It's all about the dogs at the Carbon County Animal Shelter.

Tom Connors, director of the shelter, announced that there is a new program available at the facility that aims to help socialize the dogs and make them feel loved.The program is called in-house fostering, and so far it has been a success."Unlike other foster programs where you take a dog home and care for them, this program is at the shelter," he said. "Because we are a county facility, we cannot allow our dogs to be taken out of the shelter to be fostered because if anything happens they run away or bite someone it is our responsibility because it is our dog."That is why we started the in-house fostering program," he said. "People can come in, pick a dog to foster that works for them and then they come and walk the dog, brush the dog, play with the dog and all of this helps socialize the animal and makes it more adoptable."The program is available seven days a week during shelter hours.Connors said that multiple families can foster a dog because the canines need to get walked at least three times a day, and families can also foster more than one dog.To date, every dog that is available for adoption has a foster family, but new dogs are always coming in, so fosters are always needed."It's good because sometimes a family can't adopt a dog, but they love dogs and want to be with dogs, so it helps the family and it helps the animal," Connors said.Connors said anyone is welcome to foster a dog and the help is welcome, whether it is once or twice a week or every day.To become a foster, call 570-325-4828 or visit the shelter, located at 63 Broad St., Nesquehoning, off Route 93 on the Broad Mountain, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.