01-30-06 Special Called City Council Retreat Meeting of La Porte City Council

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0 • • the public to socialize with an animal. Group housing units will often enable you to reduce construction costs and at the same time increase facility capacity and flexibility and provide a more natural and market -effective environment. A properly sized and designed group housing unit will provide secure and defensible spaces, spaces for interaction, places to play, and places to sleep. Housing mates need to have some control of their environment, including the ability to get away to a defensible place, such as a resting bench or platform, and the ability to have access to their share of the available resources. Separating the eating and sleeping areas from the elimination areas are standard procedures to control the spread of disease. However, overly sterile environments can have the reverse effect and increase the animals' stress levels, which weakens their immune system and suppresses their appetite, leaving them more susceptible to disease and behavioral problems. Housing in smaller groupings is also an effective tool in reducing noise and commotion and limiting the transmission of disease. With a maximum of six to eight enclosures in a room, smaller numbers of the public are apt to be in the room at any given time and dogs are far less likely to "set each other off' on barking binges. Real -Life Rooms A facility with homelike animal housing that looks more like your living room than a jail cell is more pleasant to visit, and ultimately will better market the animals. On the most • fundamental level, the natural environment for our four -legged companions is the home where they can interact with people and other companion animals. Shelters that have built real -life rooms have found that the animals are calmer (less destructive or aggressive), quieter, and less likely to soil their environments. Also, if the animal is to be conditioned not to soil his home, then he must have an outdoor space that he can use appropriately. Shelters that have real -life rooms often have a higher adoption rate and a lower return rate, because the public can more naturally interact with the pet during the adoption process and because the animal is already conditioned to the home environment where it ultimately will be placed. Village -Style Kennels A more literal take on the "animal shelter as community" is the use of clusters of enclosures which become "miniature cottages". These smaller groupings of animals reduce stress in new arrivals and control/modify behavior problems before the animals are adopted. Environmental Enrichment Human contact can significantly reduce a dog's level of stress. Shelter design should encourage bonding through play, exercise, and obedience training work. Studies have further emphasized the value of this human bond by showing that dogs have little • inclination to exercise when released alone in a play area unless humans are present. Semi -social dogs that need to be housed individually can still benefit from the exercise