The adoption process is the final step in finding new homes for shelter pets. It begins with getting to know the pet, writing a narrative and posting photos/video, continues to making a match with a potential adopter and ends with sending the pet home with an adopter and providing support.

The brand new Maddie’s^® University course, Adoption Counseling, provides guidance for navigating the adoption process, with an emphasis on adoption counseling. The course demonstrates the general adoption counseling process and then dives into adoption counseling for pets with behavior or medical conditions. Text content is supported by videos, infographics and exercises. All videos are shareable and all infographics are available for download so you can use them in training.

After successfully completing this course you will be able to:

• Effectively promote pets for adoption, keeping adoption counseling and marketing separate
• Describe principles of communicating effectively with potential adopters via emails, phone calls and in person
• Recognize the benefits of an Adopters Welcome approach to your organization, your animals and your community
• Eliminate barriers in your adoption application and adoption process
• Match adopters with suitable pets
• Practice effective meet and greets in a variety of typical situations
• Practice effective adoption counseling in a variety of typical situations
• Practice effective adoption counseling for pets with behavior or medical conditions

In this clip from a video in the course, Rachel Jones gives tips on how to build rapport with a potential adopter (PA).

This course is eligible for 2.0 hours of credit from the Association for Animal Welfare Advancement (AAWA) and the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA). Enroll today!