Quality of Life Coordinator

Quality of Life Care Pathway Goals / Milestones

• By Day 1 - All dogs receive basic care and daily enrichment

• By Day 7 - All dogs assessed for Playgroup

• By Day 30 - All dogs receive an enrichment plan

• By Day 30 - Level 2 and Level 3 dogs receive at least one off-campus outing

• By Day 60 - Level 2 and Level 3 dogs enrichment plans are reviewed monthly

Quality of Life Dashboard

Here's a Data Studio dashboard to provide quick access to behavior and training information about your FP dog.

As Flight Crew Quality of Life Coordinator, you must be a volunteer Dog Walker trained up to your FP dog's handling level ("collar color").

You will do your best to:

1. Ensure your dog has all of its required training needs met on time.

2. Ensure your dog's quality of life needs are being met according to the Quality of Life Pathway. This will require putting actual eyes on your dog as often as possible, no less than weekly - and they can be anyone's eyes, as long as you are getting updates;

3. Create and/or take advantage of any and all enrichment opportunities that might arise for your FP dog;

4. Report weekly on your team's efforts and progress along the Quality of Life Care Pathway.

As Quality of Life Coordinator, you can delegate as much or as little of the effort as you wish, but you will be the dog's point person for all efforts. While there can be only one Quality of Life Coordinator, you can have as many people as you want on your team. For example, if you know your dog would benefit from nose work and you know a volunteer that loves doing that, enlist them to work with your FP dog and just check on their progress so you can report on it.

Basic Care

• All of our dogs must have their kennels cleaned every day.

• All of our dogs must be fed and provided fresh water every day, and if they require a special diet, that must be noted and they must receive it.

• All of our dogs must have a clean, dry place to sleep with bedding.

• All of our dogs must receive two outings per day so that they can stretch their legs and relieve themselves outside of their kennels.

• All of our dogs must be given what they need to maintain their mental and physical health, including exercise, mental stimulation, medicine, and medical care.

Your FP dog might be on medication to help them cope with shelter stress and anxiety. If you have questions or concerns about their medication or regimen, please don't hesitate to reach out to a Flight Path manager.

enrichment

All of our dogs should have an enrichment plan based on what they love and what they need to keep their brains busy to battle shelter stress, anxiety and boredom.

Daily enrichment:

• • All of our dogs should receive either a toy, a long-lasting chew, or a food puzzle in kennel every afternoon.

  • Playgroup: Dogs that are eligible for and do well in playgroup will attend that for at least one if not both of their outings. Participating in playgroup is enriching for the dogs, provides much-needed play outlets and creates a positive social experiences.

Enrichment Opportunities:

• Ruff Trail Runners: This is a program that tests dogs for eligibility to be walked or run on Town Lake!

• Tandem Walks: This is a program that pairs dogs up for walks together - only if the dogs find it pleasurable/enriching (it's not a training class).

• Happy Tail Kennels: Some dogs find these kennels more relaxing or find the change of environment stimulating. Ask if your dog can spend an afternoon in an HTK.

• Agility Work: You can get trained up to do agility work with your FP dog!

• Nose Work: You can get trained up to do nose work with your FP dog!

• Outings: Whether or not a dog is eligible for or enjoys playgroup, all of our dogs should receive at least one outing - off campus - per month. Outings include everything from a car ride around town (if the dog loves car rides) to a hike at McKinney Falls to a swim in your backyard pool.

• Sleepovers: Ideally, all FP dogs are getting regular sleepovers with friends. It takes a dog a few days to decompress from shelter life, so that's an ideal minimum period of time. Plus, for dogs we don't have any home notes on, sleepovers are tremendously helpful to the matchmaking teams. There is some debate over whether leaving and returning to campus might create more stress than it relieves, so monitor your FP dog to measure the benefits of habituating to the real world, having some fun (hopefully) and possibly even getting some promotional exposure against any negative repercussions, stress increases, or behavioral declines you might witness.

• The volunteer Enrichment Team's mission is to help dogs de-stress by stimulating their minds and senses. Their Facebook page is here. You don't need to join this team, but you can definitely communicate with them about your FP dog's preferences and needs. And if you want to help them out, they would love that.

• The volunteer Team Tummy team makes chicken & rice for our dogs that are having gastric issues. Their Facebook page is here. Again, no need to join this team, but you can definitely help them out if you have the time.

• There are a lot of fun resources for Enrichment ideas, including:

  • Canine Enrichment Facebook group

  • Canine Enrichment Ideas Facebook group

  • Facebook group these two Facebook pages, and this APA! Enrichment handout

Check out the Flight Paths Manager Library for actual behavior and care staff-approved books that you can borrow on everything from dog body language to enrichment ideas to behavior modification.

If there is a Quality of Life (QOL) Coordinator, you may join their team. If your FP dog does not yet have a QOL Coordinator, you must wait until there is one before you can join the that team. In order to join an FP dog's QOL team you must:

1. If you want to handle the dog - take it to playgroup, or on any outings, you must be trained up to your FP dog's handling level ("collar color").

2. If you are not trained up to the dog's handling level, you can still join the team and do things like regular checks on the state of your FP dog's kennel, tuck-in-time (fresh bedding, water, treat), deliver afternoon enrichment, coordinate outings for your team, be an extra hand on outings. And, what great motivation to train yourself up!