Shelter Learniverse and Industry-Wide Calendar

Maddie’s Fund Presents: Discover how the Animal Welfare Assessment Grid (AWAG) turns everyday animal care records into powerful, visual evidence of welfare over an animal’s entire life. This innovative, cloud-based tool scores physical, behavioral/psychological, environmental, and procedural factors—revealing trends, pinpointing key events, and helping you take targeted action to improve quality of life.

Open Door Veterinary Collective Presents: Join us for a 30-minute panel discussion introducing the Social Work Guidelines in Animal Welfare Settings, a groundbreaking new resource created by and for social workers working in animal welfare organizations across North America. Whether your organization already employs a social worker, you are exploring how social work can enhance your mission, or you are simply curious about how social work skills fit into animal welfare, this panel conversation is for you.

Shelter Animals Count Presents: In this session, we’ll highlight strategies that organizations are using to overcome the challenges of placing big dogs, from innovative foster programs to targeted adoption promotions and community partnerships. You’ll also hear how data is helping shelters identify what works, where gaps remain, and how to adapt programs for greater impact.

The National Kitten Coalition Presents: With thorough cleaning and sanitation, you can significantly lower the risk of virus and disease transmission in your shelter or home. Join us for a presentation on the current protocols and best practices for cleaning and sanitization when handling and caring for kittens. We will discuss effective products and procedures for disinfecting rooms, cages, bedding, and litter boxes to help keep your kittens safe and healthy.

CalAnimals Presents: Stuart Clough from NoiseNet has been working with ACO’s in Australia and the US to resolve thousands of animal noise complaints. He will describe why noise creates a serious issue for many people, and how understanding why can make it much easier to resolve these cases through mediation. He will also talk about the use of technology to help resolve noise complaints but also how this technology can be used to help assess animal welfare and to engage with owners who have animals they are struggling to socialise / control. The first alert of a dangerous dog is often a barking complaint – so this provides an opportunity to solve emerging issues before they become a problem.

The Bridge Club Presents: To advance veterinary medicine, strong legislative action is essential. This year-in-review conversation offers valuable insight into the policy shifts shaping the future of the profession—and what to expect in 2026. It’s a must-attend for anyone looking to understand what’s happening beyond the exam room.

Petszel Presents: Animal welfare organizations work tirelessly every day to care for animals in their community. For many of these animals, adoption is the goal. But what happens after that pet heads home with their new person? Join us as we take a deep dive into data from nearly 40,000 post-adoption surveys sent to pet parents throughout the United States.

Best Friends Presents: This session explores creative, flexible veterinary relationship models that expand access to care without relying solely on hiring a full-time on-site veterinarian. We will cover practical approaches including regional veterinary partnerships, telemedical support, community-based care, shared-care networks, veterinarian of record models, protocol-driven care, and leveraging non-DVM staff under appropriate oversight. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to bring more veterinary support into their shelter, reduce bottlenecks to lifesaving, and improve outcomes for animals even in resource-limited environments.

Maddie’s Fund Presents: This webcast presentation shares findings from a large survey of 484 U.S. animal shelter and rescue organizations on adoption event practices and adopter screening procedures. Participants will learn about common processes in adoption decision-making, the role of implicit bias in these processes, and how organizational procedures can affect both the speed and equity of pet adoptions. The session will highlight areas for animal shelter professionals to reflect on their own adoption practices and consider strategies for reducing barriers while supporting successful matches between people and pets.