I took a one-year sabbatical from dog training in 2014 to volunteer with a rescue group.
I spent a lot of time at adoption events that year. In addition to the one or two events a week hosted by the rescue group, I was also taking my foster dog du jour out on the town for daily training sessions to try to find their future adopters.
This is what I learned.
What makes a highly adoptable foster dog?
I’m an observer by nature. I like to spot patterns and analyze things. And as I spent time around large groups of adoptable dogs, I started to notice some interesting trends.
The first thing that I noticed was that it was the same dogs over and over who were getting immediate attention from everyone who walked up. Even if there were thirty dogs at the event, the same five were constantly the center of the show.
Okay, sure. That could be luck or just a particularly adoptable foster dog. But interestingly, it also seemed like it was the same handlers over and over whose fosters would get adopted very quickly.
And that intrigued me.
Like all foster parents, I semi-selfishly wanted my foster dogs to be seen by as many potential adopters as possible. I know, I know. Rescue isn’t a competition and what matters is the match between the home and the dog. But let’s be honest here. When you have a foster dog, you love them and you want everyone to see the best in them. You want to give them their best chance.
So I started paying attention to what worked.
I watched what those life-of-the-party dogs were doing. I wanted to find out what was really drawing in the potential adopters and why the same handlers seemed to be consistently more successful than average.
How much does training count?
Since I am a dog trainer, the first thing that I paid attention to was the dogs temperament and training, which seemed to me like the obvious choice. Rationally, that should make a huge difference between getting adopted quickly and not. In an ideal world, temperament and training would be the most important criteria.
But surprisingly, that wasn’t the case most of the time. In fact, many of the dogs who were getting attention were, to my eyes, some of the worst behaved dogs in the group in terms of manners. Not exclusively, but it was definitely not their stellar manners that made them stand out. There is some recent science to support this in a shelter environment as well.
(Almost) all attention is good attention
At a crowded adoption event with so many dogs to choose from, it pays to be worth a second look. The dogs who made somebody laugh would get adopted quickly because laughter drew other people’s attention to that dog. The handlers who dressed up their foster dogs were usually very successful. A public spectacle sells.
In contrast, the dogs who sat down calmly at their handlers’s feet were often overlooked. They only interacted with people who were intending to interact with them. They didn’t draw people in. Drawing even mildly negative attention to the dogs was still attention and did seem to increase their overall adoptability.
But draw positive attention when possible.
This doesn’t mean that your foster dog shouldn’t be well-behaved. It means that good behavior alone isn’t enough.
If your foster dog has some amount of basic obedience training, show it off strategically! A long down-stay in a chaotic environment may be more impressive, but doesn’t draw the eye. If a potential adopter didn’t see you give the cue, it just looks like laying there.
Instead, practice a series of short behaviors to showcase how obedient and attentive your foster dog can be. Hand-touches and position changes are great for this because movement draws the eye. They also keep the dog engaged with you, which is always a good idea in a crowded environment.
Counter-intuitively, simple tricks like sit, down, shake and roll over often get more attention than more complex tricks. Staying busy with repeated simple tricks invites comments and questions from potential adopters.
Defy negative stereotypes.
My long-term foster dog Antoinette was a bully breed mix. She adored people. But in a city with a large apartment-dwelling population, finding a home for a large bully breed mix isn’t easy. As far as the apartments were concerned, she was a pit bull.
To compensate for that, I started dressing her up. I used a temporary dye to give her a rainbow mohawk. (The dye was pet-safe and washed off after the event.) She had a bright colorful tutu that she wore to all of her events. Antoinette was a charmer on her own, but the $5 tutu and rainbows almost forced people to talk to her.
To stay with the theme, all of her tricks had cute, feminine cues, too. Instead of “spin left” and “spin right,” she had “ballet” and “twirl.” Instead of “shake,” she knew “manicure.” And so on.
Once we started doing that, we stopped hearing an immediate defensive, “Oh, my apartment doesn’t allow pit bulls.” Even the apartment residents would come over and chat with us for a few minutes. People took photos and sent them to their friends.
Was it a gimmick? Sure! But it was a gimmick that worked.
What about people skills?
On the handler end, by far the most important factor was the willingness to approach and make eye contact with strangers. Bad news for introverts like me! I had to consciously help myself take the initiative in social settings. I was willing to be the extraverted dog marketing person to get my foster dog adopted, but it took real effort.
Overall, being passive didn’t work well. Some people would just kind of stand around with their foster dog and hope someone was automatically drawn to their foster dog. That didn’t work very often. The passive handlers’ foster dogs usually got equally passive responses from the adopters.
A person-to-person interaction with a foster dog present seemed to work best. The dog was rarely the first one to break the ice, even if all the handler did was make brief eye contact and smile. The potential adopters were most likely to be drawn toward approachable handlers who looked happy to be there.
Set your foster dog up to succeed.
I think this should go without saying, but apparently it doesn’t. Don’t put your foster dog in a position where they’re likely to show off their bad side. Don’t allow your foster dog to rehearse bad habits in any scenario, ideally, but especially in front of a potential adopter. This comes down to basic proactive management.
If your dog growls at other dogs, it’s okay to stay further away from other dogs.
If your dog doesn’t like to be crowded by children, stop children before they reach out. Better yet, take several steps away from them to give your foster dog space.
Or best of all, work with a skilled dog trainer and have a training plan in place for your foster dog before your first adoption event.
Take space when necessary.
These crowded, noisy events can stress out even the most happy-go-lucky dogs. Don’t be afraid to walk away from the crowd if your dog would show better in a calmer environment. (And that list would include virtually all dogs.)
If you need a script, you can say, “Hold on, he needs a break from the noise” or “This environment is difficult for her; do you mind if we step aside?” Nine times out of ten, the potential adopters will be happy to walk with you to a calmer area so they can meet your foster dog in peace.
Network with other handlers.
It also pays to befriend other foster parents. Get to know what type of home their dog is looking for and be on the lookout for adopters who would be a good match for their foster dog, even if they wouldn’t be a good match for yours. Don’t be shy about directing positive attention toward other dogs and handlers at the event. They’re likely to remember details about your foster dog and return the favor over time.
Are you marketing a foster dog? What tips and tricks have you found the most helpful for standing out from the crowd at an adoption event?
Is there a part 2? 🙂