Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people.  

Program Description:

Safeguarding the well-being of cats is essential to the mission of any responsible animal shelter. Environmental enrichment and behavior modification are often key to this goal. Measuring response to these interventions is essential to ensure strategies are successful. This webinar will present four ordinal rating scales designed to evaluate different expressions of cat behavior/welfare on a 0–5 scale (modified Fear, Anxiety, and Stress score; Response to Petting score; Participation in Play score; and Food Intake Summary score) that have excellent inter-observer agreement and reliability, and a few other tools to describe behavior in a quantitative way. These tools are exceptionally useful to evaluate the response individual cats have to specific interventions, make decisions about which interventions should be tried first by looking at what was effective in cases presenting similarly in the past, and evaluating the efficacy of different interventions across a population of similar cats in a research project.

What you'll come away with:
- An understanding of the value of using standardized rating tools to evaluate behavior and welfare in shelters
- The ability to identify a range of practical applications for these tools, in both in the shelter and beyond

Presenter: Jacklyn Ellis, PhD, Director of Behavior, Toronto Humane Society

This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association. It has also been approved for 1 hour of continuing education credit in jurisdictions which recognize RACE approval between 9/26/24 - 9/25/26. Complete the quiz to earn continuing education credit.

Visit Maddie's Pet Forum to comment, follow a discussion or ask questions: https://maddies.fund/MIwebcast...

keywords  Maddie's Insights, Jacklyn Ellis, PhD, behavioral data for cats, feline behavior

This webcast was part of the Camp Maddie: Pet-Inclusive Housing Edition virtual seminar. 

Housing Equity & Advocacy Resource Team (HEART LA) is dedicated to ensuring that legal protections for tenants with pets are not just theoretical but actively applied in the real world to prevent housing insecurity. Many tenants, especially those with emotional support animals (ESAs), face legal barriers and discrimination from landlords despite existing protections. Their mission is to bridge this gap by using legal interventions to secure housing rights and provide tenants with the security they deserve. They believe that no one should be forced to choose between their home and their pet, and our work focuses on translating legal rights into real-world protections that keep people and their animals together.

In this presentation, the HEART LA team provides a brief overview of the legal protections for tenants with pets and the eviction process. They also discuss data-driven practices and how they inform all areas of our programming from legal services to policy & advocacy, and community engagement.

Presenters from HEART LA: Dianne Prado, Founder and President; Diana Cruz, Program Director; Zaira Bernal, Paralegal 

This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association. 

To find out more about this webinar, visit https://forum.maddiesfund.org/...

This webcast was part of Camp Maddie: Pet-Inclusive Housing Edition virtual seminar. 

Dog-inclusive housing isn’t just about allowing pets—it’s about keeping families together and creating healthier, more compassionate communities. Across the country, many pet owners face tough choices due to housing restrictions, often having to give up their dogs. By embracing dog-inclusive policies, we can help families stay together and create neighborhoods where pets are valued as part of the family.

In this presentation Shannon Glenn, Executive Director of My Pit Bull is Family, shares insights from over 13 years of advocating for dog inclusive rentals, showing how dog-inclusive housing improves both mental and physical health, lowers stress, and keeps pets out of shelters. She breaks down the real impact this has on families and communities nationwide, and discusses how everyone benefits when housing is accessible to all—pets included.

Presenter: Shannon Glenn, Executive Director, My Pit Bull is Family

This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association. 

To find out more about this webinar, visit https://maddies.fund/DogInclus...

This webcast was part of Camp Maddie: Pet-Inclusive Housing Edition virtual seminar. 

Homelessness is a growing epidemic in the United States. According to the State of Homelessness: 2024 Edition report released by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a record-high 653,104 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January 2023, more people than ever are experiencing homelessness for the first time, and severe housing cost burden is on the rise. A growing body of evidence also shows that housing and homelessness has significant impacts on the surrender of animals to animal shelters, with housing-related surrenders making up about 14% of overall intakes. Therefore, the design, efficacy, and service delivery of the human homeless response system should be of interest to the animal welfare field for more informed advocacy and program design. 

This 1-hour webinar will provide an overview of three elements of the human homeless response system: diversion and prevention, emergency shelters and interim housing, and permanent housing. By understanding these major components of the human homeless response system, attendees will have more clarity on how to advocate for and design programs to support pet-inclusive solutions. By the end of this webinar, attendees will be able to:

- Define three major components of any community’s human homeless response system
- Name at least one area of potential collaboration between your animal welfare organization and a housing and/or homelessness organization

Presenter: Christine Kim, Founder, My Dog is My Home

This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association. 

To find out more about this webinar, visit https://maddies.fund/Understan...

This course is part of Maddie's Monthly Foster Connection, monthly webcasts about foster care - supporting pets in our community and animal shelters. 

With every shelter stuffed to bursting, finding fosters and adopters is crucial. For some pets this is simple, but others are harder to place. In this workshop, we’ll discuss your favorite long stay pets to identify strategies for marketing them to fosters and adopters. This workshop is not just for foster staff– it’s open to anyone who is interested in marketing pets who are harder to place!

Make sure to bring information about your own favorite or most challenging long stay. We’ll choose several and work through them together, discussing what works, what doesn’t work and some innovative new ways that can get extra attention and help them find the right home. We’ll discuss how we talk about behavioral and health challenges in bios and social media and discuss the optimal ways to be frank about issues while also not deterring potential adopters. We’ll look at different social media channels and how to optimize content about those pets for those channels to get the message across and help these pets put their best paw forward. Be prepared for a fun, frank and useful webinar with a lot of workshopping and participation!

Presenter: Finnegan Dowling, Maddie's® Program and Social Media Manager for Mutual Rescue ™

This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

Visit Maddie's Pet Forum to comment, follow a discussion or ask questions: https://maddies.fund/FosterCon...

This presentation is part of Maddie's Monthly Behavior Connection, monthly webcasts about pet behavior - supporting pets in our community and animal shelters.

This session covers how to help dogs cope better in a shelter environment with the support of medication.

Presenter: Meghan E. Herron, DVM, DACVB, Senior Director, Behavioral Medicine Research, Education and Outreach, Gigi's

This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

This presentation is part of Maddie's Monthly Behavior Connection, monthly webcasts about pet behavior - supporting pets in our community and animal shelters.

This session covers:
• What are the indications and contraindications for maintenance behavior medications, and how to identify the dogs who can benefit from them
• What are the types of maintenance behavior medications
• How to choose the right behavior medication for each dog, based on their diagnosis, history, and individual needs within a sheltering environment
• How to prescribe, administer, monitor, and adjust behavior medications for optimal results and minimal side effects
• How to communicate and educate the owners or adopters of shelter dogs on behavior medications, and what to expect during and after the treatment

Presenter: Dr. E'Lise Christensen, Board-Certified Veterinary Behaviorist and Chief Medical Officer at Behavior Vets

This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

How do you support a dog who is a wallflower in the shelter? How about a socially awkward dog, or an adrenaline junkie? This course is designed to teach shelter and rescue professionals to identify common behavior problems in shelter dogs and break down barriers for foster homes. Taking on a dog that presents with concerning behaviors can be a daunting task for a foster caregiver, especially a new foster. Training shelter staff and volunteers to assist and support foster dogs during their stay not only empowers foster caregivers to take on more cases, but also increases positive outcomes for dogs that present with behavior concerns. 

This course has been pre-approved for 4.0 continuing education units for trainers in the knowledge area from the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers.

Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people.  

Behavioral euthanasia is a sensitive topic with a wide variety of personal thoughts and emotions. But what do we actually know about it? How often does it happen, and why? Do we have data we can use to make decisions? Where can we turn for information? This talk will walk you through the existing (and pending!) research on behavioral euthanasia to help us separate fact from fiction.

Learning Objectives 

In this session, attendees will come away with:

●      An understanding of the history of research on behavioral euthanasia and the gaps

●      A summary of the 2024 paper "Factors Associated with Behavioral Euthanasia in Pet Dogs" and learn about the methods used (and why)

●      The types of behaviors that led to euthanasia in this study, and the information we can (and can't) use from it to make decisions

●      The main findings of the study, including pieces that agree or disagree with previous literature

●      The limitations of research like this, and the potential for future study

●      Takeaways for pet professionals based on this research and resources available for folks in this situation

Presenter: Miranda Hitchcock, MS Applied Animal Behavior, CDBC, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, Fear Free Certified

This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association. It has also been approved for 1 hour of continuing education credit in jurisdictions which recognize RACE approval between 8/19/24 - 8/19/26. Complete the quiz to earn continuing education credit.

Visit Maddie's Pet Forum to comment, follow a discussion or ask questions: https://maddies.fund/MIwebcastBehavioralEuthanasia

keywords  Maddie's Insights, Miranda Hitchcock MS, behavioral euthanasia in pet dogs

Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. 

Animal sheltering has evolved to focus on community-based services as much as in-shelter care. The philosophy that animal sheltering begins and ends within the community through various support programs is gaining traction. These programs, ranging from food banks and training classes to veterinary services, aim to support pet guardianship and retention in the home. However, there's often a mismatch between the programs offered and the actual needs of the community. In this session, Seana will share research on pre-COVID retention programs focused on companion dogs offered by US animal sheltering organizations, highlighting gaps between these programs and community needs. She will outline a strategic decision-making process for selecting community programs to support pets in homes and discuss different program options.

 Learning Objectives: 

In this session, attendees will:

·      Learn about common retention programs focused on companion dogs offered by US shelters and identify gaps between available programs and community needs

·      Become familiar with a strategic decision-making process that can be used when developing and evaluating community programs that support pets in homes

Presenter: Seana Dowling-Guyer, MS, Associate Director, Collaborative (Center) for Shelter Dogs; Lecturer, Masters in Animals and Public Policy,Center for Animals and Public Policy, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine

This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association. It has also been approved for 1 hour of continuing education credit in jurisdictions which recognize RACE approval from July 22, 2024 - July 21, 2026. Complete the quiz to earn continuing education credit for RACE, CAWA and NACA.

Visit Maddie's Pet Forum to comment, follow a discussion or ask questions: https://maddies.fund/MIwebcast...

keywords  Maddie's Insights, Seana Downling-Guyer, dog retention programs, community programs for shelter dogs