Shelter Care

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

Jennifer King - Adoption Manager of Priceless Pets Orphanage in Claremont

"Have you ever searched online, took any courses, or seen anything informational that helped you manage Priceless Pets? If so what was it? Do you recommend anything that I should read?"

"To answer my EQ, "     ", what would you recommend me to do to better understand adoption?" 

"Was there ever a hard case for you to find a family to adopt? Can you tell me what could've helped with the adoption?"

"What have you noticed that usually gets a potential adopter take home a dog or cat?" 

Priceless Pets Orphanage in Claremont 

Jennifer King - Adoption Manager of Priceless Pets

39 Hours 30 Min (Link Here)

I generally cleaned cat and dog kennels, walked dogs, and socialized with the animals at the shelter. We really do work well together - almost always there's another volunteer to help with the shelter so it's great. I plan to complete my remaining hours is to try and make my visits weekly once again and hopefully make my weekends more available to be there more often.

I continued to with my volunteer hours with my mentor at the Priceless Pets shelter over the break.

I learned that working at a shelter takes team work and communication with caution and care for the animals living or visiting the shelter. My source was from my mentorship with over 30 hours experience of volunteering there.

I plan to ask my mentor because she has witnessed and handled many adoptions with her about 3 year experience of being an adoption manager for Priceless Pets.

I am proud of how passionate I was about my presentation. I really do care a lot about animals and I'm glad that hearing from my classmates that they got touched by the stories I told. 

I feel like I should receive an AP/P because I really did stress on what I have learned from the shelter, but I failed to site and reference any research that I have done for my senior topic. Other than that I do think that I presented myself to engage with the audience with eye contact, body language, and volume. 

I would slow myself down and be less nervous. I really did let my nerves get to me and it kind of sidetracked me from my planned lesson. My first lesson has told me to be more prepared and relaxed while explaining a balance of experience, research, and knowledge.

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

I am spending my mentorship at the Priceless Pets No-Kill Orphanage in Claremont with Jennifer King as my mentor. There, I am able to walk, pet, and play with dogs and also sometimes cats. Being a volunteer for Priceless Pets is really hands on and it's been a great experience to actually be with animals and see them get adopted. There are many local shelters, but there is another Priceless Pets in Chino.

2.  How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you? 

I actually found my mentor from a previous senior from last year. I went to her presentation and she sighted where she did her independent component hours and I thought volunteering at a no-kill shelter would be perfect for me. No-kill non profit shelters really need dedicated and consistent volunteers and Jennifer already mentored before so she was familiar to this project.

 I really do feel pretty comfortable with my mentor because she's very easy to talk to and is so passionate about the animals, but I just wish I could go more often like the other volunteers. I try to go sometimes on Tuesdays and on the weekends when I can, but I usually go on Thursdays Most of the other volunteers either work or go there every day because their school is so much closer and has a program with Priceless Pets.

I felt like the interview was really casual and natural. It wasn't really a planned set of questions because I usually like conversational interviews so maybe having a more planned guideline would help me have a longer interview. I know because there was a pause of me trying to think of another question so I'll have more planning ahead for next time.

I do have a mentor and I haven't been able to contact her for the interview but I am hoping to do the interview tomorrow or sometime next week.

I'm really interested in the behaviors and training of the shelter dogs currently. It's probably something I could really go in depth for during the senior presentation because being able to read and train dogs is very important in order for the dog to be adopted.

Maybe if I actually get to talk to a trainer would help me with hands on experience, but also books could help as well. I'm sure.

What are the best qualities in order for a dog to be adopted from a shelter and what steps are needed in order to achieve that?

I plan to have my Independent Component on more mentorship hours. I will continue to learn and volunteer for Priceless Pets. I'll continue walking, bathing, cleaning, and organizing. 

 I will extend my mentorship hours log to my Independent Components. There is also an hours log at the orphanage.

Since I don't own or take care of any animals, the Orphanage gives me the perfect opportunity to develop and grow my relationship to dog care.

K.