How To: Ribbon Collars!

 On the back of our last post about how great costumes can be for marketing and promoting available dogs, here is a quick, low-cost and super easy way to dress up your dogs. Whether it is for a photo for Petfinder or for an event, these collars will garner a lot of attention! We used them at a dog speed-dating style adoption event two weeks ago and the dogs looked great, plus it softened some of our dogs who might appear intimidating but who are actually love bugs.



Materials: nylon or other collar (I used a flat buckle collar, but you can use the disposable ones too)
                ribbon in a variety of colors, textures, thicknesses and designs
                scissors
                beads or jewels (totally optional)
                very patient dog model!


Step One: Size the collar (if adjustable) to the approximate size of most your dogs. If you work in a larger shelter, make some for small dogs, some geared more for medium-sized dogs, and some for your larger dogs.

Step Two: Cut lengths ribbon in complementary colors and designs. You want each strip to be about 6 to 10 inches in length for a medium to large collar.

Step Three: Tie ribbons onto collar, double-knotting to ensure they won't slip off (especially important for the more silky ribbons. Space them out to create variety!

Step Four: If you are going to add beads or jewels, attach them to the ends of the ribbons; If not, have your most patient dog model try it on!


Tips:

• Instead of collars, try elastic headbands (drugstores) which also work very well and are less expensive
• Have a volunteer party and provide pizza and soda in exchange for a few hours of making party collars
• If you are going to use these at an event, consider desensitizing some of your dogs to them beforehand, so that they don't try to bite at them, shake them off, roll around or otherwise dislodge the collar!
• Many craft or fabric stores have $1 ribbon rolls or other good deals. Also, consider adding ribbon to a wishlist
• Do you have children who volunteer? This is a great arts and crafts project for minors who may not be able to do hands-on activities with the dogs. Take a picture of a dog wearing the collar afterward and give it to the child as a thank you!

Costumes and Props in Shelter Photography

Just a quick post to send you into the holiday weekend! First off, holidays are a great excuse to dress up shelter dogs for photo ops! Almost every little town in the US has a parade this weekend, so attend with some of your well-behaved shelter dogs and deck them out in something festive. It's an easy and fun way to promote your organization in a positive way!

Costumes and dress-up items like hats, ties, crowns, tutus and even Hawaiian leis may seem cheesy, but they go a long way in creating great photos for available dogs who are looking for homes. Props like these are especially helpful in softening some dogs who are being overlooked in the shelter. Costume pieces add some pizazz and give an element of personality to a photo, especially when you consider that many potential adopters are looking through tons of photos on Petfinder or another search engine: Give them something that stands out to remember your organization! A little creativity goes a long way.

Here are some stellar examples of good photos from an amazing group called SLC Pit Crew

 

The Power of Positive: Selling Joy vs. Selling Sadness

If you work in animal welfare, it's fairly easy to get bombarded by negativity. There's an endless amount of work to do: animals to feed, exercise, train, and clean-up after; paperwork to complete; phone calls and emails to answer; and a list that can go on for much more than an eight-hour day. There are frustrations with length of stay issues, slow adoptions, owner surrenders, abuse cases, and even politics. However, as adopting organizations, it is extremely important that we keep in mind that getting animals into homes is a business of selling hope and happiness.

As much as the tide is turning and more and more families are choosing to adopt their pets, sectors of the public (who are still valuable potential adopters) already think of shelter animals as damaged or having behavior problems or some other issue that prevents them from being a "good" pet. Promoting stories of abuse, neglect, injured and unloved animals adds to this misconception and can even amplify it. There is strong evidence to support the fact that positive ads are much more successful in promoting adoption/rescue and raising the value of the humane organization.

A recent article discussed this approach, and revealed that positive messaging creates measurable differences in adoptions, donations and even in volunteer recruiting. Traditional advertising in animal welfare includes PSAs and spots on abuse and neglect, showing images of injured, scared and "damaged" animals with the intent of appealing to the public's sympathetic side. Large, more well-known organizations use this format in their strategic campaigns, to solicit donations and support from the animal-loving public, but it is not a good strategy for those of us whose goal is not just donations, but adoptions as well. But for smaller organizations whose business is making matches between pets and families, the audience includes potential adopters, and for the average citizen images of suffering and sadness are not appealing. As such, our community-based organizations need to design marketing tools with a multi-prong approach and purpose (adoption, fund raising, education, etc.).

A large component of selling joy starts in our shelters, from the moment an animal comes to us (and no matter how  the animal comes to us). With the exception of owner surrenders and animals from criminal cases where some of an animal's history is known, most animals come to shelters without papers and without a reliable history that tells us about their past. As a result, the temptation for speculation is front and center. Not only do we guess at breed based on what the animal looks like, we also guess at his past. But speculation at the history and origin of animals, and then promoting those guesses as fact, is damaging and inaccurate.  For instance: Not every dog with scars was a bait dog; Not every pit bull with scars was fought;  Not every skinny dog was intentionally starved; And not every bloody or mangy dog was abused. Because we do sometimes see the worst of humanity and way animals suffer, it becomes easy to fall into negative thinking about each animal's origin. But it just isn't true for most animals. The best thing we can do in a job in which the history of our "clients" is almost always unknown, is to stick to the facts. Observe the animal in your care, document it, and share that information with the new owner.

As far as outright advertising and promotion, consider what Austin Humane did (check out their great videos on the homepage): No matter the medium (posters, fliers, radio or tv ads, newspaper ads, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) focus on the joy that animals bring to our lives and how to sell that idea to potential adopters of all kinds, both those who already support your shelter and those that you have yet to reach. Use images that convey happiness, togetherness, and family. Use positive words that are engaging and will drive people to your organization. Focus on the human-animal bond and the emotional connection of having a pet become a family member. Best of all, promote the greatness of shelter animals as you know them, because even those who have suffered often get a chance at all that life as a pet has to offer!