A new study has found that the way shelter dogs are described can meaningfully influence how “adoptable” people think they are and that breed labels may be doing some dogs no favours.
Published in Animal Welfare on 17 November 2025, the research by Courtney Archer, Nathaniel J Hall and Allison Andrukonis asked 1,171 participants to rate how likely they would be to adopt dogs shown in photos. Each dog was randomly presented in one of four ways: photo only, photo plus breed label, photo plus personality description, or photo with both a breed label and description.
Overall, adding a breed label slightly reduced adoptability scores, while adding a personality description increased them. Some labels, including “Chihuahua mix”, “Chow mix”, “Jack Russell Terrier mix”, “Miniature Pinscher mix” and “Terrier mix” – made dogs seem less adoptable, whereas “Lab mix” improved adoption ratings.
Positive, everyday descriptors were powerful. Descriptions such as affectionate, calm, easy-going, friendly, lively, sociable, non-dominant and eager to make you proud all boosted adoption interest compared to having no description at all. In contrast, describing a dog as energetic actually made people less likely to say they would adopt that dog.
The study also highlighted large variation among individual participants and among individual dog photos, underscoring that personal preference and appearance still play a big role in adoption decisions. However, the authors suggest that shelters could improve adoption interest in a simple, low-cost way – by removing breed labels (especially for breeds with stigma attached) and using clear, positive but realistic personality descriptions instead. Even small increases in perceived adoptability could translate into shorter shelter stays and better welfare outcomes.
Read the full open-access paper: The role of breed and personality descriptions in influencing perceptions of shelter dog adoptability – Archer C, Hall NJ, Andrukonis A (2025), Animal Welfare 34, e75. https://doi.org/10.1017/awf.2025.10043
