The shelter environment is a difficult place to retain talent. While there are many things that you can do to entice talent to stay, even if you employ those strategies, you can’t retain talent if that talent doesn’t trust the leaders in their direct reporting structure. I’ll illustrate this concept with a personal example. I left a high-paying job only a few months before I was to be awarded a six-week paid sabbatical. That job had excellent benefits, a large annual bonus, a

Sometimes giving feedback is easy, other times, not so much. We can develop relationships that involve regular discussions about the positives and negatives of our work situations. Building those relationships takes time and knowing that there are shared goals in mind. As we have grown our team of SPA volunteers, there has been an emphasis on developing as individuals in how we conduct difficult conversations with workshops like Crucial Conversations and Clifton Strengths. Th

One of the reasons I believe critiques are so difficult is because not all experience equates to advancement in skill.

Our unwavering commitment to great welfare and creating evidence-based education for shelters has raised the ire of some large organizations

For safe and fun playgroups, you need to train people, not dogs.

Escalation to aggression is NOT play.

Good leaders never stop learning.

Good play happens with relaxed dogs in a low-stress environment.

Volunteers are critical to great welfare.

Word choice reflects the relationship between you and your learner.

pssst -- our ethical approach to animal trainings happens to work with people, too!

Labeling a learner stubborn or unintelligent when a training session goes poorly is a dead end.

Sprinkle in Happy Visits for long-term positive feels about vet visits!

A consent test is distilled down to “pet pet pause.”