Animal Attributes

In many ways, attributes are the opposite of status.  Remember that an animal can have only one status at at a time, but attributes are for tracking things that are not mutually exclusive -- like “good with kids,” “good with cats,” and “FIV+.”   Think of attributes as a tag cloud, and that any animal could have any number of attributes. An animal could be good with kids AND cats AND also have specific dietary needs. Those could be 3 separate attributes on that animal.

We recommend adding attributes carefully  -- otherwise this list can really explode!

The most common ways that attributes are used are for descriptors like:

• How well they get along with kids
• How well they get along with dogs
• How well they get along with cats
• Size
• Grooming needs
• Dietary needs
• Exercise/activity needs
• Ability to be left alone
• Are bonded with another animal

The Attribute Manager can both be found under Configurations > Processing:

These attributes will be tagged on the animal’s record for really easy reference and can also be set to display on the kennel card. If you’re using the Shelterluv iframe to display your adoptable animals on your website, these attributes can also be set up to be displayed on the animal’s page on your website for potential adopters’ reference. You can even add some disclaimer text to an attribute that would also display to the adopter.

For example, let’s say an animal is not good with kids and is marked with the “Adult-Only Home Preferred” attribute. You could add stored text to that attribute so that any time an animal with this attribute is adopted out, the adopter will see that text as an adoption disclaimer in the adoption process (like when they’re signing the adoption contract) that could say something like, “This dog will do best in an adult-only home.”

For details on how your configured attributes can be mapped to auto-uploads: What information is uploaded to Petfinder.com and Adopt-a-Pet.com?

People Attributes

People attributes are an easy way to organize the people records in your account. Each record can have multiple attributes, so you could tag one person as a volunteer AND a donor AND an adopter, for example.

This is a list of examples: 

• Approved Adopter OR Application Accepted
• Has Adopted
• Potential Adopter: Looking for Small Breed Dog
• Potential Adopter: Looking for Large Breed Puppy
• Potential Adopter: Looking for FIV+ Cat
• Bottle Baby Foster
• Nursing Puppy Litter Foster
• Large Dog Foster
• Small Dogs Only Foster
• Special Medical Needs Foster
• Donor
• High Level Donor
• Volunteer

This is a good way to further categorize foster parents (e.g. Bottle Baby Foster, Small Dogs Only, etc.) and then use these when searching foster profiles.

Editing and Deleting Attributes

People attributes can only be deleted today.

Animal attributes can either be edited or deleted. Any edits made will be applied to both current and historical animal records. (Please note: You will only be able to edit the names of shelter defined attributes and not fixed attributes.)