Helping Long Termers Find Homes?

[Aphra]

I don't know if other rescue groups have some long term dogs in care who have trouble finding homes. We've got some who because of size, breed (active working breeds) or just because they're not pretty have been with us for months and months.

I've been playing around with making videos for them and it seems to have paid off, at least in terms of increased interest.

For example, we've had Rufus since the beginning of the year and although his brothers both found homes poor Rufus was left on the shelf. But within ten minutes of his video going up (

) we had two really good applications for him and he has a meeting this weekend.

Poor Rove has been with us for nearly a year, but after his video was posted he had a really good enquiry the next day (

).

Apart from a bit of time learning the software it's a pretty cheap and seems to be an effective marketing tool.

If anyone has any other tips for helping find homes for long term fosters we'd love to hear them.

[Aphra]

Forum didn't let me post the rest of these so here's the rest of the post. :-)

I made a video just for the long termers (

) and asked our Facebook fans to share it around as well.

The trick seems to be showing them in happy interactions with other dogs, and in Rufus' case, highlighting his cuddly nature.

Clearly Steven Spielberg is in no danger from me, but if I can make a video anyone can. I take the clips on my iphone, edit them with Windows Live MovieMaker which comes with Windows and upload them to our YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.c...dingforHomeCVAR).

[koalathebear]

Video definitely works! I've made a bunch, too over here: http://pinterest.com/koalathebear/rescue-dogs/ Quite a few were long-termers and having a music video up really made a difference and they all found homes. Sometimes I had to change the music but we got there in the end :)

[Aphra]

They're great! I love the one for Delta, her personality really shines through.

Video definitely works! I've made a bunch, too over here: http://pinterest.com...ar/rescue-dogs/ Quite a few were long-termers and having a music video up really made a difference and they all found homes. Sometimes I had to change the music but we got there in the end :)

[tdierikx]

Photos of dogs wearing bows, pearls, or bling works well too... and the pose that really gets lots of interest is the head tilt shot...

Has anyone noticed that Petrescue's upload thingy advises not to add any props to the photo? I have a nasty habit of ignoring that most times if I have a cool photo of one of our dogs looking stunning with a toy or wearing bling/bows, etc...

Sometimes a photo showing some interaction with other animals will get interest too - especially if all the animals look like they are having a ball.

Slideshows of lots of photos showing off the dog doing all sorts of things, with and without friends and props, work a charm too.

Just watch the backgrounds in photos and videos - a grotty background doesn't do the dog any favours.

T.

[Burkes]

Thanks for these tips. We have one long termer at the moment who is just gorgeous but can't seem to find a home.

We've done a mixed video but one of her with her foster friends might be a good idea.

[sas]

Definately agree especial with dogs that aren't 'pretty'. People want to see personality and even on a non-pretty dog if it has that lovable personality and it appeals to the person of what they want in a dog they'll often look past looks.

They want to see the dog feel comfortable with other dogs around it if they have another dog themself as well.

Showing the dog has basic obedience....thinking of all the things you'd love in a new dog and put that into a video.