photo by: Contributed

A dog Cecil goes on an outing as a part of Lawrence Humane Society's Mass Street Mutts program.

An eight-year-old pitbull’s life had changed forever after an outing to the Lawrence Pride Festival this past July.

The dog, known as Lilo, was roaming downtown Lawrence amid rainbow flags and festival music, far from the kennel she had grown used to at the Lawrence Humane Society.

While at the festival, she met a mother and daughter who stopped to pet her — and quickly fell in love. By that same afternoon, they returned to the shelter to adopt her, offering a home to a dog who had struggled to find one because of her incontinence.

Earlier that day, Lilo had been taken out as part of the shelter’s Mass Street Mutts program – which allows the public to take adoptable shelter dogs on short, fun “field trips” whether for a couple hours or a full day. The dogs often get to go on hikes, downtown walks, park visits, or even office snuggles to reduce shelter stress and help dogs get seen for adoption in a natural setting.

photo by: Contributed

Lilo at the Lawrence Pride Festival.

“It’s the amount of dogs who are getting to live their best lives and are getting to do it fast, you know, sooner that they would have otherwise because of the program,” Elina Alterman, chief development officer at Lawrence Humane, said. “It just blows us away.”

While Mass Street Mutts was initiated in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic shortly followed and fewer people were taking dogs out for day adventures.

“(The program) was not what you see now in the very first iteration,” Alterman said. ” … None of the leadership that is here right now was here at the time, but from what we understand, people were being charged like $20 to take a dog out. So obviously that left the people with a bad taste in their mouth, and then COVID hit, and so then, the program went dormant.”

Alterman said it wasn’t until everyone was out and about again until people started participating in the program, but even then, maybe a dog a month was getting out of the shelter.

“You had to be an active volunteer,” Alterman said. “You had to have gone through all of this extensive training. It’s just – there were a lot of restrictions, and then Ashley (Rice-Keen) took over the program three years ago.”

Alterman said that growing the program into what it is today has long been a goal of Lawrence Humane, and that Rice-Keen, the organization’s volunteer coordinator, is the one who got it there.

“She’s worked really hard to expand it so that more dogs could be going out and more people could have the experience, starting with more volunteers and also including our fosters,” Alterman said. “If we’re trusting fosters to have animals in their homes, why wouldn’t we trust them to take a dog out for a day?”

Mass Street Mutts was relaunched in June this year, after Lawrence Humane staff attended a weeklong program in Arizona this past spring to learn from other shelters. The experience was funded by VCA Charities – a public charity and the charitable arm of VCA Animal Hospitals.

The total number of dogs that have been adopted this year through the Mass Street Mutts program amounts to almost 200 dogs.

photo by: Contributed

A dog, Sarah, participates in an outing at the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce office.

“We relaunched it to the public on June 1, which has been a goal of mine for a couple of years now, and since then, it’s just really taken off,” Rice-Keen said. “We are lucky we have a community that loves dogs, so it’s just really exceeded all of our expectations for how much the community has embraced us.”

Rice-Keen said the Mass Street Mutts program gives dogs the chance to decompress after being at the shelter and it’s a great stress reliever for them. Rice-Keen said when it comes to deciding which dogs will go out, she likes to prioritize the dogs who have been at the shelter longer to give them more of a break.

“They get to go out and take a nap on someone’s couch instead of being stressed in a kennel all day,” Alterman said. “They get to meet new people, and we’re getting more information on them too to help find their forever home.”

Rice-Keen said how a dog behaves in the shelter is not really indicative of how they’ll be in a home.

“We’re getting to see how they are when they’re out and about and when they’re having lunch on a patio,” Rice-Keen said. “And a lot of people can’t picture a dog in their life if they see a picture of it in the kennel, but if they see it on someone else’s couch, it’s kind of easier to make that connection for them.”

After a dog goes on an outing, Rice-Keen will enter notes on the dog so when they’re talking to potential adopters, staff can make sure it will be a good fit.

“We want people to adopt because hopefully these dogs are going to be their companions for the rest of the dogs’ lives,” Alterman said. “This is a lifelong friendship and family member.”

Alterman also said the program provides a lot of benefits to people. She said having the University of Kansas is a bonus for the program because there are so many college students who miss their pets at home and can’t have pets here.

photo by: Contributed

Diesel, a dog who participated in Lawrence Humane Society’s Mass Street Mutts program.

“This is the opportunity for them to get that fix, to love on a dog and go walk a dog,” Alterman said. ” … It’s really great for folks who maybe aren’t ready for a dog for whatever reason, maybe emotionally or logistically or their housing doesn’t allow it, but this is a way that they can have that interaction and connection, and it just makes a huge difference.”

The people who take the dogs on an outing are equipped with several items donated by VCA Charities, including dog backpacks, harnesses, waste bags, treats, water bottles and more. The dogs also come with a vest saying they are available for adoption at the Lawrence Humane Society.

People interested in learning more about how to participate in the Mass Street Mutts program can visit lawrencehumane.org/massstreetmutts/.