Today’s animal control officer does much more than control animals. To be effective, modern ACOs rely more on their manners than they do their muscles.

To persuade pet owners to voluntarily comply with animal care and control regulations, an animal control officer must have the skills necessary to get pet owners’ cooperation. Although opinions tend to vary among animal control and shelter managers about what qualities individuals need to become effective ACOs, these five characteristics top my list:

1. Good, Even Temperment. An ACO is frequently placed in situations where it is easy to lose one’s temper or self-control. When that happens, things may be said or done that would not occur under normal circumstances, and this inevitably weakens the officer’s message and often results in complaints to the agency.

It’s difficult to remain calm, cool, and collected when you’re asked the same tedious question a hundred times during a shift, when you have just been nipped by a supposedly “nice and friendly” animal, when someone tells you that you are “just a dog catcher,” or when a pet owner fails to see that you are trying to help and unleashes a string of obscenities in your direction. It takes a lot of self-control to choke back hot words; yet, to be effective, an ACO must be able to do this and still appear to be in control of a situation.

2. Tact. Unlike temperament, which is a part of one’s personality and which one can only learn to control, tact is a quality that can be acquired. Tact could be described as “the ability to get things done without ruffling feathers.” It has been suggested that it isn’t so much what a person does, but the way he does it.

The rules of tact generally begin with the word “don’t”: “Don’t give smart answers.” “Don’t be sarcastic.” “Don’t make personal remarks.” “Don’t be overbearing.” These are just a few of them.

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