The Association Blog

What more than 22,000 adopters say once they get home

“We have been working on aggression toward my 16-yr-old son. He walks her, feeds her and gives her treats, but she still tries to bite him if he is not careful.  She is definitely afraid of him—he is tall, blond and deep voiced, and generally doesn’t interact much except now that we are trying to desensitize her to him.  She is also protective of me, and we are working on that as well.  Generally she is doing wonderful and we have zero complaints.” (emphasis added)
– New dog adopter’s response to an open-ended question in Petszel’s post-adoption survey

A bit ago, Dr. Margaret Slater, Dr. Julie Levy, Dr. Mike Greenberg and I had some fun pulling together a manuscript that digs into the data from the post-adoption support platform Petszel. Dr. Levy and I serve on the advisory board for Petszel, and in during one meeting they shared some preliminary data from  the platform’s  post-adoption surveys. We immediately saw tremendous opportunities to advance knowledge and understanding of the post-adoption experience – and boy are we glad we dove in.

Our study analyzed responses from adopters from over 112 shelters and foster-based rescues in 40 U.S. states and 106 cities, with annual intakes ranging from ~100 to 29,000 animals. The surveys sent to adopters at three intervals post-adoption, with a total of 35,125 responses from dog and cat adopters received across Day 1, Week 1, and Month 1. This was the largest data set of its kind, even though Petszel had only just recently launched. Now that Petszel is supporting over 400 shelters with the post adoption experience, there will be even more information to mine.

There were a lot of interesting findings in the study. For example, more than half of cat adopters and over 65% of dog adopters had already taken their pet for vet visit by the end of their first month. Keeping in mind that the majority of animals 6 months and over leave the shelter altered, vaccinated, and with parasite prevention onboarded, this percentage is quite encouraging.  For more chewy findings, I encourage you to check out the manuscript that was recently published in the Journal of Shelter Medicine and Community Animal Health. You can access it here.

Where things got really curious for me was the apparent disconnect between adopter satisfaction and the challenges they were facing with their new pets. When asked how things were going, over 94% of adopters rated their experience very positively (score of 4 or 5 out of 5).  And – when asked about challenges, more than 78% of dog adopters and 50% of cat adopters reported at least one behavior challenge. Common dog challenges included house soiling, ‘play’ biting, leash pulling and separation distress, while cats displayed hiding, challenges with introductions to other pets, anxiety, destructive chewing and scratching. 

Some behavior challenges were more dramatic than others, such as the one from the individual responsible for the quote at the beginning of this blog. Yet most adopters did not ‘ding’ their ratings of satisfaction even if they were living with, or working on, a fairly disruptive challenge such as destructive behaviors and elimination in the home.

Circling back to that quote – goodness how I love that quote!  The dog’s behavior is clearly a challenge, one that they are putting time and energy into resolving, yet it has no impact on their reported satisfaction – in fact, the dog is generally doing wonderful and they have zero complaints.

There are so many paths to take when exploring the disconnect between adopter perception of things going well and the behavior challenges they are facing. Here are a few points to consider:

• When conducting follow-up with adopters, asking global “how is it going” sorts of questions are likely not providing a clear window into how things really are going…
• Even though there is high satisfaction, there are behavior challenges that adopters are dealing with that may cause a risk to the bond, or a risk to welfare, if not addressed.
• People are able to separate their feelings of satisfaction from behaviors that can be less than satisfying – AND that opens the door for support that has the potential for uptake as adopters are vested.

What seems likely is that most adopters are coming to you with knowledge and understanding of what life is like with a dog or cat, and they are prepared for things to be a bit bumpy. Providing your adopters with the support for individual challenges when they need them will help assure that challenges resolve—and the bond endures.

What are your thoughts regarding the data?  What questions are bubbling up for you?  We would love to hear from you.