Petfinder Admin Tutorial

Welcome, Petfinder Admin! This is our Bat Cave, the central portal to the user interface that helps us save the world, one pet at a time. The Animal Refuge Center (KY27) was one of the very first organizations to join Petfinder when they first went online on July 31, 1996. ISN’T THAT COOL?!? We celebrated our 20th anniversary at Petfinder right along with them back in 2016. Since Petfinder has gone through many evolutions through the last 20 years, our website admin Pam Harrison, the very person who signed us up, has created a tutorial for current and future Pet Adoption Promoters to use and simplify their listings of adoptable pets.

First of all, we are no longer posting pets and pet stories directly to Facebook. We want these pets uploaded and added to Petfinder FIRST and THEN shared over to Facebook and other social media. This very important first step is CRUCIAL, because if an Admin forgets to add a pet to Petfinder after posting it to Facebook, then our Petfinder Pets for Adoption page is NEVER updated, and we have failed in our mission to find homes for these pets.

To check out the Petfinder Pro dashboard, just click this image below. Go ahead, try it. It will pop up in a new window so you can read this tutorial and work within the dashboard at the same time.

Here is our Pro Dashboard, where you can check out Pet Listings, view Statistics, add Events (Great for special Adoption Events throughout the year, as well as our PetSmart and Feeders Supply Adoption Days monthly!) Right there at top right you will see the convenient ADD A PET button.

Once you are in the Add A Pet location, you will see that Petfinder’s brand-new format has covered the needs of a lot of shelters by giving them the tools to offer all kinds of pets for adoption. We will only be adding dogs and cats, however, and we only have two templates: one for dogs, one for cats, with ALL the pertinent information we need included. That way YOU don’t have to sweat about whether you have remembered to include anything. Each time you click ADD A PET and choose Cat or Dog, the appropriate template with adoption information and adoption fees will appear within each new template you work with.

First we are going to walk through adding a dog to our Petfinder Adoptable Pet list. Click on USE TEMPLATE, and when you get to the next page choose Dog Description Template.

The Pet Listing Editor automatically opens a new template for the pet you are about to list. I did some sample screenshots so you can see how to proceed.

Click on the buttons below to select Male or Female, Age, birthday, color and more.

After you have all the important stuff collected, you will have to select the Contact information. Always select KY27. NEVER select any of the Admins’ names for this contact. Prospective adopters will be routed to the Shelter Manager through our shelter email (another task that the Pet Promoters never have to worry about–it’s already been pre-programmed and automated) because our admins and volunteers should always be able to keep their private info private.

KY27 has been selected for Contact Information, and you can see that the Adoption Fee is automatically inserted through the template preferences.

Add your pet photos and even videos, if you have ’em.

Behavior characteristics, to help prospective pet owners find their best match:

And finally, pet Details and characteristics. You will see where to add the pet’s story and personality characteristics. Each cat and dog template automatically opens the information that goes to their post, such as the adoption fee, disclaimer, where to read our adoption policies and how to reach our Adoption Application.
That’s it! I hope this step by step tutorial helps to take the confusion and overwhelm out of the Pet Listing process! Let’s click NEXT: REVIEW AND SAVE and see what happens next!

Click the plus signs on any of the categories below, and if you notice something that needs to be changed, just go in and take care of it. Looks good! Let’s go!

Post the pet you have set up to Petfinder.com as Adoptable! But, you’re not finished yet! We have to get this adoptable pet shared out there so their Forever Home can find them! Here’s how we do it:

Click View Our Pets to see all the pets available here at the Animal Refuge Center and click on the pet you just added. When you click Share, you are taken to a page where you get to share this pet to Facebook (in our case we Share To A Page You Manage: Animal Refuge Center, as well as your own page if you like), Twitter, Pinterest, Email or even a direct hyperlink to the Petfinder Adoptable Pet so you can copy and paste anywhere.

Share those links!



We know the work we do is important. We also know it’s important to make sure each and every pet at ARC has a chance at a Forever Home! It’s our responsibility to keep our Petfinder Listings up to date and active, and use these links to promote our pets and our shelter as often as possible.

There’s your mission! To find as many Forever Homes for all our homeless pets as possible! Let’s roll!

Spread the word about the Animal Refuge Center and its work for the homeless pets of Hardin County, Kentucky to all your friends and family! We can't do our work without YOUR support!
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