Animal Shelter Improvements

[neocia]

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Since many of us began our pre-vet work by working or volunteering in shelters, I was curious if anyone had interesting ideas on improving adoption rates or quality of life for the millions of animals in shelters?

I like the idea of communal living for animal-friendly dogs and cats as it gives them companionship when staff isn't around and keeps them at least somewhat enriched, provided they get along. In some shelters, the dogs never leave their crates unless a volunteer specifically wants to walk them so again, living in a group is nice.

I also like the idea of same-day adoptions. I worked at a shelter for years where we did home-checks and while in *some* cases they can be worthwhile, I think it deters some folks from adoption fearing an overly lengthy process. In the time that I worked there, there was only like one or two homes that failed their homechecks -- and I wonder if that would be the case for most shelters that don't do home visits prior to adoptions.

Any thoughts on this or other good improvements for the shelter system? (I go to a quarter system university and I am currently procrastinating for finals! 🙂 )

 

[thecatastrophist]

I'm not sure how well communal living would work in practice. While behavioral evaluations can root out downright aggressive dogs, animals can still be unpredictable, and I would rather err on the safe side than come in the next morning to find that two dogs got into a spat while unsupervised and were now injured, costing the shelter money and causing the animals to suffer. My old shelter grouped former housemates together sometimes, but I think that communal living, while it might benefit some, would carry a bit too much risk for most shelters to stomach.

As for quality of life improvement, I think that for larger shelters, paid employees need to have more hands-on contact with the volunteers and arrange a stricter routine as to what needs doing when. My shelter was very large, and while if an employee would request a cage clean if they noticed something was dirty, volunteers were mostly expected to have sound judgment when rotating around the kennel about when to clean cages and walk dogs. It taught me independence, yes, but if there were a formalized system in place to document when each animal was socialized and taken out, it would be easier for the volunteers to direct their attention towards the animals that needed it most, thereby improving the quality of life overall.

Adoption rates are difficult. I'd actually be interested to see a wide-scale study on why people who adopt choose the shelter that they do, and what originally attracted their attention. There's a lot of complicated factors at work, and I'd be interested to know whether common efforts to raise awareness and interest in adoption are effective or if there's something new that can be done. That's more speculation than anything--I could comment on personal experience, but I feel that whatever I say might end up being wrong anyway. So... I guess my suggestion there is that some graduate student or advanced undergrad embark on that research if feasible. I think it'd be interesting.

Getting rid of housechecks certainly seems to be a plus, though. Knowing that people generally prefer most things to be expedient and pain-free, I can see why a potentially multi-day process might deter them from choosing a particular shelter. Unless you absolutely fell in love with a dog from that particular shelter, why not choose a one that you feel makes the adoption process easier for you?

 

[1doggeek]

I totally agree with getting rid of some stricter requirements. When I helped run an organization it was run strictly out of foster homes (adoptions weren't our main focus - rather helping provide funds to keep animals in their homes in the first place). We called references and had an application, and oftentimes people would take the animal home the same day (usually if they didn't it was because they needed to buy supplies/etc and came back a day or so later). Keeping in mind that for a lot of these animals that I was looking for a *good* home, that didn't need to be the *perfect* home, helped. Someone without a fenced yard *can* have a high energy dog. A college guy with roommates *can* take good care of a cat. Oftentimes it just requires a good conversation with someone to know what they are looking for and help match them up.
I also think that professional pictures of the animals helps them to catch someone's eye in the hundreds of dogs they can find locally on Petfinder. 🙂
This is a super interesting topic to me, having worked super closely on this issue, and I too would love to see some studies done as well.

 

[Be_Pawsitive]

I'd have to agree with @thecatastrophist on communal living. The shelter is a stressful environment and even the most docile animal has the potential to lash out unexpectedly. At the shelter I work at, we usually keep litter and/or housemates together and it seems to work out fine. But, on top of the behavior aspect, there is also the disease component. The shelter is quite the hub for communicable diseases such as URI, calici, Bordetella, CIV, etc. Especially during this time of year, we see the number of ill animals dramatically increase at the shelter, even without communal living, costing the shelter a lot of money. As with behavior, employees need to be well trained in disease control methods, and some times the shelter just does not have those kind of resources. Even animals who have been cleared by the vet before and were given the all clear to be put up for adoption have come down with illness (could be due to them not presenting with symptoms before, poor ventilation system, cross contamination via employees and volunteers). I'm big on proper training of staff and volunteers, probably because I feel it is a bit lack luster where I volunteer.

In terms of adoption rates, I feel it depends on where the shelter is located and what type of community the shelter is serving. The shelter I'm at serves a rather large community and we don't have an issue with adoption rates, sometimes we have issues meeting the demands of the public. Same day adoptions generally don't happen with the dogs at the shelter (cats we do the same day), largely because we try to ensure the best homes possible and there are multiple people interested in a single dog. The shelter feels that just giving a green light the same day would increase the rate of returned adoptions due to the animal not meeting expectations, suddenly moving, issues with children and other pets, the person realizing they couldn't financially support the dog until after the adoption, etc (these are some incidences we've had.)

Again, I personally think it really comes down to the location and community the shelter is serving, as well as resources available to the shelter.

 

[LetItSnow]

I like the effort that many shelters are putting into training the animals to come to the front of the kennel and engage the people more - I think that has to help adoption rates a lot.

One shelter I just visited as part of our public health rotation is now having most of the animal's food come from the visitors. They hang the animal's daily ration on the outside of the run and encourage people to feed a few kibble pieces at a time. I think this has benefits of encouraging positive interaction. There are some obvious negatives (potential for infectious agent spread as people move from kennel to kennel, primarily), but as long as staff are monitoring pretty reasonably I think it's overall a good thing. They minimize the possibility of a bite because of the narrow kennel door wiring - people can't really stick body parts through, you more have to toss the kibble under the kennel door.

 

[EngrSC]

In my city the humane society side of the house recently started a borrow a dog type program. I don't recall the details or if it was just a weekend promo type deal but they were allowing people to 'borrow' an adoptable dog for a day to go hiking/walking. The dog would wear an 'Adopt Me' bandana while out. I imagine they limited it to bullet-proof dogs but what a neat concept!

Also, regarding home visits ... I was the Adoption Director for a few years on the board of a non-profit rescue and initially every single potential adopter got a homecheck. In time I was able to change the rules somewhat. I would receive the adoption application and if they looked great on paper and their home didn't look like a nightmare on Google Earth I would only do a phone interview. For those that had questionable applications we did homechecks. It worked out beautifully for applicants and volunteers 🙂

 

[Caia]

As an alternative point of view for communal living, I have seen it work in a feline specific shelter quite well. New cats would be introduced in a large wire kennel. There would be approximately 10 cats per room and necessary quarantine protocols were followed for illness. There were plenty of cat trees, baskets and places to get away if needed. I volunteered there for almost a year and didn't witness any major problems.

I'm not as well versed with dogs, so can't comment on that situation.

 

[WildZoo]

As an alternative point of view for communal living, I have seen it work in a feline specific shelter quite well. New cats would be introduced in a large wire kennel. There would be approximately 10 cats per room and necessary quarantine protocols were followed for illness. There were plenty of cat trees, baskets and places to get away if needed. I volunteered there for almost a year and didn't witness any major problems.

I'm not as well versed with dogs, so can't comment on that situation.

We had three cat colony rooms at one shelter where I worked, and two at another. There were usually 5 or so cats in each room. It worked at well, and as far as I know there were never any fights. The cats that were in the colony rooms were generally the ones who had been at the shelter the longest and who had lived with cats before.

But then, cats and dogs are very different in their socialization. I could see issues arising with dogs living communally. I know someone who has 7 dogs who had been living together for years, and they got into a fight one day and a couple of them were pretty badly injured. We also had an incident at the clinic I worked at over the summer where a trio of dogs that were boarding together (and always had boarded together in the same run) got into a fight and one of them ended up needing stitches. I feel like the cats were generally able to avoid fights because they would claim particular territories in the room. Each cat was king of its particular bed, chair, tree, etc. You also generally don't see more than one cat ganging up on another. Whereas with dogs it is a more defined hierarchy, and it is very possible for three dogs in a group of four to form a pack and decide the outsider needs to go. That's how it was explained to me at work anyway, and why they only will board dogs together if the owner signs a release, and they don't really like doing it with more than two dogs.

 

[that redhead]

I have literally zero shelter experience but I like the "borrow a dog" concept. It's pretty much a win-win scenario for everyone involved. Getting those dogs especially out of that environment can really open up their personality.

I would love for their to be a way for dogs to get some basic positive-reinforcement obedience training, but I imagine most shelters are just far too strapped for time/resources to make that happen. I think it would really increase adoption rates if they could learn not to jump or pull on leashes at the very least.

 

[WildZoo]

I have literally zero shelter experience but I like the "borrow a dog" concept. It's pretty much a win-win scenario for everyone involved. Getting those dogs especially out of that environment can really open up their personality.

I would love for their to be a way for dogs to get some basic positive-reinforcement obedience training, but I imagine most shelters are just far too strapped for time/resources to make that happen. I think it would really increase adoption rates if they could learn not to jump or pull on leashes at the very least.

We did some very basic training during dog walking shifts at one of the shelters I've worked at. It only happened if there were enough volunteers and the kennel wasn't overflowing with dogs, but we had 3 or 4 large runs where they could play, and we could do some training. We were supposed to try to teach good leash behavior every time we walked them though.

 

[Caia]

I have literally zero shelter experience but I like the "borrow a dog" concept. It's pretty much a win-win scenario for everyone involved. Getting those dogs especially out of that environment can really open up their personality.

I would love for their to be a way for dogs to get some basic positive-reinforcement obedience training, but I imagine most shelters are just far too strapped for time/resources to make that happen. I think it would really increase adoption rates if they could learn not to jump or pull on leashes at the very least.

I would totally borrow a dog for a hike or trip to the park. For people that don't have the current space or time for a dog, they can love on one from a shelter then of course the dogs get socialization and advertising as well as getting outside.

I wish this was more of a thing.

 

[Caia]

Granted, there is a degree of liability, but I'm sure there are ways that it can be dealt with. Release forms, collateral, etc.

 

[that redhead]

I would totally borrow a dog for a hike or trip to the park. For people that don't have the current space or time for a dog, they can love on one from a shelter then of course the dogs get socialization and advertising as well as getting outside.

I wish this was more of a thing.

I totally plan on doing so when I get home in a few weeks time! My county shelter requires people to have undergone volunteer training which is a reasonable time commitment 🙂

 

[Puffins]

At the shelter I'm involved with, we have several larger cattery rooms which each house 2-10 cats. I think it's great because it allows potential adopters to see how a cat they're interested in interacts with other cats. It also gives the cats lots of vertical space to work with and, as far as I can tell, leads to happier, more adoptable cats. I haven't worked with dogs much at the shelter so I can't really comment on doggie cohousing.

I haven't heard of homevisits before but I could see how that could lead to one shelter having lower adoption rates than another that doesn't do homevisits, simply because adopters might not want to deal with it. At my local animal shelter, our application process is pretty short and we do have same day adoptions, both for cats and for dogs, although same day adoptions for dogs are a lot less common.

As someone else mentioned, good quality photos really seem to help animals get adopted quickly.

 

[orca2011]

I have literally zero shelter experience but I like the "borrow a dog" concept. It's pretty much a win-win scenario for everyone involved. Getting those dogs especially out of that environment can really open up their personality.

I would love for their to be a way for dogs to get some basic positive-reinforcement obedience training, but I imagine most shelters are just far too strapped for time/resources to make that happen. I think it would really increase adoption rates if they could learn not to jump or pull on leashes at the very least.

A few in Philly try. One has volunteers that work on training and has a group of people that specifically take the more higher energy dogs out on runs...they're called The Monster Milers. There is also a group called Hand2Paw which connects homeless youths to shelter animals and some of the stories are really amazing and heart touching. ACCT has some decent sized runs and I've seen them socializing the dogs and working on some basic commands.

The shelter I first started at had some volunteers work on basic behaviors and leash walking as well. The one volunteer now actually does a lot of reactivity training at a facility and still volunteers her time at this shelter.

 

[battie]

I was wondering if you guys know how to get a hold of shelter statistics for different states. I am doing a personal research project on shelter adoption and euthanasia rates in congruence to how much money the shelters gain and spend. I have the statistics for every shelter in CO because we have the PACFA law and all the shelters must provide their numbers to the state department of Ag. Interestingly enough, 101,000 dogs were taken to CO shelters in 2013 and only 6900 were euthanized. I find that rate much better than what I was expecting. Now, I haven't gotten beyond dogs yet, but I was then wondering about the other states and trying to find their statistics. You guys have any pointers for your state(s)?

I totally dig the borrow a dog for walk situation! I would totally do that! If that were a thing here, I could do that a couple times a week!

 

[EngrSC]

A few in Philly try. One has volunteers that work on training and has a group of people that specifically take the more higher energy dogs out on runs...they're called The Monster Milers.

I absolutely love this Monster Milers idea! I would love to start something like that here with the gobs of free time I don't have