WELFARE - Will Ending Dog Breed Identification Increase Adoptions?

What kind of dog is that?

It’s a question that dog owners, shelter and rescue workers, animal control and veterinarians are asked all the time.

Often the answer is an educated guess.

Visual identification of dog breeds is often inaccurate and even the most educated can disagree when looking at a specific canine.

Dogs can now be identified using DNA, and studies comparing visual identification with DNA results show the two rarely match.

At the same time there is a struggle determining the breeds in mixed canines, the public is inundated with information about how to choose the right dog for them based on breed characteristics.

Often the way a dog is labeled can impact how quickly - or slowly - they get adopted.

This is particularly true for dogs with large, blocky heads who can have the biggest challenge finding a home.

So, what is a shelter, rescue or animal control to do?

Some believe it is time to stop playing the breed identification guessing game in order to increase adoptions and make better matches between people and pets.

This may be a challenge to human nature that loves to label things in order to understand them better.

And how can an adopter know how big a puppy is going to get if they don’t know the breed?

To help this evolution, Maddie’s Fund is presenting a free webinar tomorrow - January 19th - featuring Kristen Auerbach of Austin Animal Center, in Austin, TX, and Caitlin Quinn, Director of Operations at HeARTs Speak.

The 90 minute webinar will cover:

• The genetic science of dog breeds
• The inaccuracy of breed guessing
• How choosing a companion based on an accurate personality profile is a better approach than guessing at breed
• What research tells us about behavioural variability of individuals within all dog breeds
• How breed labels affect all dogs
• The consequences of breed labeling dogs of unknown origin
• How guessing at breed causes confusion and false expectations
• What to do about shelter software that requires a breed label
• And more.

The webinar includes time for Q&A.

Sign up for Time to Stop Playing the Breed ID Game.

Maddie's Institute presents "Social Media: 6 New Things Animal Organizations Need to Know"

Christine Keith

Countless Urban Animal organizations and service providers utilize social media to advertise product, showcase adoptable pets and connect with consumers. 

In the Humane and Rescue sector, social media has proven itself a powerful tool but as it grows in power, it also becomes more complex and specialized with changes and new platforms emerging at a rapid rate. 

Urban Animal organizations are invited to attend a free webcast developed to explain the changes taking place within social media and how these changes can help or hinder your online presence. 

Thursday, May 8 at 9 p.m. Eastern, social media consultant Christine Keith and Maddie's Institute will present Social Media: 6 New Things Animal Organizations Need to Know. 

For more information and to register, please visit www.maddiesfund.org. 

Edmonton Humane's Stephanie McDonald explains benefits of Playing for Life!

An innovative take on socializing and training shelter dogs is making progress across the United States and Canada. Playing for Life, a nationally recognized program used in over 55 organizations across the U.S. preaches daily play groups as an assessment, enrichment, training and adoption enhancement tool.

Developed by Aimee Sadler, director of Training and Behavior at Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation in New York, the program has seen live release rates increase to 95% in shelters where it has been fully implemented. 

Despite offering playgroups for many years, the Edmonton Humane Society began implementing Playing for Life in its shelter in August 2012. Edmonton Humane, which was nominated for a 2013 Sheltering Summit, is currently the only Canadian shelter partner of the Playing for Life program. Executive Director of the EHS spent some time with InfoStream to describe how the program has benefited the shelter and where opportunities exist for other organizations across the country. 

InfoStream: Can you tell me how long you've been participating? 

Stephanie McDonald: We have been doing play groups for as long as I can remember, even in the old shelter.  We started this unstructured, but knew that the animals would benefit from play time with other dogs.  Aimee came to us in Aug 2012  to review and validate our program.  We were interested in incorporating volunteers to enhance the program and she had some experience with that aspect. 

The new shelter was built with the play groups in mind.  We have two large pens that accommodate several groups at the same time.

InfoStream: How did your involvement come into being? 
Stephanie: I simply called Aimee up.  I had met her several times at some US conferences and she was receptive to coming up to help us enhance our already thriving program.

InfoStream: What do you think the benefits are to animals? 
Stephanie: Enrichment is a responsibility of shelters – quality of life is a duty we have, while they stay with us.  This is just one of the tools in the tool kit. 

We know that the shelter environment is artificial  providing time out of the kennel and a good run, jump in the pool is a great way to take the stress level down. 

Other benefits are the dogs get more exercise than we can provide even with volunteers walking them. The dogs learn appropriate social interactions and

behavior staff can observe issues that may have shown up on the behavior evaluation or have a history of a certain behavior which will help the future owner deal with.

InfoStream: What about benefits to adopters? 
Stephanie: We can determine the dogs social and tolerance level and set better expectations for the new owners. If the dog can play with a group of 50 to 70 dogs it is a good bet he would be fine at an off leash park or also get along with another pet in the home.

InfoStream: And finally, to shelter staff? 
Stephanie: We run the groups three times in the day.  Many times the house broken dogs get out and as a result less mess to clean for the shelter staff.  The dogs are more calm, with less stress means less barking.  Our shelter is known for how quiet it is and how calm the animals seem to be.  I think the structured play groups play a large role in it.

InfoStream: What has your experience been so far? 
Stephanie: Given that we have done this for years, and will continue it has been great for our animals and of course the volunteers and the behavior team.  We would recommend any shelter to consider adding a play group program for their shelter animals. But it is not easy, it takes a lot resources

however, the  benefits outweigh the use of resources.

InfoStream: Any moments that stand out? 
Stephanie: Very cool to see 70 dogs in the back pen running and having the time of their life.  Watching the staff and volunteers really enjoy it as well.

InfoStream: Would you recommend this program? 
Stephanie: Totally, however you must train the staff well so you are set up for a safe environment and experience.  Staff need to be able to read dog language and know when or when not to interrupt.  This takes time and experience. 

Once the staff have a good handle on it, you can consider rolling it out to the volunteers as a special program. 

It does come with some challenges and some risks that should be looked at prior to launching a program like this. 

InfoStream: Stephanie, thanks for taking the time to bring this program to the industry's attention. 

PLAYING FOR LIFE

MADDIES INSTITUTE WEBCAST WITH AIMEE SADLER

Record breaking 8,432 adoptions during Maddie's Pet Adoption Days

Nearly 8,500 cats and dogs found homes during the nationwide Maddie's Pet Adoption Days on June 1-2, 2013. Held in eight communities at 192 locations across the United States, it was the America's largest free pet adoption event. 

Reflecting Maddie's Fund's focus on pets who are traditionally harder to find homes for, 297 of the adopted pets were elderly dogs and cats, 2,829 had treatable medical conditions and 796 were elderly pets with treatable medical conditions. 

All adoption fees were waived during the event, with nearly $7 million awarded to participating shelters and rescue groups by Maddie's Fund. Each organization received $500 for every healthy adult dog or cat, $1,000 for every senior pet or pet with a treatable medical condition and $2,000 for every adopted dog or cat who was both a senior and had a treatable medical condition. 

READ THE NEWS RELEASE

Maddie's Fund presents The Dollars and Sense of Sheltering

The academic division of Maddie's Fund®, Maddie's Institute, is offering a free webcast aimed at helping shelter directors and managers gain a solid understanding of the practical and financial aspects of their programs. 

The Dollars and Sense of Sheltering: A Tool for Financially Evaluating Your Shelter's Programs, presented by Dr. Nicole Olynk Widmar, will take place Thursday, 22 August 2013 at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Dr. Widmar has developed a shelter financial management tool that can be used to analyze financial outcomes for shelter programs under different management strategies. 

Information presented by Dr. Widmar will include: 

• An introduction to shelter economics
• Review of basics including fixed and variable costs/expenses and revenue/income streams
• The ins and outs of balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements
• How to identify and understand risk and manage its financial aspects
• Management decisions illustrated with shelter financial tool

To register for this webcast, click here. 

About Maddie's Fund®: 

Maddie's Fund® is a family foundation endowed by the founder of Workday® and PeopleSoft, Dave Duffield and his wife, Cheryl. Maddie's Fund® is helping to achieve and sustain a no-kill nation by providing solutions to the most challenging issues facing the urban animal community through the combined efforts of Maddie's® Grant Giving, Maddies Center and Maddie's Institute. 

About Nicole Olynk Widmar, PhD:
Dr. Nicole Olynk Widmar is an agricultural economist specializing in farm business management and decision-making. In addition to her focus on agriculture, she has worked to adapt economic and management concepts for use in shelters, ranging from managing flow-through to assessing how alternative practices impact overall shelter performance. Dr. Widmar's research program includes assessments of people's affinity for, and beliefs about the treatment of, companion animals, livestock and wildlife.

She received her A.A.S. from Alfred State College in Animal Science, B.S. from Cornell University in Animal Science, and M.S. and Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Agricultural Economics.

Kate Hurley: A Paradigm Shift in Community Cat Management

Dr. Kate Hurley is making the case for a paradigm shift in community cat management, arguing radical solutions to the suffering, stress, illness and death that are the fate of so many cats in animal shelters. 

Her two part webcast series examines assumptions underlying traditional sheltering practices and compares them to the most recent evidence-based information regarding the health and behavior impacts of stress on sheltered cats and the statistical likelihood of a live outcome for an unsocialized cat taken into a shelter. 

Information presented includes: 

• Common assumptions on which sheltering programs for cats are based. 
• Do current methods of running TNR programs really make a difference to the overall problem of community/feral cats coming into shelters and subsequently being euthanized there? 
• As shelter systems move to a model of capacity planning for humane care and adoption, where do community cats fit into the flow?
• When is it appropriate not to take cats into shelters at all if a lifesaving solution cannot be offered.
• What lifesaving alternatives really work and how can they be implemented? 

Both parts of this free webcast are now available for viewing on computer and mobile devices at MaddiesFund.org. 

About Kate Hurley, DVM, MPVM

Dr. Hurley has been working in shelters since 1989. Since completing the shelter medicine residency and undertaking the direction of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program, Dr. Hurley has become a recognized leader in the field of shelter medicine. She has worked extensively with shelters of every size and management type, and has consulted with outbreak to shelter health care programs and facility design. She regularly speaks nationally and internationally on topics related to shelter animal health.