Why are dogs staying longer in animal shelters and rescues? How should we be analyzing length of stay? What characteristics make dogs at risk for long lengths of stay? Most importantly, what can we do about it? This panel of experts will discuss all of this and more, sharing the latest findings on length of stay and offering new ways to think about length of stay.

Discussion points include:

• Length of stay vs. days in care, and mean vs. median
• What do we do about outliers?
• The Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression and what it tells us about length of stay and outcomes
• What we think about how capacity affects length of stay
• Factors that negatively affect length of stay
• Should we worry about length of stay in foster?
• How to effectively engage the public to reduce length of stay
• Introduction of a length of stay policy checklist

Hosted by: Deb Fair, Executive Director of PEDIGREE Foundation; April Huntsman, Senior Director of Animal Welfare for Adopt a Pet; Kristen Hassen, Founder and CEO of Outcomes for Pets Consulting; Stephanie Filer, Vice President of Shelter Animals Count; and Michael Mavrovouniotis, Ph.D., Volunteer Data Scientist of Social Compassion in Legislation

WEBSITE LINK: https://www.pedigreefoundation.org/dogs-data-2026/