PAWS and More animals over the weekend. The shelter officially launched their two-hour excursion program Saturday. Every dog available for a Dog Day Adventure went out with volunteers to see the community. Dogs saw parks, went to lunch, hiked trails, and played at houses. PAWS and More board member Terri Wood says they work to pair up people with dogs who are at similar energy levels, “We want to do a good job of matching up those dogs. You know, a really strong dog who we know is going to have a ton of energy, you know, we want to match that dog with somebody who is ready to take on that energy level and adventure. Maybe if they want to go running with the dog. We’re not going to match them with the elderly chihuahua. We’ll save that dog for somebody who just wants to snuggle, and be out and let the dog sniff around. So we do have dogs of all different energy levels and, you know, anything that you could imagine, and we just want to make sure that these adventures are the greatest for both the people and the animal.”

The Dog Day Adventures program is part of a study through Arizona State University. Shelters across the country are having dogs go out for field trips to study the effects on their behavior. Washington’s PAWS and More is the only shelter in Iowa and the smallest in the 100-shelter study. The goal is to have 40 dogs go out on adventures in 30 days. To sign up, contact the shelter.