One of the leading preventable causes of death for a dog is euthanasia at an animal shelter. Approximately 10% of all dogs housed in the US are living in shelters and many will not currently come out alive. One way to reduce euthanasia in shelters is by increasing the numbers of dogs leaving the shelters alive by being placed in loving homes. However, currently, we did not have a validated program that served to increase adoption rates. In the current talk, Alexandra Protopopova, MS, CPDT-KA will describe her research, in which through systematic study of adopter preference and dogs' learning styles, that has led to a validated behavioral program, Structured Adopter-Dog Interactions (SADI). This program increased adoption rates by approximately 70% in the experimental shelter and may be used by shelter professionals to increase adoption rates and thereby decrease unnecessary euthanasia at their animal shelters. In this talk you will learn: -Past research on behavioral interventions -What adopters want to see in a shelter dog -How a dog should behave in the kennel -How a dog should behave outside of the kennel -How to increase appropriate behavior in shelter dogs outside of the kennel -How to conduct a toy preference assessment -How to develop a behavioral program at your shelter to increase adoption rates A question and answer session will follow, moderated by Dr. Monique Udell.

Sponsor:E-training for Dogs
Speaker(s):Alexandra Protopopova, MS, CPDT-KA (Monique Udell, PhD Moderator)

Contact: Cheryl Aguiar
 Email: cheryl@e-trainingfordogs.com
 Phone: 970-231-9965
 Web: http://e-trainingfordogs.com/2011/03/the-library/