Brighten Your Day

This 13-Year-Old Built A Website That Matches People With Shelter Dogs

May 8, 2018

An 8th grader in Austin, TX, has spent months researching and writing survey questions to build a website that matches people with shelter dogs that fit their lifestyles.

13-year-old Aiden Horwitz created the website DogDoOrDogDont.org to help cut down on a problem she found during her research.

"Pretty much over half the dogs that are in shelters are because people get the wrong kind of dog for their family," Aiden told KXAN. She wants to eliminate that as a reason pets end up back in shelters.

Prospective pet owners can visit the website and fill out a survey about their lives (the size of their home, whether they have kids, the amount of barking they can tolerate, etc.) and then receive a score.

That score sends the potential adopters to available dogs that match the parameters on the Austin Pets Alive website.

Aiden's website is the result of a class at her school called "Passion Project", in which students choose a subject they're passionate about and complete a project through the school year to help them learn about it.

Aiden's school project has already had some success, too.

"My website has 10,000 views so far, and five dogs have gotten adopted off my website so far," she said.

The website also encourages people who receive a score between zero and 10 percent to adopt a cat instead.