Shelter Management: Residential Week

The Residential Week builds on knowledge acquired through Foundations of Shelter Management and has been designed with collaboration and the sharing of best practices at the forefront of all sessions.

This includes two days of dog or cat specific content where participants will work in their chosen area to extend and build on their existing knowledge. Participants spend one day at the Battersea London site and one day at the Battersea Old Windsor site where they will work with staff from the Academy and the Operations teams to cover topics such as Animal Centred Education, Scent Search and Behavioural Assessing for Team Dog, and Assessing Cats for Rehoming, Kitten Socialisation and Stress Management for Team Cat.

Duration: 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM daily, Monday to Thursday, 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, Friday

ELIGIBILITY & BURSARIES

Find out what we cover during the Residential Week. This learning opportunity is open only to those who have fully completed either the canine or feline track of Foundations of Shelter Management. Bursaries are available for eligible individuals.

Find out more about the Foundations of Shelter Management series.

Human & Organisational Sessions

Human Session

Understanding Behaviour & Influencing People

In this session we will define the origins of human behaviour and understand the principle of the ‘need to be met’ (or job to be done). We will appreciate the relationship between motivation, ability and prompts; determining ‘non-divisible’ and ‘end state’ behaviours and practice listening deeply and learning how to effectively influence.

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Human Session

Staff & Volunteer Wellbeing

We will delve into what wellbeing means to you and your colleagues. In this session, we shall investigate different tools and resources that can promote wellbeing in your given context and organisation.

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Human Session

Volunteering

In this workshop we discuss all things volunteering. Either working with volunteers, or your experiences of being a volunteer yourself in the animal welfare industry. The workshop is intended to fit with the needs of the delegates, and as such, no two sessions will be exactly the same. Challenges will be workshopped, and ideas for best practice and what is working well shared.

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Organisational Session

Ethical Decision Making

In this session we will expand on theoretical animal ethics and discuss practical applications. We shall discuss euthanasia as well as other ethical dilemmas common to the shelter environment and apply different approaches to these in case discussions.

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Organisational Session

Protecting Your Reputation

Building and maintaining a strong organisational reputation for your shelter is important. Attendees will discuss proactive and reactive approaches to reputational management before assessing their own organisations approaches. The session will then put these learnings into practice by tackling a reputational management scenario.

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Organisational Session

Emergencies & Resilience – Table-Top Scenario

In this session you will apply decision-making practices to a fictitious shelter disaster scenario. This hands-on session will encourage you to evaluate and reflect on shelter resilience and operations in emergencies.

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Organisational Session

Mindfulness

We start off the final day of the course with a mindfulness session. Attendees will have the opportunity to take part in a brief guided mindfulness meditation practice - an increasingly popular tool in promoting wellbeing in the workplace.

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Organisational Session

Reflections

We bring the residential week to a close with a session dedicated to reflecting on our learnings and experiences from the week. Attendees are given the opportunity to share their reflections, identify priorities for their organisations in light of their learnings, and begin to plan for positive change for the future.

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Canine Sessions

Scent Search

This session will explore the benefits of playing search with dogs in your care, as well as how to identify suitable search games based on their individual motivations. The session will discuss the basics of scent searching before delegates have the opportunity to practise some search games with Battersea dogs.

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Animal Centred Education (ACE)

We’ll introduce delegates to the concepts of ACE and demonstrate how ACE can further a dog’s learning and change handler habits. Delegates will learn how to set up and begin ACE Free Work sessions and have the opportunity to practise this with Battersea dogs, whilst making observations on postural and behavioural habits.

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Complicated Behaviours & Safety

This session will encourage delegates to share the complicated behaviours that are most challenging to them as we discuss ways to effectively manage these behaviours. We will also look into how to increase safety during an emergency situation in addition to identifying some of the safety equipment options that may be appropriate.

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Motivation in Dogs

We will demonstrate how to identify and utilise a dog's motivations for assessment and training as well as how to increase motivation in the shelter environment. Delegates will have the opportunity to practice some of these skills and techniques with Battersea dogs.

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Feline Sessions

Information Gathering & Intake

We’ll walk through the importance of gathering information prior to cats coming to our centres and discussing how we efficiently manage intake customers and waiting lists. This session will include a tour around the London cattery and a chance to talk with our team about the Intake journey.

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Management of Profiles & Long Stay Cats

In this session, we’ll explore how to effectively use resources available to manage long stay cats of varying temperament profiles in both shelter and foster settings. This will include a few practical activities, such as clicker training and boxing up difficult cats (using soft toys).

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Assessing Cats for Rehoming

This session will cover the point of which a cat would be assessed for rehoming and how we gather information to do so. Delegates will be given scenarios and have a go at assessing themselves.

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Support Beyond Rehoming

How can we support our customers after they have rehomed with us and what are the benefits of doing this? During this session, we will also discuss the challenges we can face post rehoming and how to effectively manage these challenges.

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In-Cattery

Delegates will be split into groups and take turns in having time in our Old Windsor cattery, working through our typical morning routine and looking at resources we use to manage the population. Delegates will have plenty of Q&A time with our frontline staff.

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Kitten Socialisation Programmes

This session will cover the Kitten Socialising Plan we have in place for kittens in our care and the benefits of detailed socialisation. If we have the kittens available, delegates will get to try their hand on kitten socialising.

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Population Review

During this workshop we will explore how we monitor and review our cattery population in the form of weekly catch ups and looking at the decision making this involves. Delegates will be given a chance to review case studies and decide on the next best steps for these cats.

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Working Cat Homes

In our final feline specific session, we will cover the outcomes our ‘non-pet’ cats have and how we come to this decision. Looking at inbetweener cats to feral cats, our delegates will create an understanding of the varied choices we have for these cats.

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Dates & Times

Dates	Time
Monday 28 April – Friday 2 May 2025	9:00 AM- 4:30 PM BST
Monday 8 – Friday 12 September 2025	9:00 AM- 4:30 PM BST

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