TOLEDO, Ohio — A new partnership has formed with the Toledo Police Department and Lucas County Canine Care and Control to get more dogs out of the shelter and into the community.
Once a week, a dog from LCCCC will spend some time with Toledo police officers, or even police chief George Kral.
After spending some time on the town, pictures of the canine will get posted on social media so the community can see how they interact outside of a shelter.
Feliz is a 1-year-old pitbull. She's taking part in a new program that began with the Toledo Police Department this month.
The program, called "DOTT with a Cop," is an extension of LCCCC's "Dogs on the Town" program.
"We thought it'd be just another great way to continue Chief Kral's message of community outreach by starting to do that ourselves," said TPD officer Andrew Dlugosielski.
Here's how it works.
Each week, Dlugosielski will pick up a dog from LCCCC and take it with him for a couple hours during the day. Each of those dogs will be available for adoption.
"We hope to send out a different dog every week, kind of focus on our long-stay dogs who just maybe haven't had as much exposure with the public to get them out there and see, in a setting that's not the shelter," LCCCC's community outreach coordinator, Cassie Bloomfield said.
Bloomfield said the dogs love being able to interact with new people and see new things.
Right now, the dogs are spending more time inside meeting people because of the cold. Once it warms up, Dlugosielski will take them around downtown to meet more people.
He said the partnership with bring more exposure both in the community and online.
"Between our social media and LC4's social media, we reach vastly different audiences. So it just makes sense that if we post a dog on social media, it might hit a whole group of people that their social media might not. But overall, it's been very positive," Dlugosielski said.
LCCCC representatives said their "Dogs on the Town" and "Snout and About" programs with the public are both seeing success. They are excited about the partnership with Toledo police and expect it to be just as successful.