The Geauga Humane Society-Rescue Village in Novelty, Ohio, is one of dozens and dozens of shelters that have sent staff to attend The HSUS Pets for Life™ National Training Center in Denver. These shelter professionals may come from many different regions, but they all walk away with the same thing: new tools to better serve their communities.
One such a tool is a temperament evaluation. These evaluations provide shelter staff with important information about the adoptability of individual dogs and cats. Evaluations help identify the optimum adoption setting for specific animals; for example, evaluation results might indicate that a particular dog should not be adopted to a household with cats.
Temperament evaluation results are also useful for selecting and customizing in-shelter training programs. Training animals during their stay at the shelter makes them more adoptable, and provides stimulation while the animals await new homes. What's more, because training programs allow staff and volunteers to become familiar with the unique personalities and needs of each animal, shelter professionals can make better adoption matches.
Temperament evaluations and finding appropriate matches between pets and people are important components of successful adoptions. However, no relationship is without challenges. Unwanted behavior is the major reason why people give up, or give up on, their pets. But many of even the most annoying pet behaviors can be resolved with the proper intervention—that's why The HSUS also trains shelters to offer behavior counseling to pet owners long after the animal has joined his new family.
The Geauga Humane Society-Rescue Village sent shelter manager Sue Alemagno and kennel manager Denise Janic to the April 2002 Pets for Life National Training Center class. Alemagno and Janic returned to their shelter and immediately started improving and implementing behavior programs. To support these new programs, Geauga increased their behavior department staff from two to four people. Within three months of attending the Training Center class, the shelter launched a behavior helpline, and trained its staff in cat and dog behavior, training, nutrition, and body postures.
Over the next few months, Geauga expanded their programs even further. Specifically, the shelter:
- Features an in-shelter dog training program named Homeward Bound; everyone who adopts a Homeward Bound dog receives a special adoption packet that includes training, care, behavior, and medical information.
- Handles an increasing number of calls from pet owners seeking advice on pet behavior—call volume has increased eightfold since the helpline was launched.
- Offers off-site cat adoptions at a local PETsMART Luv a Pet Center.
- Trains its volunteers in cat body postures and working with Homeward Bound dogs.
- Tracks the numbers of dogs and cats who are returned for behavior reasons (e.g., housesoiling, destructive chewing) and ownership reasons (e.g., allergies to pets, moving).
All of these new and expanded programs and services will help Geauga Humane Society grow as a valuable community resource. Speaking of her shelter's new behavior programs, Alemagno says, "It feels so good. It's everything we've always wanted to do, and now we are!"
