Update on our dog behavior program

Aug 16, 2012

We want to share the successes of our staff and volunteers who work with APA behavior dogs! Although Austin Animal Center is at a 90% Save Rate, large breed dogs with behavior issues (or what appear to be behavior issues inside of a highly stressful shelter environment) have always been the hardest to save and we still aren't able to save them all. These dogs fall into the "Last 10%" of animals that come into a shelter and need to be saved. Luckily our ability to save them has gone up tremendously and we are rescuing and adopting more dogs than ever before!

The numbers below show us that since June 1, when we brought Mike Kaviani in as APA's dog behaviorist and he began performing playgroups, we have made a huge impact on this last category of dogs.

Large Breed (over 6mo old at rescue) & categorized as "At Risk Behavior" 2012 Intake:

• January - May: 21


• June - July: 52

We also have decreased the "at risk" dogs' length of stay in our shelter program from 68 days to 52 days since Mike began. We think that a lot of that has to do with how well we are able to see these dogs' true behavior while they play and then we can communicate that to adopters.

Thank you to Mike, Staff, our Volunteers, and our Donors for helping save the Last 10%!