Cat Housing in Rescue Shelters-A Welfare Comparison Between communal and Discrete Unit Housing
Cats living long-term (over one month) in shelters were assessed for behavioural indicators of stress, using a stress scoring method in combination with behavioural observation. It is hypothesised that because of the inappropriate social grouping of unrelated adult cats and group instability, communal housing creates more stress than discrete-unit housing. Seventy-two cats were observed: 36 […]
IMPROVING IN-KENNEL PRESENTATION OF SHELTER DOGS THROUGH RESPONSE-DEPENDENT AND RESPONSE-INDEPENDENT TREAT DELIVERY
In a sequence of studies, we evaluated 2 behavioral interventions designed to decrease undesirable in-kennel behaviors of shelter dogs. In Experiment 1, we compared the efficacy of a simple pairing of person with food (response-independent treat delivery) to an increasing interval differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior (DRO) procedure and a control condition. Both procedures decreased the median percentage of […]