Shelter Dog Playgroups - More than just play Updated 1/2020 Wow, 20 years doing playgroups at shelters. When I started it was unheard of to put shelter dogs in play groups. There was too great of a chance for disease, fights or the mental barrier related to how can you put strange dogs together. Now we have great organizations like Dog Playing For Life and shelter playgroups are slowly becoming the norm. Even with that, people fear the fight when introducing dogs to each other. I originally wrote this article in 2013, updated again 2018 and now in 2020! If you were to watch me put together playgroups nowadays it may still look like I am choosing random dogs and hoping they get along. It couldn't be further from the truth. Shelter dogs need dog to dog interaction, but they need the right interactions to grow and acclimate into a home. It serves many purposes, from exercise, maintaining social skills and decreasing stress - IF DONE RIGHT. I bold tha