Adoption Events

[Amie]

What kind of events has your shelter/rescue hosted? What draws the people in? Do you find the most successful adoptions happen at those events, or are they more word-of-mouth that may draw people into the shelter later?

[NewOrleansSaint]

We've changed the title of our adoption events to "open houses" becasue we don't do same day adoptions anyway.

We've been the most successful having our open houses outside in front of a few popular locally owned pet supply stores. The streets these shops are on have very high foot traffic so tons of people get to see the dogs.

The dogs are definitely the draw at these events. Even tourists stop to get some pit bull loving.

We've had successful adoption applications turned in as a direct result of someone meeting a dog that day, and we've also had people find out about our organization and keep in touch until we got a dog that fit their family.

This is a much smaller scale than a shelter though. We'll bring out 4 or 5 of our dogs per event to really get a chance to showcase each dog.

[Ilovethepits]

The rescue I was involved with does their "Adoption Events" at local Petsmarts around the Twin Cities area. Fosters are expected to have their adoptable dogs present at least once per month (IIRC) and they do not have same day adoptions but rescue personnel are available to answer questions and such. You could PM crazykel for more information.

[PitBull-Lady]

I've been involved with a couple rescues. Basset and All Breeds.

None of them did same day adoptions. However, if they had already done the house checks and filled paper work etc then they would do dog hand offs.

The SPCA only goes to one pet store. once every two weeks. It keeps things simple and people know where to find them.
When we first started with them they used to have a vested dog with the adopt me sign that would walk the front of the street with a handler. That is how we found them. Since they don't do it anymore, people don't really know they are there IMHO. Their website tells the schedule too.

Basset Rescue used to rarely do store front days. But always did everything back in the day through flyers etc. Now they use their web site to let people know what thy are doing. Most of the time of is community events where they get the name out.

Right or wrong, the one way that organization names stick out in my mind is when they are at the Super Pet Expo. For years now I still remember the rescue groups that are there on any given year. While they don't do rescues, they are there for info, sell a few trinkets and have the cutest dogs out to collect money and get the rescue name out there.

The group we got one of our dogs through seems to be everywhere and yet no where. They divide their time between 3 areas of the state. It seems difficult for them to fid a central location as their location is statewide.

[Pibbles ATL]

Interesting thread. The rescue that I've started to foster for doesn't do store front events, I'm not really sure why not. On the one hand I feel like it could help people see the dogs or just help to get the rescue's name out there. But on the other hand, it could be a waste of time/energy (from their perspective).

[Zagari]

The shelter I work at is very small and located in a very small, rural town. We get a fair amount of people come by but usually not many actually adopt a dog.

We've had the most success going out of county, to the bigger cities. We go to several different pet stores and even festivals. We've had a ton of successful adoptions this way.