This week we are joined by Laurie lawless and lacie Davis. In this episode we discussed how we can make the most of our senior leadership teams to promote successful collaboration for the welfare of our dogs.

Bio

Laurie Lawless is a certified expert in dog behavior with extensive hands-on experience and a successful career in both private consulting and sheltering.

Laurie provides guidance for shelter operations and team leadership, and develops or enhances behavior programs already in place. Laurie enjoys working right alongside staff to bolster knowledge and skills assessing and working with complicated dogs. She truly believes in getting more dogs into playgroups and other social actives, increases welfare and decreases length of stay.

Laurie has worked alongside top behavior and shelter professionals in the country, serving as a behavior lead with the ASPCA’s Behavior Science Team. She has directly helped many survivors of dog fighting, puppy mills, and hoarding situations overcome their past and prepare for life with a loving family.

In 2019, she opened a training and behavior center in Vermont, serving hundreds of dogs in the community and mentoring and sponsoring the certification of 5 dog trainers through the CCPDT. Laurie closed Dogs Rock! Vermont in 2022 to pursue her dreams of helping shelters.

Lacie Davis, MS is a sheltering expert, with 15 years of working knowledge in the animal welfare field. Currently serving as an adjunct professor for University of Florida, Lacie specializes in shelter operations for large-scale field responses. Previously, Lacie served as the Shelter Manager for the ASPCA's Field Investigations and Response Team and as the Executive Director for her community SPCA. Lacie's enjoys improving programs and streamlining shelter operations, while also ensuring that the compassion for the animals, staff, and the community they serve never waivers. Lacie supports socially conscious sheltering models, and hopes to help more shelters realize their potential to have a great impact. Lacie holds a Masters, a Master's Degree in Shelter Medicine from the University of Florida, and a BS in Sociology.