DOES COAT COLOR MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

We think so. It's called 'Black Dog Syndrome' and those of us in the rescue and shelter community notice many wonderful and well-behaved black dogs in need of a home being overlooked and under-adopted. Currently there are no hard numbers as evidence that black dogs are less likely to be adopted and ultimately euthanized so with this in mind we thought it was time for our own survey!

Enter The Petco Foundation, who has generously provided a grant to Waggin' Tails Dog Rescue in the sum of $6,000 for our Black Dog Project. This money will cover standard veterinary vaccines and spay or neuter for 20 medium to large black dogs we intend to pull from shelters across the state. These dogs will be safe in foster care until a forever home can be found for all of them. We will be tracking data about those dogs, such as how long they stay in foster care, age, breed, health, etc. to determine if there really is a bias towards black dogs.

In addition, we have prepared a short questionnaire to help us learn more about what makes people choose a certain type or color of dog to adopt and how we can find homes faster for our dark-coated dogs. Please take a moment to fill out the survey. It is confidential. No identifying information, such as name or address, is required. We just ask that you be truthful in your answers. Results will be posted to our website in July 2010.

Click on the link below, complete questionnaire, save document and return via email to jodivon@sbcglobal.net. We thank you for your participation!

The Black Dog Project Questionnaire (.docx file)
(for MS Office 2007 users)

The Black Dog Project Questionnaire (.doc file)
(for other MS Office users — please enable Macros)