How-Tos for Shelter Operations
How To Set Up Visiting Room
HSUS
A friendly, welcoming visiting room can help man and critter find out if theyre right for each other before rushing into a lifetime commitment; its also a great chance to do some humane educating. Follow these tips, and your visiting room will soon be the next best thing to home.
1.
Select a Tranquil Oasis
Perhaps a tranquil oasis is a bit much to ask for in a shelter
environment, but visiting rooms should be away from those
ever-present shelter stressors. If you can set up camp away from
the bustle of chaotic front offices, all the betterlook for small
rooms that arent being used, or that could be used better. A
soundproofed room near the kennelswhere adoption staff are
accessible but the noise is reducedis ideal. Even if you dont
have enough people on staff to ensure constant monitoring of the
area, for the sake of customer service and safety, potential
adopters should always be able to reach a staff member easily.
(If possible, your visiting room should have a large window or
divided door so staff can keep an eye on the goings-on inside.)
Just keep in mind that the visiting room should be a relaxing
hangout for animals and potential adopters.
2. Deal with the Bare Necessities
While some agencies have had benches built into the walls of
their visiting rooms during construction, plastic or metal chairs
are easy to add and easy to disinfect. Make sure there are enough
seats available for a family. If youve had couches or other
furniture donated, you can use them in your visiting room, but
you should consider adding plastic slipcovers that can be easily
disinfected; the number of animals who come in and out of a
visiting room can make the room a harbor for bacteria and
strange, stressful smells, so you have to combine comfort with
cleanliness. Its great to have a disinfection station in the
roomone that dispenses waterless antibacterial gelsso folks can
wash up after their drool-inducing meet-and-greet. You should
keep a mop and paper towels handy, too, in case an excited pup
gets a little too excited.
3. Color Your World
While Martha Stewart may never come to your shelter to adopt an
animal, youd want her to be impressed if she did. Your visiting
room should make potential adopters feel happy to be there.
Providing attractive and colorful get to know you space is one of
the things pet stores do well, so take a page from those folks
and make your visiting room homeyyou can hang some plants and
throw down some washable rugs so people who want to sit on the
floor can do so without sitting on cold tiles. You can invite
students in your area to paint the room in cheerful colors. Once
the room is shining, add a tin of treats so that adopters can
give their prospective companions some nibbles, and a bin of toys
so folks can encourage the animals to play. (Make sure all toys
in the visiting room are easily disinfected.)
4. Begin the Brainwashing
You should never miss an opportunity to educate, and the visiting
room provides you with a captive audience. Thats why you should
make sure the walls are brimming with information. While there
are an almost infinite number of materials you can make available
in the visiting room, keep your audience in mindthe folks in the
room are considering adopting an animal. What do they really need
to know? What you put on display will depend on your community,
but heres a list of possible information:
-
Dos and Donts posted for smaller children (i.e., DONT put your face too close to the animals face, or DO pat the animal gently.)
-
Explanation of why its better to adopt a pet
-
Promotion of spaying and neutering and explanation of shelter spay/neuter policies and services
-
List of annual costs of owning a pet, including the costs of veterinary care, grooming, food, supplies, etc.
-
Explanation of why animals should be kept indoors
-
List of vaccinations pets will need
-
Tip sheets on housetraining, introducing new pets to old pets, pet proofing your home, etc.
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Contact information for local trainers and behavior classes
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List of upcoming events at your shelter
You can even change the information seasonally, adding brochures about the dangers of hot cars in the summer and antifreeze consumption in the winter. If you happen to have a television and VCR in your visiting room, dont let it go to waste! You can play educational videos about pet ownership, shelter services, and moreand if the videos are particularly helpful for adopters, you can offer them for sale in your shop or at the front desk.
5. Keep up the Good Work
Once youve made your visiting room as welcoming, clean, and
educational as it can be, you still arent finished. The room must
be maintained, so a staffer should routinely check to make sure
its clean and free of clutter, collecting any toys, rugs, or
other items in need of washing and disinfectionand the room
should be thoroughly disinfected at the end of each day. While
its good to allow potential adopters time alone to bond with
animals, staff should always keep an eye out to make sure
visiting room activities are going well. The best way to handle
this may be to accompany potential adopters and the animal from
the kennels to the visiting room, and then to stay for a while to
ensure things go smoothly, assess compatibility, ask important
questions, and provide answers the people may be seeking. If
things are going well, the staff member can step outside briefly
to give the folks a chance to interact with the animal, and then
return to answer questions and provide guidance and assessment.
The most important part of a great visiting room is an attentive
and helpful staff; regular maintenance and that invaluable human
touch will keep your visiting room shiningand help you make
long-lasting marriages between pets and people.
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