adoption follow up, mike kaviani

Following Up and Saving Lives

Presented By:

Mike Kaviani, Dog Behavior Program Manager

Austin Pets Alive! In Cooperation with:

Aimee Sadler, Director of Behavior and Training

Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation

Why Adoption Follow-Up?

• Learning from our adoptions

– What can our community bear?

– What trends do we see in behavior problems in the home compared to those we saw in the shelter (or in past history)

– AFU (in addition to life-saving mission) guides our behavior depts.

• Positive outcomes from AFU

– Able to place behavior dogs if we can offer the support

– Helps to keep more animals out of our shelters!

– Learning more about behavior and context

– Long-term collaborative relationships with adopters

• Revisiting Our Mission Statements to save more lives!

– Hopeful trend for more resources supporting them on the way out rather than screening them on their way in! …better aligned.

Copyright © 2011 by Aimee Sadler, All Rights Reserved

Behavior Department

Vision Statement

We will provide the animals in our care all available resources to enhance their

quality of life while sheltered and to save as many lives as possible. We will

recognize, respect, and treat each animal as an individual. We will utilize all tools

and techniques in our training and behavior programs to teach and support

healthy and appropriate behavior for companion animals within our communities.

We will continue to learn and develop our skill sets as handlers and trainers so

that we may meet the needs of as many sheltered animals as possible. We will

support our adopters in strengthening and nourishing their fundamental bond

with their companion animals. We will share our program successes with other

animal welfare organizations to support life-saving efforts beyond our own shelter

and community.

Copyright 2011© by Aimee Sadler, All rights reserved

Copyright 2011© by Aimee Sadler, All

rights reserved

SASF APA!

Yearly Intake 1,000 animals annually 2,620 dogs in 2013 YTD

Avg. # of Dogs on Site 70 180 (200 in foster)

Daily Staffing (Dog Depts.) Behavior: 2-3

Kennel/Adoptions: 6

Behavior: 1-2

Kennel/Adoptions: 4

SASF to APA!

What We Provide

• All Complimentary

– Phone consultations

– Private sessions at the shelter or home

– Group classes

– Board & Train (SASF)

• No time limit for AFU support

– Can’t provide ongoing training, but we do provide support for

issues or behavior concerns

***Support surrendering when deemed more appropriate***


Sensitivity to Aggression

To save more lives our industry needs to address our understanding and response to animal aggression:

Sheltering Field (can’t win) • “…too many good dogs destroyed to

expend resources on dogs with issues…” VS.

• “You don’t understand!...they just need to be loved…”

Professional Training Field • the only thing two trainers can agree upon is what the third

trainer is doing wrong!

Human Nature (defense mechanism) • my diagnosis is “right”…but…what if you’re wrong???

• litigious society…how many shelters have shut their doors???


What is vicious?

Vicious: given or readily disposed to evil; grossly immoral; depraved

Aggression: An unprovoked attack. Aggressive action or practices.

• Can be legitimate communication

• Disproportionate response = aberrant behavior

Threat: A declaration of an intention to inflict

injury or pain.

Warning: Admonition, advice, recommendation.

*Defense: The act of defending or guarding.

*Offense: The act of offending; a fault, sin or crime.

*Defense vs. Offense*

The behavior can look the same but is motivated differently, therefore, it should be handled differently!!!


Photo by Hany Hosny

Things to Consider (Resources pertain)

• Triggers

– are they predictable?

– are there too many?

– can they be controlled

• Thresholds

– how much to blow them?

– push (rather than provoke)…then TEACH/TRAIN to develop coping skills

• Risks

– Skill level and compliance of adopters

sufficient? (handling and management)


Our Lines in the Sand

• Offensive Aggression to PEOPLE

– it’s rare…usually defensive no matter how ugly

– when being aggressive is a self-rewarding behavior

– when flight is an option but fight is the chosen response

● Uninterruptible Drive

- when the handler can not influence behavior

- when is an animal allowed to be an animal?

● Unpredictable Aggression

– how can we work on a behavior if we can’t identify the

triggers?


Champ

• Surrendered as 4 mo. puppy for

“aggression” to the children

• While sheltered, determined to be deaf

• Failed original Bval for high arousal with hard mouthing…behavior staff only

• Worked on ecollar mastering 10 hand cues and qualified as “CGC ready!”

• Used as demo dog for disabled children for the ‘Fresh Air Fund’

• Sheltered for 8 months…adopted November of 2010

• 4 hours of AFU (2 @ home, 2 @ shelter)

• Family volunteers walking dogs while Champ attends play group


Cleo

• Came in as a stray…slightly shy

• Passed original Bval

• Soft with dogs in play group

• Once home strong territorial guarding with visitors

and extreme OLR to people, dogs and vehicles

• Sheltered for 1 month…adopted December, 2010


• Adopters volunteer walking dogs while Cleo attends

play group


Domino

• Transfer from another shelter

• Failed original Bval for handling

• Dog social and no signs of OLR while sheltered

• Once home strong territorial guarding with visitors,

extreme OLR to people, dogs and vehicles and

intolerance to handling

• Sheltered for less than 1 month…adopted April, 2010


• Tim and I have become BFF’s


Sydney

• Came in as a stray

• Failed original Bval for extreme FG

• 2 weeks of Bmod for FG while sheltered

• Sheltered for 2.5 months…adopted November, 2010

• 1 hour of AFU (at our request for documentation)

• No FG exhibited in the home


Smokie

Copyright 2011© by Aimee Sadler, All

rights reserved

• Transferred from City Shelter

• Shy with new people, immediately available for adoption

after transfer

• Sheltered for a little more than 1 month…adopted by a

family with two children on April 12th, 2012

• Immediately after being brought home, severe fear issues

developed, hiding from family members and visitors,

refusing to come inside and hiding in the bushes

• After several months, Smokie had bonded closely with

Jenny, but remained anti-social with the rest of the family

and fearful of new situations and people, and was still

unable to consistently walk outside on a leash.

• 2 hours of AFU (1 phone consultation, 1 in-shelter training

session, and documentation request)

Who’d a Thunk?

HISTORY BVAL PERTINENT

BEHAVIOR RESOLVED

LENGTH

IN

HOME

AFU

CHAMP Yes Fail Somewhat Yes 3 yrs. Yes

CLEO No Pass No Yes 2 yrs. and

10 mos. Yes

DOMINO No Fail Yes/No Yes 3 yrs. and

6 mos. Yes

SYDNEY No Fail No Yes 3 yrs. No

Smokie (Adopted prior

to formation of

Behavior

Department)

No Pass Yes Yes 1 yr. and

6 mos. Yes


Can we really predict?

• Territorial behaviors

– Tend not to be triggered while sheltered

• Behavior Assessments Validated? – Scientists keep trying…not there yet

• Shelter vs. Home

– is not necessarily contextual!!!

• Relationship

– can profoundly affect behavior and can not be scientifically measured

• Concerning Behavior

– can escalate once home…or disappear?!? Collecting data…


Industry Obstacles to Saving Lives

• Industry Standards: – Behavior Evaluations as culling tools

– Categories of adoptable…how?

– Breed labeling dogs of unknown origin (visit NCRC)

– Emotional issues over training tools and techniques

– Misguided “Do No Harm”…but death doesn’t count?!?

– Aggression and Dominance oversimplified and misunderstood

• Resource Deficits: (different per organization) – Qualified volunteer coordinators…#1 priority!!!

– Staff time/Facility space

– Monetary Limitations

– Training & Behavior skill set

– Brave Leadership in the face of societal challenges…


2013 - YTD

Canine Statistics

SASF (1,000 animals in 2012)

APA! (2,620 YTD)

Canine Live Release Rate 97% 95% (94% City of Austin)

Average Length of Stay 27 days 28 days 42 days for “big dogs”

Returned Adoption rate 11.5% 11.5%

% of Returns for Behavior

(adopter’s version)

37.5% 30.5%

% of Returns for Pertinent Behavior

(shelter’s version)

1% 1.5%


• Revisit your mission statements

• Employ full-time, well qualified volunteer coordinators

• Revisit behavior evaluations and how to use the information to

allocate resources rather than to cull

• Avoid breed specific policies…strive to treat them as individuals

• Measure behavior department success with raw statistics rather

than categorized statistics

• Embrace comprehensive approaches to training and behavior

issues and allow community pros to help!

• Network and create relationships to support

animals based upon your shelter’s resources

• Develop adoption follow-up programs!!!

Getting to the next level:


• The longer we are in sheltering the less confident we are in predicting!

• You never know until you try …and we’ve learned a ton about behavior from our Adoption Follow-Up Programs!

• Once an animal is gone there is no way of knowing what they could have been in another context…or with relationship.

• We’d rather support our adoptions

than euthanize just in case…

because we love being wrong!

What we have learned from them…


Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation Southampton, NY

[email protected]

www.southamptonanimalshelter.com

Point of View Training & Consulting, LLC 303-775-5491

Professional IACP Member #1449


In Cooperation With:

Aimee Sadler Director of Training & Behavior

Mike Kaviani Dog Behavior Program Manager

Austin Pets Alive! Austin, TX

[email protected]

www.austinpetsalive.org

949-697-8451

http://www.southamptonanimalshelter.com/

mailto:[email protected]

adoption follow up, mike kaviani

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