Shelter Begins Sorting Dogs By Harry Potter’s Hogwart Houses To Encourage Adoption

A shelter decided to sort rescue dogs into Harry Potter houses as a way to get potential adopters to focus on a pet’s personality, not their breed and it’s creating a lot of buzz.

Welcome to “Pawgwarts” at The Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando. The shelter is sorting each animal into Hogwart “houses” inspired by the Harry Potter series.

The shelter no longer label the dogs by breed, instead they are indicating which of the famous four houses of Hogwarts School they belong to.

The shelter describes their “sorting process” writing, “For example, a dog who takes to learning obedience cues or quickly figures out a puzzle to has the KNOWLEDGE of a Ravenclaw. A small dog who has the determination to climb the agility A-Frame possesses the AMBITION of Slytherin house. Our affectionate happy-to-know-you dogs embody the FRIENDLINESS of a Hufflepuff and a dog who embraces change and new things has the BRAVERY known to all Gryffindors.”

The shelter points out that scientific research has proven that visual identification of dog breeds is incorrect more than 70% of the time. So, The Pet Alliance is joining other progressive shelters in the States and ditching the breed labels.

Although they don’t have a “sorting hat available” (that’s reserved for Hogwarts only), the shelter says that they have their “crack team of wizards and a few muggles” who created a series of activities to allow a dog to be sorted by personality. They’re also sorting cats too!

The shelter also created a quiz to see which house your dog would be in.

“We encourage you to come meet our dogs and met your new housemate,” says the staff. “If you don’t know your personal dog’s Hogwarts house, we can also help you ‘sort’ that out.”

What a great idea. Not only does this generate attention and interest in their homeless pets, it helps people focus on the dog’s behavior and personality – a much better way to evaluate if a pet is the perfect fit for your family!