Kitty’s Turn to Find Real Love!
Matchmaker, MatchmakerFind me a find
Fetch me a fetch
We at the ASPCA are enjoying the success of our Meet Your Match™ Canine-ality™ program, which has spread to over 100 animal shelters nationwide. This program, which matches an animal’s personality to an adopter’s lifestyle and preferences, has resulted in fewer people returning their dogs.
Now, we’ll be launching the same program for cats and cat lovers, affectionately called: Meet Your Match™ Feline-ality™
Sharon L. Peters of USA Today reported this morning:
"Science is much better than emotion" in guiding a person to the perfect-for-you dog, says Emily Weiss, a certified applied animal behaviorist. She developed the two-pronged tool that assesses and classifies canines according to their personalities and likely post-adoption behavior and also quizzes would-be adopters.
The program was created to deal with the reality that as many as 20 of every 100 dogs adopted from some shelters are soon returned, many of them because of the dog's energy level or other personality traits.
The way Meet Your Match works: Shelter personnel conduct an assessment with each dog to determine its friendliness, playfulness, energy level and motivation or drive. Each dog is scored and placed into one of three color-coded maintenance categories: easy (purple), average (orange) or high (green). And within each of those three categories there are three descriptors, such as "life of the party," "wallflower" and "couch potato," all with details about specific behaviors that can be anticipated.
Humans, meanwhile, complete a five-minute, 18-question survey that provides insights into their expectations, previous dog-care experience, lifestyle and home environment. The questionnaire is scored, and the person is assigned a color that correlates with the type of dog or puppy that best fits.
Then an easy stroll through the facility quickly identifies, through the colored cards on each kennel, which dogs are the best fit for that.
As for creating a similar tool for cats, Weiss had to start back at square one. "Cats are a whole different animal," she says, laughing.
Beta testing in five facilities has shown the Feline-ality Meet Your Match program to be highly effective. Feline-ality™ is even helping them succeed in an area shelters struggle with: getting new homes for older cats.
Read the full article in USA Today!
Labels: Adopt, canine-ality, feline-ality, meet your match
posted by ASPCA at 11:50 AM PERMALINK
5 Comments:
I think this is a really cool idea. I'm glad it is helping reduce the number of dogs returned to shelters. I can't wait to see the cat questionnaire.
I have to admit that I picked both my cats within seconds of seeing them - I just had that feeling that they would be a perfect fit for me and they were. I just not all people and animals are as lucky.
I think Vick should give the 22 million the atlanta falcons are trying to get back to the aspca,peta or other animal rights groups,andyleejt@gmail
I don't know if this should be a requirement for all adopters. When we adopted my cat, we had no idea he wouldn't be a couch potato like our old kitty. We just adjusted, and we love him.
Sometimes the pets we adopt teach us how to change first.
The shelter in my city does not assess the animals.
A bad practice IMHO because it is good for the ppl looking for their forever kitty or doggy to know ahead of time what they are dealing with.
They may want a lap cat or lap dog or frisky kitty or playful puppy or a chill older doggy that looks younger, Etc.
To hand out cats or dogs based on looks alone is not cool for the poor animals in question.
They may end up back in the shelter sad and jaded or may end up outside eventually turning feral or stray or worse.
Animals need to be assessed as do the potential parents for these animals up for adoption.
HI
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