Imagine dogs waiting to be adopted, not confined to cold, uncomfortable boxes or pens, but cozy, colorful, well-equipped homes where they can feel safe. Utopia? Well, no, because the Dog Village, which is a project of the Foundation's Center for the Rehabilitation of Protected Animals in Przemyśl , realizes precisely this seemingly utopian concept.
The Dog Village aims to help homeless animals become adoptable, and it must be remembered that those in the Foundation's care are most often traumatized - abused, abandoned or freed from life on a chain. Hence, the Dog Village is a place that is intended to be a substitute for a home and a space where animals will be socialized and adapted to life in conditions that have been alien to them so far. The idea to build cozy homes for dogs was conceived two years ago by Dr. Radoslaw Fedaczynski and his colleagues at the Adoption Center of the Ada Clinic in Przemyśl, part of the ORZW Foundation.
An exterior view of the Dog Village's multicolored houses
© Foundation for the Rehabilitation Center for Protected Animals in Przemyśl
socialization in a home-like space
Currently, there are seven cottages at the Foundation's headquarters, which are equipped just like ordinary human dwellings, so you'll find carpets and furniture, for example. The aim is to adapt the animals to function at home and to teach them that the couch is not for chewing and the carpet is for physiological needs. Initially, the houses were intended for individual dogs, but it turned out that those that are already socialized can stay together, so up to five dogs live in one house. It all depends on the individual needs of a particular pet, as some of them struggle with human-induced anxiety, depression, separation anxiety or inability to take care of their physiological needs. Those that require more time, are frightened or aggressive live separately. Each house also has staff members who take care of the dogs and work with them to socialize them and change inappropriate reactions or behaviors. In this way, animals that have been harmed learn to live in a living space and that an approaching human hand does not want to hit them, but to take them for a walk or pet them. Employees stay with the dogs during working hours, and qualified caretakers take them out for walks or exercise with them in the dog playground, while the pets return to their pens at the hospital overnight.
The interior of the Dog Village house with the resident and caregivers
© Foundation for the Rehabilitation Center for Protected Animals in Przemyśl
plans for more
The Dog Village project is conceived as a much larger undertaking, consisting of several stages, related not only to the purchase and erection of the planned approximately forty houses in a year-round system, with heating, water, electricity and monitoring, but also to the adaptation of a plot of land in Zurawica, with an area of nearly a hectare. The site is almost a kilometer from the main road, and the regulation on shelters requires the entire plot to be paved. On top of that, work is being done to remove clashes of existing installations, earthworks, as well as the connection of water and electricity. In addition, small garden architecture, an administrative building, a biomass boiler room, a water playground for dogs, a rehabilitation room and a swimming pool are planned. The entire project is planned at 3 million zlotys.
A view of the interior of the Dog Village house
© Foundation for the Rehabilitation Center for Protected Animals in Przemyśl
expansion in a modern spirit
The pandemic has somewhat thwarted plans to expand the Dog Village, but the plan is to begin construction work in the spring. The concept is a modern solution, in line with modern trends of animal care and protection, allowing not only to provide the most basic needs, but also behavioral work.
