Each year, thousands of dogs are relinquished to rehoming organizations and adopted into new homes. Like many dog owners, adopters often encounter early health and behavior concerns—but for adopted dogs, these challenges can sometimes lead to returns.
In 2018, Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest dog welfare charity, launched a post-adoption support program. Adopters from any UK Dogs Trust Rehoming Centre receive follow-up calls about their dog’s health and behavior at 2 days, 2 weeks, and 4 months after adoption.
This presentation reviews the program’s methodology and participant cohort, highlights the most common adopter-reported concerns, examines use of behavior support (and reasons it’s declined), and explores return-to-kennel rates, including when and why dogs are returned.
Our speakers are Drs. Eleanor Jordan and Lauren Samet, both of Dogs Trust, a British animal welfare charity and humane society which specializes in the well-being of dogs. It is the largest dog welfare charity in the United Kingdom, caring for over 15,000 animals each year.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand common health and behavior concerns in dogs post-adoption in the UK.
- Learn where adopters in the UK may seek advice from after adopting a dog.
- Explore how embedding post-adoption support into the adoption process in the UK impacts engagements with the service.
Earn continuing education credit from The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement towards 1.0 CAWA CEs. This webinar has also been pre-approved for 1.0 continuing education credits by the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA). It has also been submitted for 1 hour of continuing education credit in jurisdictions which recognize RACE approval for on-demand viewers. We will post the recording on Maddie’s University a day or so after the live webcast.
WEBSITE LINK: https://maddies.fund/MIwebcastsRegister
