This session will explore the complex realities of accepting adoption returns for dogs exhibiting challenging or dangerous behavior. While our goal is always to keep adopted animals in homes, there are times when a return is requested and the shelter environment may not be in the dog’s best interest—or safe for staff and volunteers. We’ll walk through how to guide adopters through private rehoming when appropriate, the questions we ask before accepting a behaviorally complex return, and how we incorporate professional assessments into our decision-making.
The session will also cover how we provide compassionate support and clear guidance when behavioral euthanasia is the most humane option. Finally, we’ll examine how to communicate transparently with staff, fosters, and volunteers while centering safety, quality of life, and organizational sustainability.
Key Takeaways:
- Learn how to assess behavioral risk while balancing animal welfare, public safety, and
staff/volunteer well-being.
- Understand how to navigate difficult conversations about return, risk, and humane
euthanasia with clarity and empathy.
- Gain tools for fostering internal alignment and supporting emotionally invested team
members through hard decisions.
Guest Speaker: Stacy Price, COO at One Tail at a Time
About Maddie’s Monthly Behavior Connection:
Join us on the fourth Thursday of every month as we talk about dog and cat behavior – supporting pets in our community and animal shelters. Each month, we hear from speakers about topics of interest to our group, such as behavior medications, modifying animal behavior, assessing and improving animal welfare, and how organizations successfully provide behavior support to dogs and cats.
Who should join: Animal welfare staff and volunteers who are interested in dog and cat behavior, and everyone who works to keep pets out of shelters and in homes.
You only need to register once for all meetings: https://maddies.fund/MonthlyBehaviorRegistration
Can’t attend live? Register anyway and you will get a link to the recording within a day or two after each meeting.
All recordings and resources shared during the webcast will also be available in the Maddie’s Monthly Behavior Connection group on Maddie’s Pet Forum – https://maddies.fund/monthlybehaviorconnectionMPF
Maddie’s Fund does not share registration information.
The opinions expressed by webinar presenters are their own and do not necessarily represent those of Maddie’s Fund.
