Adopt a Pet TailTalk Webinars are your go-to resource for insightful discussions on pet adoption and animal welfare data. Designed for shelter and rescue staff and volunteers, our live webinar series covers key topics to enhance your adoption efforts and improve the lives of shelter pets. Join us as we dive into data-driven strategies, optimize your online presence, explore the unseen activities of shelter pets, and more!
Register for the next TailTalk
Live demo of new Adopt a Pet features
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Live 1-hour webinar
starts at 2:00 p.m. Eastern / 11:00 a.m. Pacific
Learn from our experts as we demo the new Volunteer & Foster Access tool and the new BETA admin dashboard! We'll show you how to add pet editing volunteers, approve pet edits, and navigate around our new mobile-optimized dashboard. Then we'll answer your questions about this new technology in real time. We'll also share insights from our recent research as to why you should be using these tools.
Meet your host
TailTalk Host: April Huntsman, CAWA
April serves as Senior Director of Animal Welfare at Adopt a Pet and Rehome by Adopt a Pet, the nation’s largest self-supported rehoming service. Her credits include launching sustainable social enterprise models, implementing at-risk animal population programs, administering life-saving community partnerships, and gathering important data insights and research surrounding adoption trends and online searches. She is currently developing how shelters can best utilize AI to maximize their animal well-being initiatives. April has been in the animal welfare industry for over 20 years and has worked for both local and national animal welfare organizations including Maricopa County Animal Care & Control, Salt Lake County Animal Services, Best Friends Animal Society, and Michelson Found Animals Foundation. April lives in Utah and is the proud pack mom of two senior Chihuahuas.
Past webinar recordings
TailTalk#8
Evolving for Impact: How Change Fuels Greater Animal Welfare Success
[watch May 14 recording here]
Download link of PDF of slides below
Join Lisa Young, co-founder and Executive Director of The Rescue Train, and Adopt a Pet at our May Tail Talk webinar, "Evolving for Impact: How Change Fuels Greater Animal Welfare Success." Hear Lisa’s inspiring story of how she got started in animal welfare and the strategic pivot that expanded The Rescue Train’s mission to serve thousands more pets. We’ll learn how their Keep Your Pet program, pet food pantry, and mobile spay/neuter clinic support their community and pets. Plus Adopt a Pet will reveal never before shared insights into what drove our organizations substantial changes over the years to expand our mission and help more shelters, rescues, people, and pets.
TailTalk#7
Addressing Adoption and Foster Challenges
[watch April 8 recording here]
Download link of PDF of slides below
+ Additional resource shared by attendee: Welcoming Your New Pet Home
Join Bailey Schroeder, co-founder and CEO of Petcademy, and Cole Wakefield, Executive Director of Good Shepherd Humane Society, and Adopt a Pet at our April Tail Talk webinar, "Addressing Adoption and Foster Challenges: Proactive Approaches for Positive Outcomes." Gain insight into common behavioral questions from new adopters and foster families, and how to answer these questions effectively. They will also explore practical strategies to prevent adoption returns by using proactive behavior support techniques. This session will feature exclusive data from Petcademy and Good Shepherd Humane Society, and is designed for animal rescues and shelters looking to improve post-adoption and foster dynamics, ultimately benefiting pets and their new families.
TailTalk #6
How to Boost Dog Adoptions
[watch March 12 recording here]
Download link of PDF of slides below
Join Adopt a Pet and canine behavior expert Laurie Lawless of Shelter Behavior Integrations to learn practical strategies to identify individual personality traits in your dog populations to match them to compatible adopters. This learning model can help your organization enhance dog well-being, streamline adoptions, and boost staff and volunteer morale. Plus, discover how to showcase personality traits on Adopt a Pet to better match dogs to potential adopters. Links to resources at https://laurielawless.com/aap-get-more-dogs-adopted
Find our follow up Q&A with Laurie here, plus enrichment resources to help your team effectively manage your dog populations!
TailTalk #5
Kitten College: Small Program, Huge Impact
[watch February 11 recording here]
Download link of PDF of slides below
Kitten College: Small Program, Huge Impact. Are you overwhelmed by the number of neonatal kittens entering your shelter? Learn how to improve kitten survival rates with the revolutionary Kitten College program! Kitten College offers vital support to animal lovers across the country working to save neonatal kittens. Marnie Russ, Founder & Executive Director of Kitten College, will join us to share their unique "freshman, sophomore, junior, senior" foster structure and how it maximizes foster impact. She’ll also share the tools, resources, and support to implement this life-saving program into your community.
TailTalk #4
Rehome by Adopt a Pet: Live Product Tour & Shelter Success Story
Download link of PDF of slides below
Discover how Rehome by Adopt a Pet can offer a resource to your community and reduce owner surrenders. This is your opportunity to get a live demo of Rehome and how it works from the pet owner’s perspective, from profile creation to an active profile on Adopt a Pet. Plus you’ll hear from Roice-Hurst Humane Society, who successfully used Rehome as a tool in their community to reduce owner surrenders to their shelter.
TailTalk #3
Shelter Dog Activity: What Are They Doing When Nobody's Looking?
[Watch November 12 Recording Here]
Download link of PDF of slides below
Curious about what dogs do in the shelter when we’re not watching? How much are they sleeping, drinking, scratching, or even licking? We were too, so we put activity and health trackers (think Fit Bit for dogs) on thousands of shelter dogs to find out -- and collected DNA samples too! In this TailTalk, we’ll provide insights from thousands of data points collected. We’ll share how shelter dog behavior differs from in-foster behavior and even in-home behavior, along with case studies from several participating shelters on how they used the activity monitors’ data to guide program implementation.
TailTalk #2
Optimizing Your Website: Increasing Impact Through Your Online Presence
[Watch October 22 Recording Here]
Download link of PDF of slides below
Did you know that 97% of consumers use the internet to find services and information? If the internet is the first place that your community looks, having a strong online presence is critical in making sure that the services you offer are reaching those most in need. In this session, we will discuss powerful features from Google to bring more online visibility to your organization, the basic elements of a great website user experience and we will take a look at different online tools available for you to use right away! We will also give strategies on how to recruit volunteers to assist with your technology needs.
TailTalk #1
The Data Driven Guide to Adoption Marketing
[Watch August 20 Recording Here]
Download link of PDF of slides below
Millions of people are searching for their furry soulmates online every month. With thousands of pets available through shelters and rescues (and private owners!), it can be tough to get your pet profiles to stand out. But don't worry, we're here to help! In this session, we'll share all the data we've been tracking and analyzing on online pet searches conducted on Adopt a Pet. We'll share what pet attributes potential adopters search for online. We'll also share what determines how frequently your pets are getting viewed, and how you can implement updates to your profiles to ultimately decrease your length of stay and increase adoption rates for all of your pets. This is your chance to peek into the minds of potential adopters and learn how to increase interest in the pets in your care! You'll walk away from this session with 5 simple changes that will take your adoption marketing to the next level.