Shelter Consulting

Kelley Bollen has worked in the shelter field for over ten years and is passionate about helping shelter animals and those who care for them. She offers educational seminars and consultations to animal shelters across the country in the design and implimentation of comprehensive behavior programs to address the behavioral health of the shelter animals during their stay.

Kelley currently holds a position at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine where she is the Director of Behavior Progams for the Shelter Medicine Program. In this role, Kelley teaches shelter medicine residents and interns and veterinary students about animal behavior as it relates to the shelter environment and works with the program's core shelters to monitor and improve their behavior programs. Kelley is also an invited speaker at many sheltering conferences and workshops.

Prior to opening Animal Alliances, Kelley served as the behaviorist for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA). During the four years she spent with the MSPCA, she implemented many programs, including temperament evaluations of shelter dogs; behavioral and environmental enrichment for all the animals at the shelter; clicker training programs to decrease stress and increase adoptability for both dogs and cats; and educational programs for staff, volunteers, local animal control officers, and the general public on animal-behavior-related issues.

While at the MSPCA, Kelley also completed a two-year long study on the reliability and predictabilty of the canine behavior evaluation. The results of her research on the assessment of over 2,000 dogs has been published in the peer-reveiwed scientific journal (Bollen and Horowitz, Behavioral evaluation and demographic information in the assessment of aggressiveness in shelter dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 112: 130-135, 2008).

 

Seminars Available through Animal Alliances, LLC

• Canine Behavior Assessments — How & Why
• Developing Enrichment and Training Programs for Shelter Animals
• Recognizing and Reducing Stress in Shelter Animals
• Solving Common Behavior Problems to Prevent Surrenders
• Behavior Modification in the Shelter — What Is and Is Not Feasible
• The Importance of Getting a Good History — Surrender Profiles
• Safe Animal Handling
• Reading Canine and Feline Body Language

Rates

  Individual Seminars:  $100 per hour plus travel expenses
  Day-long seminars:  $600 plus travel expenses
  Two-day seminars:  $1000 plus travel expenses