Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello! I am the adoptions manager for a rescue in the Kansas City area. I love working on the adoptions and seeing animals find their forever homes. In our program, we have great success placing smaller dogs and puppies. We have a much more difficult time placing our large adult dogs and often struggle to even get them into foster homes. What are some strategies that you use to promote the big adult dogs? Do you hold special events for them at certain venues? Do you market them in a different way? Looking for any tips you can provide. These are wonderful dogs and I would like to find ways to help them get into their homes more quickly. I appreciate any insights you can offer. Thank you!

#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms

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Janie Schumaker
Adoptions Manager
Melissa's Second Chances
KS
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Hi Janie!

I promote our fostering is free program daily on social media. We also recently created a dog day out program for dogs who are in between, or had a shorter term foster. This helps them get out there in between events and create bonds with some of our other volunteers. 

Each of our adult dog fosters who has been with us  gets a business card that we can hand out or put up at many places. 

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Alex Siska
Director
Cleos Legacy inc
KY
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Hi Janie,

My organization's main marketing strategy for our large adult dogs is to be "annoying" about them in our marketing. We had a 90-pound Akita mix with a bite history that we would promote like crazy. She was in every newsletter and brochure, and when she got adopted, many silent followers engaged with our post. We also have a partnership with a nearby correctional facility that provides our dogs with an 8-week obedience program that makes our large dogs a lot more adoptable. My other suggestion would be to use a long stay checklist. I have attached the one that I reference.

My organization has been quite successful in adopting out our long stay dogs over the past few months, so please feel free to ask any questions!

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Blair Voltz
Kennel Technician
Lewis Clark Animal Shelter
ID
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