Operation Dog Enrichment
Our Darwin participants love nothing more than a project with a mission. 2025 saw Operation Clucker and the Hen Pen development come to life; now 2026 is bringing a new operation - , Operation Dog Enrichment (ODE). And our HPHH participants are already well and truly on board. .
HPHH’s Handle group has been working towards the idea of a dedicated enrichment space for the shelter dogs since 2025. They recently commenced ODE in partnership with RSPCA NT in Darwin, whose Animal Services Coordinator, Claire, is heading support for its development.
The group's vision for ODE is for enrichment that gives dogs waiting in shelter opportunity for genuine play and adventure—engaging every sense (sight, sound, touch, and especially smell, through sniffing stations), building physical and mental strength, sharpening cognition, and above all, giving dogs the freedom to express their natural curiosity.
For an animal waiting for their forever home, one day in a shelter can look a lot like the next—the same four walls, the same routine, the same stretch of quiet time between visits. Enrichment breaks that cycle. It gives them something to do, something to learn, and something to look forward to.
Each week our sessions incorporate some form of enrichment to provide animals with the chance to stay active, give them a safe way to decompress, and to spend time with people in a positive, low-pressure way. For our participants, they end the day with a sense of purpose and pride, knowing they have positively contributed to an animals’ day, week and sometimes, even life.
The first stations in the operation, a Sniffari and a maze, have now taken shape.
The learning modules across all HPHH programs in September have centred on sustainability. With these learnings, the group discussed which materials could be both sustainable and genuinely enriching for a Sniffari. Out of those discussions came an ocean-themed Sniffari station, built using driftwood, soft coral and seaweed laid out over painted pallets to create a station which would encourage any dog to put nose down, tail up and explore away! Across several weeks, our participants have continued their hands-on work with this station: painting the station itself, setting the pavers, and securing the first panel of the maze alongside it.
Handle (and Intro to Handle) programs are known across HPHH for their hands-on nature, and this project is a perfect example of just how hands-on participants can get. These groups spend real time out and about in the shelter, pitching in on genuine shelter tasks, and in this case, that meant getting creative with materials and sourcing sustainable items that could be repurposed for enrichment.
When it came time to trial the station with two dogs in care, Dory and Lucy, one of them approached it exactly the way she'd approached most things over her twelve months waiting for a home – uncertain and unsure. She hung back from the ocean themed station at first, not sure of the new textures and shapes in front of her. But with a quiet encouragement from the RSPCA NT animal attendant who she has learnt to trust, she worked her way in, sniffing out the "seaside treasures" hidden throughout the display.
It's a small moment with a big outcome. For a dog who has spent a long time waiting, a station built purely so she could follow her nose and make her own discoveries, is a genuine taste of freedom, one of the underlying objectives of enrichment in shelters.
The Handle group's pride in that moment was visible - seeing a tangible outcome from something they transformed from a simple idea and watching it work exactly as hoped.
Sessions have continued to spark genuinely enthusiastic conversation among the group and encouraged brainstorming, teamwork and a sense of purpose as the team continue to work on ODE with a shared purpose: giving Darwin's dogs in care a way to play, explore, and simply be dogs—one meaningful sniff at a time.