Long shelter stays may not be as stressful on dogs as believed, conclude the authors of a recent study published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science.
In "Cross sectional study comparing behavioural, cognitive and physiological indicators of welfare between short and long term kennelled domestic dogs," the authors note that objective measures of animal welfare, such as cortisol levels, as well as subjective measures, such as repetitive behaviors, excessive self-grooming, pacing and circling, and excessive water consumption, are open to interpretation. Additionally, the observations of even trained individuals are hard to validate scientifically.
There are a number of reasons for these problems. For example, cortisol can rise in response to positive stimuli as well as negative. Canine behavior problems may pre-date the shelter stay.
Additionally, context isn't always clear when looking at isolated examples of behavior, and the mindset and even mood of the observer can influence whether they interpret a behavior optimistically or pessimistically.
In this study, researchers looked at 28 dogs who had been kenneled in Dogs Trust shelters in the UK for greater than six months, and another group of 28 dogs who were kenneled between one week and three months.
Their study concluded that the differences between long-stay and short-stay dogs in shelters are not that great, once the dog has acclimated to the shelter in the first place.
Urine cortisol/creatinine ratios were the same in both groups, neither group showed more or less stereotypical stress-related behaviors, and observers did not note major differences in the two groups' behavior.
One area of difference that was noted: The long-stay dogs tended to rest for longer periods when in their kennels undisturbed, to growl or bark more at strange dogs, to play less with unfamiliar people and to play more with objects than with other dogs.
These factors, the authors speculated, may be more reflective of why the dogs were not more quickly adopted than the result of long-term kenneling.
The authors note that other studies with cats have demonstrated that long-term kenneling does result in measurable and observable signs of stress in that species, but this does not appear to be the case with dogs.
It should be noted the dogs were kept in indoor-outdoor kennels and were being worked with regularly as part of the study, which would tend to help meet their needs for social interaction and mental stimulation better than might be the case for dogs in less enriched environments. Additionally, dogs who were too difficult to work with, including highly anxious dogs, were excluded from the study.
Nonetheless, while more research needs to be done in this area, it may be that long-term shelter stays for dogs are not detrimental to their welfare, assuming a certain baseline of care and enrichment is met. This creates an opportunity for shelter staff and volunteers to work on behavior that may be making the pet less appealing to adopters without excessive concern that his or her welfare will significantly suffer during the shelter stay.
Mieke Titulaer, Emily J. Blackwell, Michael Mendl, Rachel A. Casey. Cross sectional study comparing behavioural, cognitive and physiological indicators of welfare between short and long term kennelled domestic dogs; Applied Animal Behaviour Science 1 July 2013 (volume 147 issue 1 Pages 149-158 DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2013.05.001)
Also of interest:
Elly F. Hiby, Nicola J. Rooney, John W.S. Bradshaw. Behavioural and physiological responses of dogs entering re-homing kennels,
Physiology & Behavior, Volume 89, Issue 3, 30 October 2006, Pages
385-391, ISSN 0031-9384,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2006.07.012.