Evaluating factors influencing dog post-adoptive return in a Canadian animal shelter by J R Friend and C J Bench
We have previously discuss the important of gathering information and data at the point of handover or return, in order to improve the sucsess of next steps. the post-adoptive return of dogs to animal shelters can compromise their welfare, consume the shelter’s resources, and impact on the perception of the shelter within the community. It is also a much more reactive process as we often don’t plan for dogs coming back.
Returning an animal to a shelter is often difficult with many factors impacting the decision, however, problem behaviours are a frequent reason for returns. This study looked at behavioural data from a Canadian shelter to try and identify differences between dogs who were successfully adopted vrs being returned
The study examined over 1,700 dog records from an open admission, no kill shelter in Alberta, Canada. The percentage of dogs returned to the shelter was 14%. The researchers looked at characteristics such as age, breed, weight and sex, and behaviour elements such as aggression (towards other dogs and humans), fearfulness, excitability and anxiety. They also looked at the length of stay of the dogs, any non-standard medical care and whether the dog had been found as a stray or was an owner surrender.
The big take away from the research was dog to dog aggression was the best predictor of returns, particularly for larger dogs and the author was quoted saying
“Temperament testing alone does not reliably detect dog-dog aggression since these behaviours may not be reliably demonstrated during test batteries in the shelter. Since information on dog-dog aggression is not provided by temperament testing, adopters may have unrealistic expectations regarding an adopted pet’s behaviour. Unrealistic expectations of potential post-adoptive behaviour increase post-adoptive return.”
Whilst overall result is not surprising it raises the importance of two main factors for me
- Identifying when a dog should go up for homing, rescue and shelters are nearly always working reactively trying to move dogs through the system as quickly as possible in order to support the next dog coming in. With the aim of helping as many dogs as possible. However, as mentioned above returns are often unpredictable and have other negative effects. Therefore it maybe better to agree to keep a dog longer and teach some basic strategies to improve the reactive type behaviours. During this time we can record the training and send the dog and adopters home with a clear plan, advice and support,
- The importance of transparency, often as Behaviour professionals we are managing situations to prevent the display of Behaviour, whilst this is totally appropriate. It is sometimes useful to see the Behaviour in context, particularly for less dog savy owners, reactivity is a label which will have different interpretations by all of us, my mildly reactive dog maybe different to someone else’s and this can lead to adopters feeling they were miss led. Recording training sessions and general walks with the dog are important both for assessment and passing on information; whilst we don’t want to set up and unsafe situations sending adopters home without a clear indication of what the Behaviour looks like maybe more detrimental to that dog, however, it is up to us as shelter staff to assess that dogs level of stress in any situation and decide for the individual what this may look like.
https://www.ufaw.org.uk/…/new-study-could-help-improve…