New matchmaking service is for the dogs

It is hard to find a best friend, but a new matchmaking service by the Bloomington Animal Shelter is trying to hook up students with man's best friend, the dog. The shelter has instituted a new program designed by animal behaviorist Dr. Emily Weiss that uses profiles of both dogs and adopters to help the shelter match a person with the right lifestyle to a dog with the right personality.\nThe dogs are split into three main categories, high-, average- and low-maintenance. After that they are split into further categories such as "Wallflowers," "Goofballs" and "Busy Bees."\nTo determine what category each dog fits into, they are given the "canine-ality" test. The first step for a tester to "go into the kennel and see if the dog jumps all over him," said Director of Bloomington Animal Care and Control Laurie Ringquist.\nThen, the testers put the dog into a room by itself, and the tester watches by camera to see if it will scratch on doors and how it behaves when no one is around. The final test is to get in a room with the dog and play with it. The tester will interact with it and try to teach it tricks such as sitting. The goal of the tests is to see "how active is the dog and how easily trained," Ringquist said.\nThe program has also made getting a dog easier for potential adopters. Before the implementation of the system, a person would come in and fill out a form, then an agent would go to the person's home to see if he or she had everything necessary to take care of a dog.\n"Before it was focused on rules, and now it is 'Is this a really good match?'" said Bloomington Animal Shelter Behavior Consultant Jo Liska.\nNow when someone comes in, an adoption counselor will sit down and have a conversation with the adopter, and people can go home with their dog the same day, Ringquist said.\nInstead of denying applications, the shelter plans to educate people about taking care of animals.\nThe shelter started the program to reduce the number of return adoptions, Ringquist said. \n"When we let an adopted animal out, we hope that it is the last transition that animal has to make," Ringquist said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Ben Woodson at bwoodson@indiana.edu.