A round-up of new and interesting findings from the world of shelter behavior.

What’s going on behind your dog’s “guilty look”? Not guilt, says the Center for Shelter Dogs. Alexandra Horowitz, a scientist at the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College, conducted a study of dogs and owners that demonstrated there was no relationship between having behaved or misbehaved and a dog’s “guilty look.” What did correlate with the “look” was being scolded, regardless of the dog’s behavior. So if your goal is to help adopters with canine behavior problems, the Center concludes, “Proper obedience training is always a better choice to teach a dog how to behave appropriately as opposed to scolding or reprimanding.” Read more…

While some kinds of training do improve a shelter dog’s chance of being adopted, training the dog to gaze into potential adopters’ eyes isn’t one of them. That’s according to “The effects of social training and other factors on adoption success of shelter dogs” from the Journal of Applied Animal Behaviour Science. Read more…

Can cats really be happy living indoors? A 2007 study published in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research suggests they can, if given enough room and opportunities to express their natural behaviors, particularly if they are kept indoors from a young age. The author suggests applying “The Five Freedoms” to evaluate the environment for indoor pet cats. Read more…

Many trainers advocate working with dogs on an empty stomach so they’ll be alert and focused on treat rewards. Does the data back that up? Maybe not. The journal Behavioral Processes recently published a study demonstrating breakfast increases a dog’s ability to perform at scent work, as well as improving his or her memory, at least for a short time following the meal. So break out the dog bowl, and read more…