Dogs of different colors

By Amy Geiszler-Jones

The Kansas Humane Society is offering adoptions of dogs of different colors.

But they’re not the usual colors of black, brown or white. These dogs are lavender, orange or bright green.

That’s because since January, the society has been using a new color-coding system of classifying dogs based on their behavior and personalities. Emily Weiss, an adjunct faculty member in WSU’s psychology department, helped develop the test, which is part of the humane society’s new Matchmaker program.

The program is designed to produce better matches between dogs and owners in hopes of lowering adoption return rates.

"A lot of dogs were being adopted, but they were also coming back very quickly," Weiss explains. "People were adopting animals but they weren’t the right animals for them and they weren’t making bonds or connections. They were choosing based on how cute the animal was or that they’ve always wanted" a particular breed.

And so far, the program seems to be working, according to Weiss. Last year, adoption return rates for January through March ranged from 23 to 35 percent. Since implementing the Matchmaker Program, the society has lowered those rates for the same months to 9 to 13 percent.

"I’m on cloud nine with those statistics," says Weiss. "They’re just awesome."

Through the program, dogs are paired up with owners who’ve gone through an assessment, as well. Potential adopters complete a profile of their lifestyle and animal expectations. Based on their answers, they are given color-coded visitation passes. The potential owners are encouraged to find future pets with the same color-coding.

Dogs coded lavender tend to be the more relaxed or laid back. A dog coded bright green is a more active, high energy dog, one that would love to go running with their owner or play Frisbee in the park. An orange dog is more of a fun-loving, happy-go-lucky kind of canine.

For Weiss, coming up with the tests was part intuition, based on her 15 years of animal training experience, and part research. Weiss has conducted a number of research studies, including her doctoral dissertation at WSU, involving service dogs.

The dogs first go through an aggression test, also developed by Weiss, to predict what choices they make in different situations. She’s produced a workbook and video on the aggression test, called SAFER (Safety Assessment for Evaluating Rehoming) that is being marketed nationally to professionals who work with dogs, such as groomers, animal shelter workers and vets. That project was funded by PetSmart Charities and the American Humane Society.

Once it’s determined they’ll make potential adoptees, the dogs then do some activities to predict their personalities and behavior. For example, in one the dog is given the simple command of sit. The tester watches how persistent the dog is in learning the command. In another test, the dog is put in a room by itself to see how it reacts to being alone. They are also observed at play.

"It’s a pretty straightforward test but it gives us some really good information about the dog," says Weiss, who owns five dogs herself and is also curator of behavior and research at the Sedgwick County Zoo. She "tested the test" at Chisholm Creek Kennels, owned by her husband who is also a dog trainer, with 75 owned dogs.

If the program continues to help lower the adoption return rates, Weiss says she hopes the test will be used by other shelters across the country that are also battling high adoption return rates.