Undesirable behavior is a leading cause of canine relinquishment. Relinquishing owners could provide valuable information about their dog's behavior, although the reliability of their reports has been questioned by the sheltering community. This study aimed to investigate (a) whether relinquishing owners' reports of dog behavior differed based on the behavioral screening method; (b) whether relinquishing owners' reports were impacted by the confidentiality of their responses; and (c) whether relinquishing and non-relinquishing owners perceived the behavior of their dogs differently. The sample included 427 relinquished dogs from three animal shelters and 427 pet dogs, matched for sex and breed. Owners responded to a direct question about whether they were experiencing problems with their dog's behavior and completed the mini C-BARQ which includes 42 questions about the frequency and severity of specific canine behaviors in various circumstances. More than two-thirds (69.3%) of relinquishing owners indicated they were not experiencing problems with their dog's behavior when asked directly, compared with only 34.5% of pet owners. Yet, relinquished dogs had significantly higher (less desirable) scores than pet dogs across most C-BARQ scales. The disparity between C-BARQ scores and the single, direct question does not appear to be the result of deliberately biased reporting by relinquishing owners as the perceived confidentiality (or lack thereof) did not affect their responses (X 2 = 1.44, p = 0.97). It is possible that relinquishing owners had less understanding of dog behavior and did not recognize behavior problems as a problem. Our findings support the use of standardized behavioral questionnaires, such as the mini C-BARQ, to collect behavioral information from owners at the time of relinquishment and highlight opportunities for animal shelters to reduce relinquishment by assisting owners to recognize and manage behavioral problems.
Organizations that deliver animal-assisted interventions (AAIs), as well as those that train, evaluate, and register therapy dogs, have proliferated in recent decades in the United States (U.S.). Each of these organizations has its own policies and procedures for screening, evaluating, and instructing dogs and their owners/handlers, but little is currently known about the range of different practices that exist nationwide. The aim of this project was to survey a representative, national sample of U.S. therapy dog organizations to investigate commonalities and differences in the types of practices in current use and to compare these to recommendations in existing published guidelines. The findings suggest the need for further research, and highlight a number of areas relating to dog welfare, human safety, and infection control in which many organizations were inconsistent in their adherence to existing guidelines. Of particular concern with regard to animal welfare was the finding that approximately half of the organizations surveyed imposed no time limit on the length of visits. Also, given the potential for zoonotic disease transmission, the finding that only a small minority of organizations prohibit the feeding of raw meat diets and treats to visiting dogs is concerning. This information will help to raise awareness among facilities with therapy animal programs and assist in the development of future best practices within the therapy dog industry.
The goal of the present study was to evaluate a shortened, 42-item version of the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ((S))) as a behavioral screening tool for dogs relinquished to animal shelters. In contrast to a previous finding, the current study found no consistent evidence that relinquishing owners gave unreliable or biased responses to the questionnaire depending on whether or not they believed that this information would be shared with shelter staff or used to evaluate dogs for adoption. Relinquishing owners' C-BARQ((S)) responses for items related to aggression and fear directed toward humans and other dogs correlated with independent subjective assessments of aggressiveness made by shelter staff (generalized linear mixed models, P<0.05, N=84 aggressive dogs, N=156 non-aggressive dogs). In addition, C-BARQ((S)) scores successfully discriminated between dogs based on their eventual outcomes (i.e., adoption or euthanasia; Generalized Linear Mixed Models, P<0.05, N=181 adopted, N=177 euthanized), indicating convergent validity. Follow-up surveys with a subset of adoptive owners (N=53) revealed significant correlations (after correction for multiple comparisons) between relinquishing and adoptive owners' C-BARQ((S)) ratings for 3 behavioral traits: stranger-directed aggression (rs=0.494, P<0.001), chewing inappropriate objects (rs=0.402, P<0.01), and urination when left alone (rs=0.421, P<0.01). Overall, the findings confirmed the value of this type of shelter intake survey instrument for screening owner-surrendered dogs for the presence of behavior problems.
Animal Welfare , Behavior, Animal , Dogs/psychology , Animals , Surveys and Questionnaires
