Laurie Lawless, CDBC, CPDT-KA, is the founder of Shelter Behavior Integrations (SBI), where she helps animal shelters build sustainable behavior programs that improve welfare for both animals and the people who care for them. With nearly two decades of experience in sheltering, Laurie specializes in canine behavior, playgroups, pathway planning, low-stress handling, volunteer development, and creating practical systems that reduce burnout while increasing lifesaving capacity.

Laurie's path into this work started with one dog: Charlie, an anxious, reactive Boxer she took in as a 20-year-old college student. Living with him taught her, firsthand, what it means to love a dog you're also afraid of, and to fight for an animal everyone else had given up on. That experience became the foundation for everything she does today. Read Charlie's full story →

Throughout her career, Laurie has worked with municipal and nonprofit shelters across North America, providing on-site consulting, leadership coaching, and operational program development. She is known for translating behavior science into practical, easy-to-implement strategies that fit the realities of busy shelters. Her work focuses on integrating behavior into everyday shelter operations rather than treating it as a separate department, helping organizations improve decision-making, documentation, staff confidence, and outcomes for animals.

In addition to consulting, Laurie developed the Shelter Playgroup Mentorship, an advanced training program that equips shelter professionals with the skills to build, strengthen, and sustain welfare-focused playgroup programs. She also hosts Lawless Off Leash, a free educational webinar series featuring leading voices in animal welfare and behavior.

Prior to founding SBI, Laurie spent many years working directly in shelters and served on numerous national animal cruelty response deployments, gaining extensive experience managing behavior programs under challenging conditions. Her background also includes private behavior consulting, dog daycare, rescue and transport, and consulting on animal cruelty cases and serving as an expert witness in dangerous dog hearings.

Whether she's coaching staff in a play yard, facilitating leadership discussions, or redesigning shelter workflows, Laurie's philosophy remains the same: behavior should make sheltering easier, not more complicated. Her mission is to create practical, sustainable systems that lead to more adoptions, less burnout, and better lives for both animals and the people who care for them.