How We Tell a Dog's Story

Most rescues write bios like ads. Sweetest boy, loves everyone, perfect in every way. I understand why. It feels like the loving thing to do, and it feels like the thing that gets a dog adopted fastest.

 

It's not the loving thing. It's the thing that gets a dog returned.

 

When we write about a dog, we tell the truth. The good, the bad, and the parts that make you wince a little. Not because we're trying to talk anyone out of adopting him. Because the family who reads the truth and still says yes is the family who stays.

 

Here's how to do it.

Start with who he actually is, not who you wish he was

Skip "he's perfect." Nobody is. Tell us what he's like on a regular Tuesday. Does he greet you at the door like it's the best moment of his life? Does he need five minutes alone when you first get home before he wants to be touched? Does he steal socks? Snore like a freight train? Get weird about the vacuum? These are the details that make him him, and they're the details that make the right person fall for him instead of a version of him that doesn't exist.

Tell us the hard parts too

This is the part people skip, and it's the part that matters most. If he's reactive on leash, say so, and tell us what that actually looks like. If he's not good with cats, say so. If he needs a slow introduction to new people, say so. If he had an accident in the house last week, say so. You are not betraying him by telling the truth. You're protecting him from ending up back here in three months because the people who took him got a dog they weren't told about.

 

We use these questions to find the hard parts if they're not obvious to you yet:

 

• What's the most challenging thing about him?

• Has he ever growled, snapped, or bitten? Under what circumstances?

• What's something he's scared of?

• Is there anything he's never been around (kids, other dogs, stairs, car rides) that we genuinely don't know how he'll handle?

• What would surprise a new owner about him in the first week?

Tell us his real history, not a nicer version of it

If you don't know where he came from, say you don't know. If something happened that shaped him, tell us what you know, even if it's incomplete or hard to talk about. We're not going to use it against him. We're going to use it to find someone who knows what they're walking into and wants to walk into it anyway.

Tell us what he needs to thrive, specifically

Not "a loving home." Everyone says that and it tells us nothing. Does he need a yard or is he fine without one? Does he need another dog in the house or does he do better as an only dog? Does he need someone home during the day, or is he content on his own for eight hours? Does he need an experienced owner, or would a first-time dog owner do fine with him? Be specific. Specific is what gets him matched right the first time.

What we're looking for when we read it back

Before we post it, we're asking ourselves one thing: could someone read this and know exactly what they'd be signing up for? If the answer is yes, even with the hard parts in it, especially with the hard parts in it, that's a bio that's going to bring him the family who chooses him back too.

 

That's the whole point. Not the fastest match. The right one.