It may violate the conventional wisdom, but an ASPCA study found adopters appear to like it when dogs jump on them, because those dogs get adopted more often.

That was one of several elements of animal adoption decisions discussed at the 2014 NAVC Conference in Orlando, Fla., in a presentation by Margaret Slater, DVM, PhD, Senior Director of Veterinary Epidemiology at the ASPCA.

Her presentation covered the results of research conducted with adopters at five different shelters, with 1,491 adopters completing a survey about how they made their adoption decisions.

While the number one reason people chose a dog was the way he or she looked, dogs who jumped up on potential adopters had a surprising advantage over those who didn’t.

“Some shelters train dogs not to jump on people,” Dr. Slater said, “but a lot of people don’t seem to find that a bad thing. At least, it did not put them off adopting those dogs. Maybe we should work on getting them to greet people enthusiastically, instead of stopping them from jumping,  unless they’re really big or powerful.”

The complete study, which examined many aspects of the adoption decision-making process, was published in the journal Animals and is available free at the link below.

Weiss, E.; Miller, K.; Mohan-Gibbons, H.; Vela, C. Why Did You Choose This Pet?: Adopters and Pet Selection Preferences in Five Animal Shelters in the United States. Animals 2012, 2, 144-159.