The ASPCA’s Meet Your MatchTM Canine-ality Adoption Program was developed by Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Emily Weiss, PhD in association with the Kansas Humane Society through an IAMS/ASPCA Lifelong Friends grant. The Program is distributed by the ASPCA’s National Shelter Outreach Department and is sponsored by IAMS.
Meet Your Match TM aims to scientifically match a shelter dog’s personality, traits and behavior characteristics with the traits and characteristics adopters are seeking in a new animal companion.
The program also provides kennel staff, adoption counselors and volunteers with a common base of knowledge about the shelter population and can increase adoptions, decrease returns, and improve customer relations.
Sounds good, but does Meet Your MatchTM deliver? And how does it work?
The Meet Your MatchTM Canine-alityTM Adoption Program is comprised of two parts:
The first part, a Canine-alityTM Assessment, determines a dog’s characteristics: friendliness, playfulness, energy level, house manners, motivation and drive. After each dog is given a series of five tests, he is scored and then categorized as either easy, average or high maintenance. The categories are then color coded purple, orange and green. Within each category there are types (Go-Getter, Free Spirit, Goofball, Wallflower, Busy Bee, Teacher’s Pet, Couch Potato, Constant Companion, Life of the Party) and descriptions of each type written in terms adopters can relate to. The color-coded descriptions are used as the dog’s cage card.
Before the dog takes the Canine-alityTM Assesment, an initial behavior assessment must be made by qualified, trained staff to make sure the dog is a suitable candidate for adoption.
The second part of the program, the Dog Adopter Survey, consists of 18 questions to help determine which canine-ality best matches adopter expectations, experience, lifestyle and home environment. The Adopter Survey is scored to match the individual with the dog. Adopters receive either purple, orange or green Guest Passes and are directed to the dogs with cage cards that match the color of their Guest Passes. (Adopters can go home with a dog of a different color, but counselors need to spend extra time with them to make sure it’s a good fit.)
Maddie’s Fund spoke with Emily Weiss and staff at four shelters to get more detailed information about the Meet Your MatchTM program. Respondents included:
Martha Kalina, Humane Society of Knox County (Maine)
Animals housed: 1,000 annually Staff: 8 Budget: $250,000
Sara Labberton, Humane Society of the Willamette Valley (Oregon)
Animals housed: 12,000 annually Staff: 45 Budget: $1.9 M
Greta Hardin, Capital Area Humane (Lansing, MI)
Animals housed: 8,000 annually Staff: 23 Budget: $1.2M
Jan McHugh-Smith, Humane Society of Boulder Valley (Boulder, CO)
Animals housed: 7,600 annually Staff 80 Budget: $3.7 M
Natalie Zielinski, Wisconsin Humane Society
Animals housed: 12,000 annually Staff: 85 Budget: $5 M
Q. Emily, how did Meet Your MatchTTM come about?
A. The Canine-alityTM Assessment came from research I was conducting to select service dogs from animal shelters. Meet Your MatchTM was originally developed for the Kansas Humane Society at a time when they were struggling with high returns, poor customer satisfaction and counselor /client difficulties. After the first year of Meet Your MatchTM in 2001, shelter returns were cut in half.
Q. What level of dog knowledge is required to administer the Canine-alityTM Assesment?
A. Shelter staff don’t need an extremely high level of animal behavior training. Someone with good observation skills or with basic training can do it. Most generally, tests are conducted by adoption counselors but some facilities use behaviorists, kennel staff or volunteers. The test takes about 20 minutes to administer.
Q. (For Shelter administrators) How long have you used Meet Your MatchTM?
A. Jan: We started in February 2005.
Sara: We began in May, 2004.
Martha: Less than a year.
Greta: Six months.
Natalie: We started in 2003
Q. Why did you decide to try Meet Your MatchTM?
A. Jan: Half of the animals we care for annually are strays. Although the health and behavior evaluations we do on every dog give us quite a bit of information, client surveys told us that adopters wanted even more information about these animals. This program gives us another tool to help adopters.
Martha: We were using a very long, two page application that made the adopter feel like the enemy. We required background checks, personal references, and we often made people go home empty handed while we did our research. After talking to Emily and going to a training, we learned to see the adopter as a friend. We also found that the Meet Your MatchTM survey was a better guide to adoptions and fostered better dialogue and discussion.
Natalie: After Emily told us about the program, we gave it a try on a small scale and felt we were getting good results in that the clients were very happy with the dogs they were adopting.
Q. What do you like about the program?
A. Jan. I like it because it’s a simple way for the adopter to discover what they’re looking for. If dogs meet their expectations, we’ll have fewer relinquishments. I like that it’s a scientific way to predict behavior in the home.
This program is also a way for us to maximize staff time. It pulls good matches up to the surface so staff can spend more time with other phases of adoption counseling.
It helps people focus on appropriate choices. I think our clients feel overwhelmed by the number of animals needing homes and appreciate help in making a selection.
Natalie: Our clients feel special because they see that we’re trying to match a dog to their particular needs. They like that we’re going to so much effort to find just the right dog for them.
Sara: We think it’s fabulous, the best thing that ever happened. It’s given our staff better ways to explain why some matches aren’t right. The adopter survey alone is an excellent tool. It really helps people focus on what’s important. Now people have more to think about than preconceived ideas about what they want in terms of a dog’s size or coat.
We get a lot of black Labrador retrievers and lab mixes that look alike; same with pit mixes. When people see a bunch of black labs in a row they can’t distinguish between them. Now, rather than a black lab, one dog may be a “teacher’s pet”, another may be a
“life of the party” each with different characteristics written out. It helps get away from breed stereotypes.
Staff like that the descriptions help them to know the animals better and give them more to talk about with adopters. Everyone has more insight on what makes the dog tick.
As a marketing person, I love the descriptions.
Q. Adopters are supposed to fill out the survey before they go look at the dogs. Do they like doing this? Any complaints about it?
A. Emily: Most people like it and get excited about the prospect of taking a personality test to meet their match— sort of like those quizzes people take in magazines to find the right man. If the survey is presented in the right way, people will have fun with it and not be resentful. People also like that it’s short. I suggest shelters use this instead of long application, and if there’s anything they want to add that isn’t covered, they can put it on the back.
Martha: I think our clients view the survey as the game it is intended. They understand that it helps them find what they’re looking for and even if the colors don’t match, they understand why they’ll need to make lifestyle changes for the adoption to work out.
Greta: The way our shelter is designed, people see the dogs as soon as they walk in and they want to make a beeline for them. They are reluctant to stop and fill out the survey in advance and this is a problem for us.
Q. Has Meet Your MatchTM brought tangible results?
A. Sara: Since we’ve implemented the program, our adoptions are up 20%--although I don’t know how much of that can be directly attributed to the program. The program has also helped our entire system—customer service, media support etc.
Martha: We’ve done more adoptions. More people go home with dogs than they used to and they feel better about doing it.
Meet Your MatchTM can be implemented by using materials provided in a 37 page binder, available for $15 from the ASPCA catalog at www.aspca.org/catalog. Over twenty regional trainings facilitated by the ASPCA and sponsored by IAMS have also been set up to enable interested shelters to get a hands on demonstration of the program.
The price of materials needed to implement the program is $100-150, the cost of purchasing a TV/audio baby monitor for one of the canine-ality tests.
The time to administer the test is about 20 minutes per dog. Time for adopters to fill out the Survey is about 8 minutes.
Sample descriptions:
GO-GETTER. Hi! My name is_________. Want more exercise? Action is my middle name. My “Let’s GO!” lifestyle will keep you motivated to get outside and move. I’ve got tons of energy, and just like the sun, I’m burning and working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I’ll run for miles, chase a ball for hours, and still want to play at the end of the day.
GOOFBALL Hi! My name is___________. I’m a fun-loving, happy-all-the-time, glass-is-half-full kind of dog looking for someone who loves to laugh and play around. Must have a great sense of humor and a bunch of tennis balls.
WALLFLOWER Hi! My name is_______Shy yet charming canine searching for patient owner with relaxed lifestyle. Looking for gentle guidance to help me come out of my shell. Treat me sweet and kind and I’ll blossom.
Sample Adopter Survey question:
When I’m home, I want my dog to be by my side…. (circle one) All of the time / Some of the time / Little of the time.
from the Maddie's Fund Website, www.maddiesfund.org
