Every year thousands of wonderfully adorable dogs and cats are euthanized because there are not enough homes for them and they are unloved and uncared for. I’ve written before about the many reasons to adopt from the humane society as well as the reasons to have your pets altered. I think it’s a great way to help stop the over population of unwanted animals in our country.
Having said that, my sister told me about a program she saw on PBS last night that told about the many dogs and cats that are serial returnees to humane societies. These are the dogs and cats that do get adopted from rescues and humane societies but soon get returned because they were not the “right” match for the family that initially adopted them. In the program on PBS, they talked about a new research based matching program that some Humane Societies are now using. that tests cats and dogs for certain personality and energy traits so that the person/family wanting to adopt a new pet can match their own personality and energy level desires with that of the animal they want to adopt. This program hopes to lower the number or returned pets so that the dog or cat can find their Forever Home like Max and Beeker have. The name of the program is called “Meet Your Match”. After the animal is tested in three categories it is then color coded so that the adopters can “match” not only the cuteness of the animal but its natural energy/personality levels as well.
The three categories for dogs are Socially motivated, Internally motivated and Externally motivated. However, under each of these categories dogs are tested/looked at for energy or personality for that motivation. For instance, under Socially motivated a dog could be “Life of the Party” (Green), “Goof ball” (Yellow), or “Constant Companion”(Purple). Under Internal Motivation the traits are “Free Spirit” (Green), “Wall Flower” (Yellow), or Couch Potato (Purple). For the external motivation the traits are “Go Getter” (Green), “Busy Bee” (Yellow), or “Teacher’s Pet” (Purple). Of course descriptions are given for each color and trait which are too lengthy to go into here. However I think this is a splendid way to assist families to make more informed choices about pet adoption. Matching your own needs and personality with that of the pet you are going to adopt. When going to adopt a pet the perspective owner also fills out paperwork that then leads to a “color pass”. Then you know that the dogs and cats with the same color code are a better fit with your wants and needs. How cool is that? I have to admit that I knew immediately that Beeks was the dog for me but it would have been reassuring that I had found a match right from the start. So what color code would I have been looking for if I were looking for Beeker today? I think Beeks would have been a Socially motivated dog mostly a Green color or maybe some Yellow. Max would definitely be an Externally Motivated dog and probably a Purple color.
This whole program was developed by a researcher for the ASPCA.
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