Our mission is to help keep kenneled adoptable dogs physically active, mentally stimulated, and emotionally balanced while they wait for their new homes.
 

Our vision is to create a community of certified volunteers that engage in meaningful interactions and adventures with shelter dogs. We aim to improve the lives of shelter dogs and provide relief for animal shelter staff.
 

RunningDog is important for many reasons, but the biggest reason is that dogs are languishing in kennels all over the country. Due to the nature of animal control and rescue, most adoptable dogs spend the bulk of their day in a noisy chaotic kennel. So not only are they unable to expend their pent-up energy, they are stressed by the sights, sounds and smells of their surroundings.
 

Our program allows these dogs to run off that stressed energy and explore more of the world around them. Dog walking programs are doing wonderful things in facilities, and they are a necessity at any shelter. But if you put a leash in the hand of a runner, that dog is seeing sights that they may have never seen before simply due to a runner’s ability to go further.
 

The goal of adoptable canine advocacy should be to have dogs leave a facility better than when they came in. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case most of the time. A dog that spends an extended amount of time in a facility is traumatized. Our wish is that dogs enter a facility and are better dogs for having been there.