Marketing dogs is like marketing anything else: It’s storytelling. Sharing pictures, even videos of your dogs, is helpful for people who are actively seeking you out and looking for a dog to adopt, but if you want to reel in more adopters, followers, supporters and donors, you have to tell a story.

As dogs linger longer and longer at shelters, enrichment becomes a critical lifesaving necessity. In the state of North Carolina, for instance, regulations require enrichment for any dog or cat who stays in the shelter over 30 days, but every shelter, rescue, and in my opinion, pet owner should be incorporating enrichment into every dog’s life.

Summer might be winding down, although the temperature may not reflect that, but we at Who Will Let the Dogs Out are winding up! We have a lot of exciting news to share. To date, our InstaSnip program has given out over $50,000 in spay/neuter funding to our shelter partners, helping them establish an InstaSnip fund at their veterinarian’s office that their community can grow.

In June, we visited Franklin County Animal Shelter in Louisburg, North Carolina. (This is our third ‘Franklin County’ if you’re keeping score.) The shelter is in a period of transition with an interim director. Jerry Jones has lived his whole life in Franklin County. He’d been on the job for nine months. Prior to taking the shelter position, he had retired after serving as a deputy sheriff.

The most powerful way we can impact the shelter crisis in this country is to fund spay/neuter. It’s as simple as that. And yet, for too many shelters, finding that funding is not simple. Chasing grant money takes time and is often not possible for municipal shelters who often need the funding the most.

Every shelter tour is a little bit different. I am always inspired by the people we meet and while we can’t pull dogs, I do carry many of them home in my heart. I’m still thinking about the Rottie mix at Tift County Shelter who leaned into his kennel fence begging for my touch, and the super-smart border collie mix we met at Lucky Dog Rescue Ranch, who is my dream dog (although my current pack does not have any openings).