In 2002 I put dogs at Wayside Waifs into small playgroups for the first time. I had been a shelter volunteer since 1999 (a trainer since 2002), but there had not been an emphasis to let dogs socialize in a group due to fear of dog fights. At the time Wayside did not have a structured temperament test program as it does today, so the incident of dog-aggression occurred a little more frequently back then. The first playgroups began as a method to get more dogs out of their kennels for exercise and bathroom breaks. The shelter manager at the time and I played around with some dogs and based on the size of the Wayside play yards and came up with a maximum number of five dogs for playgroups. I still keep to this number today, but for different reasons and the idea of structured playgroups also changed with time to focus on more behavior modification and adopt-ability. Over the seven years, the concept of “structured playgroups” within the shelter industry is more prevalent. I think th