May 2023

Tail-wagging insights with Natalie Powdrill-Wells 

What’s your role at Woodgreen? 

I’m the Research Officer at Woodgreen. I’ve been here for about 11 and half years now.

What did you do before? 

I completed my undergraduate degree in Animal Behaviour before coming to work at Woodgreen. During my time with the charity, I have worked in dog section, education, community support and most recently managed the Welcome Centre team (now Rehoming and Relations.)

Natalie Powdrill-Wells Research Officer (Natalie’s own dog, Button)

What does your role involve? 

My role is quite varied but essentially, it’s all about using data and insights to help Woodgreen develop and help more pets and their people. I’m heavily involved in the pet services strategy and working on projects that form part of this, such as developing quality standards for Woodgreen and building our research and insights capabilities.

I spend a lot of time reading, writing and working on new areas of research, including our community project and as part of the Pet Education Partnership (PEP). PEP is a collaboration of leading animal welfare charities all working towards improving animal welfare education for 7-11 year old’s and you can find out more about it here. I’m regularly asked to contribute evidence to help build new ideas, processes or services as Woodgreen aims to become more evidence-led.

I’m also undertaking a PhD which aims to understand more about the awareness that pet owners have of the needs of their pets and plan to use this to identify a key area of pet welfare concern to then target with a human behaviour change intervention.

Why are we launching this monthly blog?  

There is a wealth of great research and insight out there ready to be shared, and with Woodgreen aiming to become more evidence based in its approach, it’s important that everyone throughout the organisation has the opportunity to become aware of it. It’s a busy time in the world of companion animal research, so there’s plenty to share and I really want to inspire others to get excited about it too.

Why are research and insights so important? 

We will be using research and insights to inform important decisions including which pet care behaviours we target, which pets are most at risk, and how might we be able to effectively improve pet welfare as we move forward, so it’s essential to stay abreast of current findings. The consideration of research findings and insights will be key to the way the organisation functions, therefore it is important that there is a broad awareness of what we’re talking about when referring to them and a familiarity with the key sources of information being used will hopefully further aid understanding.

How can these insights help staff as pet owners or help them to do their job more effectively? 

They can highlight key issues being seen across the sector or the wider pet care industry and give us as an organisation an understanding of the huge variety of different pet owners we might work with, including their attitudes, values and motivations. It can be really important to think of these when working with clients as every person and situation is individual.

Having an awareness of the most recent science behind animal welfare also gives staff the opportunity to re-evaluate current practices and to ensure that as pet owners themselves or as advocates for pets at Woodgreen, they are encouraging the most up-to-date welfare-friendly care practices. Understanding trends and predicting those in the future allows the effective development of services to address potential welfare concerns.

Intrigued?  

Why not explore the new insights hub and have a look at some of the examples of current and previous reports from the sector? The hub is still in development, but work is underway to introduce changes to allow tagging and searching of posts, to help improve the ease of navigation. You’ll also find the new Woodgreen personas hosted here, watch this space for more about them soon!

Keep your eyes peeled for the next blog post that will introduce some of the most current reports/scientific articles and discuss what their findings can do and what they mean for Woodgreen!