At Compassion Without Borders, Bingo Helps Shelter Dogs Find Homes
The Santa-Rosa based Compassion Without Borders delivers love all year long. photo: CWOB
A little love goes a long way. That’s the guiding principle at Compassion Without Borders in Santa Rosa, where staff and volunteers came up with a fun way to give rescue dogs a break from the shelter during the recent holidays.
To a dog, Christmas or Valentine’s Day might be just another day, but there’s something about seeing shelter dogs without families to love them during these times that feels particularly disheartening. So to spread some love, the Compassion Without Borders team designed holiday-themed bingo activities to encourage volunteers to give long-stay dogs some extra TLC. The idea was simple but powerful: create fun, enriching opportunities for dogs to explore life beyond their kennels - and gather valuable information to help match them with future adopters.
To play this game, volunteers signed up to sponsor long-stay dogs and take them on outings with a bingo card. Each bingo square featured an activity like going on a car ride, playing with another dog off the property, meeting a cat, going on a neighborhood walk, visiting a pet-friendly store, enjoying a pup cup, hiking a local trail, or spending the night in a volunteer’s home. The Valentine’s edition even included some goofy love-themed activities like kiss your dog, cook your dog a gourmet dinner, and take your dog on a double date. Each completed square on the bingo card represented not just a step in the game but a meaningful life experience for the dog.
While CWOB’s long-stay dogs regularly receive extended kennel breaks through weekly volunteer-led “Out and Abouts” and yard time, the bingo game provided many more joyful hours outside their normal kennel break time and allowed the dogs to be truly treated like pets. Often described as “hard to adopt” because of their size, appearance, or temperament, these extended-stay dogs needed as much exposure to real-life stimuli as possible. The experiences they gained through bingo activities helped decrease kennel stress and encouraged positive behaviors that will translate well into home life, setting them up for success in the long run.
While on their outings, volunteers photographed the dogs as they enjoyed their bingo activities. These photos served as proof of proper game play (no cheating!) but also provided candid marketing materials to help promote the dogs online. One dog, Margie, a five-year-old Cattle Dog mix who had been at the shelter for seven months, found a home after her future adopter learned she was cat-friendly via Margie's bingo card. What started as a fun game became a life-changing moment for this pup.
“The bingo squares give us more information about the dogs behaviorally,” says CWOB’s Behavior and Training Specialist Kacie Gansel, “For instance, a dog going home for an overnight provides us great information on how we can best support a new adopter when they bring home a dog.” Such insights are invaluable when it comes to making lasting adoption matches. And plenty more seasonal bingo games are being planned so stay tuned if you’d like to get in on the fun.
For dogs like Bosco, a one-year-old Mastiff mix who has spent most his life in the shelter, these kinds of initiatives provide essential opportunities for socialization, bonding, and real-world skills. For Bosco’s bingo, he went on a three-mile hike at Taylor Mountain, enjoyed a post-workout pup cup, and got in lots of snuggle time. Despite having spent most of his life in a shelter environment, these experiences, in addition to the regular outings and enrichment he receives, have helped him mature into a well-balanced dog who will be more likely to have a successful transition to a forever home.
At a shelter, it can often feel discouraging to see wonderful dogs overlooked time and time again. Little initiatives like this one go a long way toward keeping hope alive for both the people and the animals. Bingo!