fbpx Skip to main content
News

DBL’s Marketing To Step Outside In A Big Way, Across Billboards In Portland

By March 25, 2020No Comments

CENTRAL POINT, OR – Dogs for Better Lives (DBL) is finalizing two billboard designs to begin going up across Portland (OR) later this spring. Through the Oregon Outdoor Advertising Association (OOAA), space is being donated to advertise DBL’s volunteer program, raising foster puppies to become future Assistance Dogs.

1 in 59 children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the US. And nearly one quarter of Oregonians report issues with hearing, ranging from a “little trouble hearing” to “deaf.” What do these two populations have in common? They’re both helped by Assistance Dogs.

DBL billboards will start to go up around Portland-Metro (OR) later this spring, thanks to support from the OOAA.

Consider Danielle, a deaf woman asleep in her apartment. A fire broke out in a neighboring apartment in the middle of the night, but Danielle couldn’t hear the smoke alarm going off. Fortunately, as smoke filled the building, she was saved by a persistent landlord banging on her window. After that experience, Danielle knew she needed help, but didn’t want to rely on another person to complete her day-to-day tasks. Danielle realized an Assistance Dog was the answer. Now, Danielle sleeps soundly, knowing her Assistance Dog, Delight, will wake her if a smoke alarm is going off. Or alert her to an oven timer, doorbell, her name being called, and several other important sounds.

The problem? The wait time for a highly-trained Assistance Dog like Delight can be a year or more. There simply aren’t enough dogs to meet the demand. To better meet demand and provide more of these amazing dogs to people like Danielle, we’ve started a small breeding program (in addition to the rescue work we’ve been doing since 1977). When puppies are eight weeks old, they go to volunteer puppy raisers who provide a loving home and basic obedience training.

“The donation of billboard space by OOAA in the Portland-Metro area will immensely help us with visibility and sharing a critical need that we currently have, more volunteers across the state helping us with raising our future Assistance Dogs,” stated Marketing and Communications Lead, Monica Schuster. “Ultimately, we want to help more people with our amazing dogs, one billboard at a time.”

With OOAA’s in-kind support, placing DBL signage on billboards, it’s the nonprofit’s desire to find more volunteer puppy raisers. By enlisting the help of puppy raisers in the Portland metro area, OOAA will be helping more people like Danielle, who need an Assistance Dog to live their life safely and independently.

Billboard space donated to DBL will improve so many lives—giving dogs a purposeful job and a loving home, providing joy and happiness for puppy raisers, and granting safety and independence to recipients of the dogs. As a nonprofit, DBL relies on the generosity of private donors and funders, while providing Assistance Dogs at no cost to the client.

[To read full press release, click here]

Leave a Reply

Skip to content