Famed animal behavior expert Karen Pryor, author of the landmark training book Don’t Shoot
the Dog and one of the founders of the clicker training movement, has a simple recipe to turn
down the volume caused by dogs barking in shelters.

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

What kind of home is right for that dog in your shelter? Is it safe to adopt him into a home with children, cats, other dogs? Is he a dog who might display aggression toward people?

Looking for a way to make a difference in
your shelter’s population of homeless pets?
It may be time to update your thinking
about lost and missing pets.

Shelter dogs who receive just 20 minutes a day of simple training get adopted almost 50 percent more often than untrained dogs.

Adopting a puppy means you’ve added four paws, a wagging tail, and a whole lot of laughter and love to your family. But right after your new addition has put a permanent paw print on your heart, he may start eating the sofa. Did you make a mistake? And what can you do to get your happy home back?

For shelter cats, efforts to reduce stress, watch for behavior changes, get long-term residents into foster homes, and improve adoption performance will pay off in terms of improved animal welfare and lives saved.

Just how true is the observation that dogs and their owners are often very similar to each other? Whether they resemble each other physically is still up for debate, but a recent European study suggests people and their dogs do frequently have very similar personalities.

Urinating and defecating outside of the litter box is the most common behavior problem seen in cats. What can be done to help owners of cats with elimination disorders before those cats end up in the shelter?

Cats don’t come with a real decoder ring, but feline behavior assessments, designed and applied appropriately, will help unscramble some of that secret code―the essence of the cat! They are an important tool for gathering information about an individual cat’s behavior, designing a plan for her, and revising and evaluating the process as she adapts and responds to her new environment.