Wednesday Wag: Shelter dogs are being sorted into Hogwarts houses

An animal shelter in Florida is encouraging adopters to see past the breed to the Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw underneath.

Hogwarts is going to the dogs. The Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando noticed that potential adopters were paying more attention to the breed rather than the actual dog. So they took a page out of Harry Potter and have been sorting their dogs into Hogwarts Houses. Now the Sorting Hat has his work cut out for him.

The executive director of the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando Stephen Bardy told Today that they’ve been sorting their adoptable pups into Hogwarts’ four houses — Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw — for the past year.

Now, potential adopters can see past the breed to who the dog really is. Gryffindors (or should they be called Gryffindogs?) will be brave and athletic, Ravenclaws (I’d call them Dogclaws) will be smart pups that love to solve problems, Hufflepuffs (obviously Hufflefluffs) will be your loyal dogs who are very friendly and love to follow your around, and Slytherins (or Snifferins) will be very ambitious dogs and will often be alphas and pack leaders.

Bardy and the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando did away with the traditional breed cards in their shelter because these can be wildly inaccurate, and people do have preconceived notions and stigmas around certain breeds. Instead, the no-kill shelter came up with this ingenious and creative way to label the pups.

“We wanted to do something where people would focus more on the dog’s personality traits rather than what breed they perceive the dog to be,” Bardy said to Today.

Each new dog is put in “Pawgwarts” until a behavior specialist can place them in the right house. Rather than using a Sorting Hat, they use four dog toys to see what kind of dog they are.

There’s even an online quiz you can take to see what Pawgwarts House your dog would be sorted into! So far, over 53,000 people have taken the sorting test. Yes, I took the test. And like me, my dog Ruby is a Ravenclaw.

And the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando’s sorting system is working! They get roughly 3,500 dogs every year and have a 95 percent release rate. In fact, their dogs usually get adopted in eight days.

“For us, this is about recognizing the individual dog and not a breed,” Bardy said.

Next: 5 things we learned from Harry Potter: A History of Magic

What Pawgwarts House would your dog be in?