Foster Sleepovers: How Temporary Fostering Can Improve the Lives of Shelter Dogs March 8, 2018 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Life for Dogs Living in Shelters ___________________________________ Dogs are often housed singly to prevent injury & ___________________________________ disease 1 Shelter housing ___________________________________ likely restricts dogs’ ability to engage in species- ___________________________________ specific behaviors 2 Shelter noise levels can range from 65-125 dB 3,4,5 & have been ___________________________________ found damaging to dogs’ hearing 5 ___________________________________ 1 (Wells, 2004) 2 (Taylor & Mills, 2007) 3 (Sales, Hubrecht, Peyvandi, Milligan, & Shield, 1997) 4 (Coppola, Enns, & Grandin, 2006) 5 (Scheifele, Martin, Clark, Kemper, & Wells, 2012) ___________________________________ This lack of control & predictability + likely has significant psychological impacts 2 ___________________________________ In all, the novel shelter environment with its sights & sounds, spatial ___________________________________ restrictions, limited social contact with dogs & people, & separation from attachment figure(s) may all contribute ___________________________________ to decreased welfare 6 Why does this matter? 3.9 million ___________________________________ dogs enter shelters each year 7 As dogs are kenneled longer awaiting ___________________________________ homes, 8,9 animal shelters are becoming more like orphanages 10 ___________________________________ 6 (Protopopova, 2016) 7 (ASPCA, 2017) 8 (Wenstrup & Dowidchuk, 1999) 9 (Gunter, Barber, & Wynne, 2016) 10 (Barrett & Greene, 2015) pg. 1
Foster Sleepovers: How Temporary Fostering Can Improve the Lives of Shelter Dogs March 8, 2018 ___________________________________ Improving Shelter Dog Welfare + Petting has been shown to reduce cortisol in ___________________________________ shelter dogs after blood draw 20 – with interventions of petting resulting in less anxiety- related behaviors 21 ___________________________________ Less than ½ an hour of walking & human interaction can result in decreased salivary ___________________________________ cortisol & improved behavioral scores 22 Just hanging out, petting or play reduces cortisol ___________________________________ (& vocalizing & panting) as compared to remaining in kennel or being removed without a ___________________________________ person 23 with repeated interactions possibly having greater impact 24 20 (Hennessy, Williams, Miller, Douglas, & Voith, 1998) 21 (Hennessy et al., 2002) 22 (Menor-Campos, Molleda- ___________________________________ Carbonell, & López-Rodríguez, 2011) 23 (Shiverdecker, Schiml, & Hennessy, 2013) 24 (Coppola, Grandin, & Enns, 2006) ___________________________________ + Fostering is a Human-Animal Interaction Intervention ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Presently, little is known about ___________________________________ how fostering improves shelter dog welfare – but it’s possible that prolonged exposure to ___________________________________ humans & reductions in disruptive sounds could reduce stress ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ + When dogs are adopted from temporary & trial adoptions 25 – as well as ___________________________________ novel programs, like Adoption Ambassadors (AA) 26 : ___________________________________ they’re returned less frequently than ___________________________________ traditionally adopted dogs ___________________________________ AA adopters more often report information from dog’s foster was helpful in ___________________________________ their decision-making 26 ___________________________________ 25 (Normando, Stefanini, Meers, Adamelli, Coultis, & Bono, 2006) 26 (Mohan-Gibbons, Weiss, Garrison, & Allison, 2014) pg. 2
Foster Sleepovers: How Temporary Fostering Can Improve the Lives of Shelter Dogs March 8, 2018 ___________________________________ + \ Testing Temporary Fostering ___________________________________ In a pilot study at Best Friends Animal ___________________________________ Sanctuary – we investigated whether a one-night ___________________________________ sleepover affected shelter dog welfare ___________________________________ as measured by cortisol response & could be ___________________________________ predictive of future in-home behavior ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Urine + Collection : 7:30-10 am ___________________________________ Methods Time points ___________________________________ 1) Before In-Shelter 2) During ___________________________________ Sleepover 3) After ___________________________________ In-Shelter ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ * ___________________________________ * ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Just 1 overnight with a foster (either on & off-site at Best Friends) significantly reduced dogs’ cortisol levels ___________________________________ pg. 3
Foster Sleepovers: How Temporary Fostering Can Improve the Lives of Shelter Dogs March 8, 2018 ___________________________________ In an effort to learn more about how ___________________________________ temporary fostering benefits shelter dogs , we embarked on 4-shelter ___________________________________ study across the US With these shelters, we ___________________________________ collected: *More* urine: 2 days ___________________________________ Before , 2 days During , and 2 Days After to ___________________________________ learn more about the physiological effects of sleepovers ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Arizona Humane * Society * ___________________________________ * * ___________________________________ * ___________________________________ 47.76 42.91 ___________________________________ 35.51 ___________________________________ Urinary cortisol: creatinine ratios two mornings at shelter before sleepover, ___________________________________ during sleepover, and two mornings after 2-day sleepover pg. 4
Foster Sleepovers: How Temporary Fostering Can Improve the Lives of Shelter Dogs March 8, 2018 ___________________________________ Humane Society Of Western Montana ___________________________________ * * ___________________________________ * * * * ___________________________________ * * ___________________________________ 33.40 31.82 ___________________________________ 26.13 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ DeKalb Animal Services ___________________________________ * * ___________________________________ * * * ___________________________________ ___________________________________ 31.34 29.86 ___________________________________ 24.05 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ SPCA of Texas ___________________________________ * ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ 30.86 29.95 ___________________________________ 24.06 ___________________________________ pg. 5
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