The current lobby handles both adoptions and intakes while being less than just 200 square feet. This is also the main entrance in and out of the building for staff when they are taking animals for walks, creating bottlenecks and putting animals at a greater risk for fights or escaping out of the front door.

The new facility will feature two separate adjacent entrances for the public. One will be dedicated to adopters and be focused on animals leaving the facility. The other entrance will be for the intake of animals and will provide easy access to intake and quarantine areas to decrease the potential for cross-contamination.

Each entrance will have a vestibule setup with two doors so that an unknowing person coming in won’t accidentally let an animal out of the building.

Photo of Current Lobby And Planned Entrances

The new facility will also feature a sally port/garage that will allow shelter staff to transition animals from a vehicle to the building without having to risk them escaping. This is especially important for animals that may be very scared or feral and may be looking for an opportunity to escape. The intake lobby and sally port/garage will also have a short path to the intake room that will have temporary holding kennels. This area will allow shelter staff to check an animal for a microchip, administer vaccines, and monitor for any health concerns before transitioning the animal to a housing kennel.

Floor Plan Showing Sally Port, Admission Lobby and Animal Receiving Room

The dog kennels open to either side of our room with the cat kennels, meaning dogs must walk by the cat kennels frequently and this can cause both undue stress to the cats as well as create issues with dogs misbehaving and trying to attack the cat cages.

Current Kennel Layout Compared To New Kennels That Will Separate Dogs And Cats

Currently, the staff share 1 office space and a combined room that is used as a breakroom, grooming area, and laundry room. Storage is limited inside the building so staff have to go outside to storage sheds to get carriers, food, etc. In the new facility, the staff will have a dedicated space to use as a break room as well a separate office for the manager. Staff will have a workroom and other areas will be dedicated to different functions such as food storage, laundry and grooming.

Current Room Staff Currently Uses For A Multi-Purpose Room And Proposed Floorplan Featured Dedicated Areas For Different Activities

The current building has only 1 restroom that is shared between the staff and public. This restroom is also shared with Pet’s Alive staff and patrons. This caused a wait to be able to use the restroom at times. The new facility will feature 2 -3 restrooms with one dedicated just for staff.

Current Hallway With Items Stored And Single Bathroom And Future Floorplan Showing 3 Proposed Bathrooms Including One Accessible To The Community Room

The current facility unfortunately does not match up with modern standards for accessibility. The outside of the facility does have concrete sidewalks but a gravel driveway and no area suitable for unloading a wheelchair. The doors have high thresholds and the building has many tight areas and turns, including the small bathroom. The new facility is being designed with accessibility in mind to ensure that all persons have the ability to visit the shelter and take full advantage of all of the services that are offered.

The current facility has 2 wings that hold dog kennels. The kennels are on either side of a center walkway forcing dogs to face each other. This layout can contribute to increased anxiety and aggression. It also puts staff at greater risk as dogs have tried to start fights when being walked down the walkway.

The proposed design will feature two wings of dog kennels. Each wing will have a single row of kennels. The kennels will have solid walls that separate them from the dogs next to prevent fighting or an increase in aggression.

The current kennels are also much smaller than what would be considered industry standard in 2024 and some kennels in our facility are so small, approximately 3ft by 3ft, that they are not suitable for regularly housing animals. The new facility design will feature larger kennels with more space as well as some jumbo-size kennels for large breed dogs to comfortably move around.

Existing Kennel Layout With Kennels Facing Each Other And Future Kennel Layout With Kennel Wings Separated And 2 Part Kennels

The current facility only allows each dog a single area for their primary housing. This forces dogs to eat, sleep and eliminate in the same small area. The dogs are  temporarily moved to outside kennels throughout the day to allow for the indoor kennels to be cleaned. There are not nearly as many outdoor kennels as indoor kennels so animals have to be doubled up when outside or switched in and out.  The outdoor kennels open from one to another so if a specific dog needs to be brought in, all dogs before them have to be moved. The outdoor kennels are covered but open on 3 sides to the outdoors so in extreme weather, animals moved outside are subjected to rain, snow and extreme temperatures. In freezing weather, staff are unable to adequately clean the outdoor kennels with hoses and must use extra caution as rain or snow that blows in creates unsafe conditions.

The future dog kennels will be two-compartment kennels. The indoor portion of the kennel will be accessed from an interior corridor and allow the dogs to be comfortable in the a climate controlled building. This area is designed for the animal to eat, drink and sleep. There will then be a dog-door that will allow the dog access to the outside portion. The outdoor portion provides a space for the dog to eliminate away from its primary enclosure, both allowing more comfort to the dogs and assisting with house-training. In addition, it gives the dog access to more space. The two-compartment kennel design will allow dogs to be kept safe and dry during the cleaning procedure by moving dogs to the other compartment and blocking the dog-door. This allows for efficient daily cleaning. The outdoor areas will also have a corridor to see the animals during open hours and garage doors made of glass to allow anyone walking around the outside of the building when the doors are closed to look in and see the dogs.

Our Current Outdoor Kennels and Our Future Two-Compartment Kennel Layout

The current facility has kennels that feature chain-link kennel doors. They have painted concrete floors and the north kennels dividing walls are concrete block halfway up with chain-link for the upper half. The south kennels have stainless steel divider panels that are offset above the floor by 2 to 3 inches. The outdoor kennels are chain-link with stainless steel panels on the lower portion.

The chain-link is difficult to clean, susceptible to rusting and not as durable. It is also easy for dogs to climb and can potentially cause them to get stuck or injured. The painted concrete does not hold up, making it look worn constantly and concrete is porous making it susceptible to harboring disease. Only having solid separating walls halfway up leads to larger dogs that, when on their hind legs, are taller than the solid wall leading to potential fighting through the fencing. Additionally, the gap at the bottom of the kennel dividers in the south kennels can be a place for dogs to try to fight each other and also allows excrement, with potential disease, to flow between kennels.

The proposed kennels will use a welded stainless steel front that will be much more durable and easier to clean.  The walls will be solid from floor to ceiling and feature a washable material that is also durable and not susceptible to holding disease. The floors will be coated with an epoxy that overlaps the walls by 2-3 inches to be durable and prevent the risk of cross contamination dog-to-dog.

Current Kennel Setup

The control of disease through proper isolation is lacking in the current facility. There are no separate isolation rooms for dogs, creating an exposure risk to all animals in the kennels if a sick animal were to come in. Additionally, there is no separate area for unvaccinated puppies to be housed. Canine Parvovirus is an extreme concern for puppies in a shelter environment. Parvovirus is said to be able to survive on concrete surfaces for up to 9 years. The humane society currently is unable to house unvaccinated puppies in the south wing of kennels due to a parvovirus outbreak in 2020 and the risk that the virus may still be able infect future puppies.

The new facility will feature separate areas for adoptable dogs, stray dogs, dogs that need isolation, as well as areas designed specifically for puppies. The facility will also include an area with temporary intake kennels and allow new arrivals to be separated from other animals until they can be evaluated for disease and behavioral issues. The stray and isolation areas will also allow animals to be held while they are vaccinated and treated for any medical conditions. This will provide protection to all of the animals and the staff.

The current building’s HVAC systems use traditional cold-air returns that pull air from the kennels and then recirculates it back through the building potentially spreading disease and unpleasant smells. The HVAC system for the new kennels is currently designed to feature a ERV (energy recovery ventilator) that recovers heat from the the air and transfers it to incoming fresh area, never recirculating area that could spread airborne diseases and smells.

Locations In New Facility Design To Separate Dogs To Prevent The Spread Of Disease

In our current layout, each side of the walkway through the kennel area has an open drain trough in addition to an open drain trough along the edge of the outside kennels. This was common when the original facility was built but has several pitfalls. This open drain contributes to the smell in the building, both because animal wastes flow into it all day and each drain is directly connected to the septic system and can allow septic gasses to vent back into the building. This open drain design can also contribute to the transfer of disease between dogs.

In the new facility, each kennel will have individual floor drains in both compartments to reduce odor and cross contamination risk as well as having a more tidy appearance.

Current Trough Drains and Future Drain Design

The walls and ceilings in the current kennels are not built for sound dampening. Parts or all of them are made from metal siding which is cleanable but creates a lot of echoes. The sound can be intense at times negatively effecting some dogs as well as making the process of looking at dogs to adopt unpleasant.

The new kennel layout without having dogs facing each other will help to reduce barking and the kennels will be constructed with materials made for sound damping reducing excess noise and making visiting the dogs a more pleasant experience.  The reduction in sound and echoing will also reduce stress on the animals, allowing them present better to potential adopters.

The current building does not have space inside for a proper meet and greet area. Prior to rearranging the layout to accommodate Pet’s Alive, there was a small area used as a meet and greet space, but it separated the office and breakroom area from the remainder of the building meaning employees were either blocked from moving through the room or must interrupt a meet and greet. The noise of the echoing from the dogs barking also often interferes with the dogs attention during meet and greets.

During nice weather we often use our outside areas such as the Waggin’ Tails Trail for meet and greets in order to get animals away from the sounds of the shelter helping them to relax and allowing potential adopters to see their more true personalities. The humane society recently added an annex building which is an “Amish shed” style building that volunteers finished the inside, complete with heat and A/C in order to accommodate a meet & greet room and quarantine area. The annex does provide much needed space but requires employees to escort animals and adopters outside, potentially through inclement weather.

The new facility will feature a meet and greet room that is strategically located and insulated to reduce noise from the outside while allowing the animals and adopters to remain in the building.

Current Meet And Greet Room In Annex Building And Proposed Meet And Greet Room Location

The current building has two fenced-in exercise yards behind the building. These areas allow dogs space to run and play. Staff, volunteers and adopters can spend time with the dogs, playing fetch, utilizing agility equipment, and dogs that socialize well with other dogs can play together. The current  play yards are not large, limiting the number of dogs that can be in them at one time, and employees frequently switch dogs out from them.

The play yards also have steep stairs from the building leading down to them. Older dogs that struggle with stairs or dogs that have a fear of stairs struggle to access the yards. It also can create a dangerous situation for staff that go down to the yards to spend time with the animals.

At this time, if a potential adopter wants to spend time playing with a dog in the yard, the other dogs need to be moved for that space to be emptied.

The new shelter will feature 3 large play yards with lots of room for dogs to run and play. The added space will allow the dogs to have more room to exercise and more time can be allotted to each dog in the yard. Dogs will be able to be separated by size and age to allow them to spend time playing with dogs similar to them. Puppies and small breed dogs will not have to share the yard with larger and more high energy dogs. There will also be a separate yard for potential adopters to get acquainted with the dogs they are interested in.

Current and Future Exercise Yards

Currently, the humane society has limited space for cats and many of the kennels are small cages that don’t allow much room for the cats to move around. The kennels are single-compartment and typically have less than 5 square feet of space to accommodate a bed, litterbox, and food and water bowls.

The new facility will feature an updated style of cat kennels with two compartments. One is for feeding, bedding, and play. The other is for the litter box. This setup allows for the cat to have some separation between feeding and elimination areas and also lets staff clean the kennel and litterbox without having to remove the cat. The kennels also use a vent system to exhaust away odor from the litter box compartment instead of allowing them to travel through the building, making for a more pleasant trip to the humane society!

The current facility features 1 free-range cat room. The room is centrally located and has a big window for observing the cats but is only able to house 6-8 cats. This area does allow cats the ability to exercise and socialize outside of a kennel. These rooms make good use of square footage as typically more cats can be housed per square foot of space than with traditional cat kennels.

The new facility is planned to have 2 large free-range cat rooms. These rooms will include windows to the main hallway for observation and will have room for furniture to allow potential adopters to spend time with the cats. The rooms will also have a screened-in patio area that is open to the outdoors. This will give the cats more space to roam and allow them to enjoy nature; breathing fresh air and watching birds. The patios will be on the east side of the building, next to our community room, and viewable from the perimeter sidewalk so the public can enjoy watching the cats anytime from outside.

Current Free Range Cat Room and Future Free Range Cat Rooms And Patios

Currently, the shelter only has 2 areas of cat kennels. One in the main building housing adoptable cats but it is small and doesn’t host many kennels. The other area is in the annex building and is for incoming cats, quarantined cats, and at times cats available for adoption when no kennels are open in the main area.

Within the past few years, the humane society has struggled with respiratory illnesses that spread through the cat population that are thought to be air-borne as well as ringworm spread from cat to cat due to the lack of proper ventilation and isolation.

The new construction  will feature 3 separate areas for cat kennels. It will have an area for adoptable cats as well as separate areas for stray cats and cats requiring isolation. Similar to dogs, there will also be a temporary holding area for incoming cats to be placed while they are scanned for a microchip, receive initial vaccinations, and evaluated for any illness or injury.

The cat kennel areas in the new facility will also utilize the HVAC equipment that the dog kennels use to prevent the recirculation of potentially contaminated air.

Current Cat Kennel Locations and Proposed Cat Kennel Locations

The new building is being designed with a level sidewalk around the perimeter of the entire structure that will be open to the public for walking, even after hours. The dog kennels are planned to have glass overhead doors separating them from the outside and the free-range cat rooms will have screened in patios so walkers will be able to enjoy looking at the animals while also enjoying the beautiful rural setting of the shelter including the lake and fields to the east.

Visual Representations Of The Building Showing Sidewalks Around Building

GCHS is planning to build a memorial walk along the lakefront that will connect the new shelter to the existing Waggin’ Tails Trail. The memorial walk will serve as an upcoming fundraiser for the new facility and feature engraved bricks that can honor past and present animal-loving family members and pets. The memorial trail will feature lights and benches and is planned to be handicap accessible to allow all persons to enjoy the beautiful views at all hours.

Recent Version Of Site Layout Plan. Shows sidewalk around the shelter as well as memorial walk along lake.

The shelter will feature a community room that will be used for shelter events and be available for rent to the public. The room will feature a covered porch and large glass windows that overlook the lake.

Community Room Placement On East Facing Lake and Floorplan of Community Room