Shelter Care

"What are the most effective strategies a shelter can use in order to increase the chances that an animal will be adopted?"

One of the most effective strategies a shelter can use to increase the chances an animal will be adopted is to have a prepared, professional, and organized staff team.

One of the most effective strategies a shelter can use to increase the chances an animal will be adopted is to have a strong, active social media connection.

Source Link - "Three of the Internet’s most beloved pets are teaming up to help the millions of cats and dogs in shelters and rescue groups across the country find loving homes. Fashion icon Toast Meets World, globally recognized pianist Keyboard Cat and life of the party Hamilton Pug are lending their star power to “Start A Story. Adopt,” a new public service advertising (PSA) campaign from The Shelter Pet Project, a collaborative effort between Maddie’s Fund®, The Humane Society of the United States and the Ad Council." 

Toast Meets World, Keyboard Cat, and Hamilton Pug are three real life examples of a great social media background. 

Source Link - "A recent study from the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science took a look at 468 photos of young and adult black Labrador mixed breed dogs adopted via Petfinder across the United States. Having a good photograph made a huge difference. Dogs with a high quality adoption profile photo were adopted within 14 days, compared to 43 days for those with a poor photo. Among adult dogs, being outside made a significant difference, with an average adoption time of 37 days for outdoor photos compared to 51 days for indoor photos." 

Source Link // Source Link

If a shelter can have a strong, active connected social media background then more people will be aware of the animals that arrive to the shelter and would create an audience base that can become loyal volunteers, donators, and individual promoters.

Jackson Brown is mentioned in my audio link from my interview.

The most important thing that I learned was that the importance of how kennel cards, shelter websites, and staff work is to the animals in the shelter. With the knowledge that my mentor shared with me in the interview some shelters that are kill shelters don't preform highly in these areas and are risking the lives of the animals in that particular shelter without the proper advertisement and care.

My approach on interview grew positively. Interviewing is still very intimidating because I don't like being clear with my questions and when I go back to write my transcripts, I do sound unclear and unconfident - it's something I need to work on, but I have learned from it. 

Social Media (i.e. shelter websites, Instagram, etc.) proves to have a big response to the potential adopters and brings in people to the shelter, I would really like to do something related to that. I plan to be consistent and try to get my friends, my friends' friends, family, anyone to my mentorship at the Priceless Pets Orphanage in Claremont. 

I can learn more about the website, Priceless Pets has currently (as well as the Instagram) and see if I can contribute or start a Twitter or even my own Instagram to help promote the shelter! It can be cool if I could start something for the volunteers at the shelter and could possibly partner up with some volunteers to help keep the social media as updated as possible. I can show evidence of the 30 Hours with my Hours Log and my future social media promotions throughout the months. I can even document and makes videos maybe!

It would be cool to also photograph the dogs and cats for their profiles on the website! 

It will help me explore my topic because our customers are the base of how funds come through to my mentorship (donations, adoptions, various purchases, etc.). So if I can bring people or at least let people know how great of a shelter that is located at Claremont and Chino, it will bring more attention to the shelter, which is always great!

Senior Project Hours Link

I am most proud of how my presentation as whole was executed. I loved the way my Prezi turned out on each slide and how great my activity turned out in the class! I'm really relieved that my presentation turned out way better than I originally thought it would.

I feel like I deserve an AE or a P at the very least. I have met all the P requirements on the Second Lesson Plan Component Contract - engaged & interacted with audience, used my time effectively, interesting evidence of Senior Project activity, Prezi designed and used appropriately, engaged with my audience in my introduction, research was clear with my sources stated on the slide AND a reference to my Interview #2 with my mentor cited, and my activity had a learning experience lesson to my answer. In ways I feel like I deserve an AE because I feel like I really gave a lot of information to my lesson and that the class did understand how my answer is really valid to my EQ based on my presentation and lesson. 

What worked for me in my Lesson 2 was especially my Prezi and my activity. I had a lot of hesitation to use a different format than the regular slide programs and that my activity wouldn't be executed the way I wanted it to be. In the end, my Prezi looked amazing and I'm really happy how I was able to use photos of all adoptable dogs in the slides with cat or dog toys - in general I'm in love with my Prezi layout. My activity turned out really great too! I loved walking around and seeing that my classmates understood what to do and seemed to be really enjoying acting out their roles! I felt pretty proud.

If I had a time machine I would definitely go back to my presentation to rehearse more and talk more slowly to my advisory house. Just in general I feel like I let my nervousness show  or I forget to say something or I go a little off topic and babble, but if I could go back I would rehearse and practice more.

MEDIA! ADVERTISEMENT! Shelter dogs and cats need to be put out there looking their best! I'm already starting to research about shelter profile photos for my Answer #2. 

• (a) “I, Kaylyn Ruiz, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
• (b) Jennifer King - Adoption Manager at Priceless Pets (Mentor)
• (c) Senior Hours Log
• (d) I completed Mentorship hours on the course of two months from September to October at the Priceless Pets Orphanage at Claremont. At my mentorship, I would clean kennels, walk dogs, assist with mentor with anything from filling papers or shadowing pet introductions.   

• Shelter Puppy Video

I took a photo of Buttercup after my training orientation at the shelter.

My snapchat of Basil when she first arrived to the shelter.

• How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate this. 

Having my Independent Component being additional Mentorship Hours, I learned the basics of animal care and how a shelter really works. Animals is really new to me. I don't own any pets and I had never been on a walk with a dog on my own before so being at the shelter really gave me experience that I really need to be comfortable with dogs and cats. I love the shelter and with the additional hours that I am doing I hope to have experiences that will qualify me to be very knowledgeable for others who don't know much about shelters.