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Discussion Panel on Resource Guarding
Crista Coppola, Amy Marder, Pam Reid,
Lindsay Wood
The panel will present data on evaluation,
identification and treating resource guarding in a shelter environment.
Possible etiology and motivation for resource guarding will also be
discussed with data presented on correlation between body condition score
and presence of resource guarding. Discussion will continue with the
different methods recommended and used to treat resource guarding. |
Do Electronic Training Collars Compromise
the Welfare of Dogs? A Look At The Evidence.
Dan Estep, Suzanne Hetts
A variety of organizations and individuals
have decried the use of electronic devices that deliver electrical
stimulation (shock) for training dogs. Some have argued that the devices are
never acceptable in training dogs because they reduce the short-term and
long-term welfare of the dogs. For example one study conclude “did find
behavioral evidence that use of e-collars negatively impacted on the welfare
of some dogs during training even when training was conducted by
professional trainers using relatively benign training programs advised by
e-collar advocates.” The conclusions from these studies are now being used
to argue for changes to governing policies for trainer/behavior consultant
certification programs and even laws regulating the sale and use of these
devices. The question is how good is the research? Does the research
support the conclusions that are claimed?
In this presentation we’ll review the
studies and lead a discussion on electronic stimulation training devices and
the welfare of dogs. |
Learning Theory and Natural Horsemanship
Robin Foster
Natural horsemanship is an approach to
equine training that has been romanticized in films such as The Horse
Whisperer and Buck, and popularized through a marketing blitz by trainers
selling their services. Although there are variations in the specific
methods used, the general philosophy behind natural horsemanship is that
behavioral and emotional change is accomplished by teaching people
“expertise and success with horses based on the way horses relate and
communicate in their natural world,” (Parelli, http://www.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com/natural-horsemanship/).
Natural horsemanship has been embraced by owners, trainers, and educators,
but only a cursory attempt has been made to frame it in terms of learning
theory, and even this effort is sometimes inaccurate. Such a framework
could lead to scientifically-grounded refinement, validation, and assessment
of the effectiveness of this approach on equine performance and well-being
and on the quality of the horse-human relationship. The goals of this
discussion are to: 1) begin to systematically analyze natural horsemanship
methods in terms of learning theory in its broad context (e.g., behavior
change, emotional state, and ethological differences across species); 2)
discuss how to overcome barriers and promote scientific perspectives in
practical equine training, perhaps using the canine model as an historical
example; and 3) consider ways of encouraging equine science programs to
incorporate learning theory into curricula that include natural
horsemanship. |
Fighting Between Dogs In The Home
Environment
Lauren Hays
Fighting between dogs in the home
environment is an issue commonly presented to behaviorists (Blackshaw,
1991). This case study describes an example of an inter-dog aggression case
and the protocol by which it was improved. The behavior history of both
dogs, the outline of the treatment protocol, the progress of dogs, and the
follow-up will be described. Although every case will be different, this
case study is meant to demonstrate one successful method for addressing the
issue of inter-dog aggression in this particular home environment.
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Effects of Dog Breed Labeling on Potential Adopter
Perceptions & Shelter Length of Stay
Lisa Gunter
Previous research has indicated that certain breeds of dogs, including pit
bull-type dogs, stay longer in shelters than other breeds (Protopopova,
Gilmour, Weiss, Shen, & Wynne, 2012). Current dog breed identification
practices in animal shelters are often based upon information supplied by
the relinquishing owner, or staff determination based on the dog’s
phenotype. However research by Voith, Ingram, Mitsouras, & Irizarry (2009)
has found discrepancies between breed identification as typically assessed
by welfare agencies and the outcome of DNA analysis. Specifically, breed
identification of pit bull-type dogs by shelter staff and veterinarians was
inconsistent across individuals and an unreliable means of identification:
many dogs labeled as pit bulls lack such DNA breed signatures (Olson, Levy,
& Norby, 2012).
The present study examines dogs that were labeled as pit-bull-type breeds
(American Pit Bull Terrier, Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire,
Staffordshire Bull Terrier or American Bulldog) and dogs that were
phenotypically similar but were labeled differently at a limited admission
animal shelter in Phoenix, Arizona. We compared the dogs’ lengths of stay as
well as potential adopters’ perceptions of their approachability,
intelligence, friendliness and adoptability when viewed in photographs. Data
analysis from this study will be presented.
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Social Media Can Be Your Friend
Julie Hecht
Tumbler, Twitter, Facebook and Blogs. Will
it ever stop? Probably not. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. At
first glance, social media might appear daunting, inaccessible and even
unnecessary. Instead, those in applied sciences are finding benefits to
engaging in social media. Behaviorists, researchers and science writers are
getting on the social media bandwagon. This talk provides a social media
overview: initial considerations when deciding to join social media,
platform differences, and research into social media benefits and
challenges. I will review examples of successful uses of social media, and
we will also discuss helpful resources to keep you (and others) engaged. |
Clever Hans in Canine Science
Julie Hecht
Dogs are following horses’ lead. Canine
behavior and cognition research is incorporating more controls to try and
rule out experimenter and handler cuing. I will review the latest
precautions that scientists are taking in canine behavior and cognition
research to avoid cuing and bias, and I will explore the challenges to
maintaining these precautions in applied research. Ultimately, we’ll discuss
the import of these considerations and additional steps that could be taken. |
Police Officers And Dogs: Creating A “Law
Enforcement Friendly” Training Tool That Will Reduce Dog Shootings In The
State Of Colorado
Suzanne Hetts and Jennifer Barg
In 2013, a bill was passed by the state of
Colorado that is unique in the U.S. and has captured national attention.
This bill established a task force that will create a 3 hour training tool
to be used by law enforcement departments for the purpose of teaching
officers to better understand canine behavior, evaluate likelihood of an
attack, and consider alternatives for safely responding to dog encounters
without using lethal force. The primary goal is still officer and community
safety, but also to reduce the numbers of unnecessary shootings of family
dogs non-violent crime calls. Arriving at a consensus for content of the
training and a delivery method among a very diverse team of experts from
animal control, animal welfare, veterinary medicine, animal behavior, and
law enforcement while also meeting the criteria of the bill has proven
challenging. In this presentation we’ll begin by providing a few examples
of recent dog shootings in Colorado that provided the impetus for the
bill. From there we’ll present a brief overview of this bill, and the
progress the committee has made on completing the tasks it was charged with
namely content creation, delivery method, and credentials for instructors.
We’ll end with open discussion on these topics and the difficulties we
encountered overcoming the differences in perspectives regarding the
training. |
Colorado Saving Shelter Pets Act
Suzanne Hetts, Dan Estep and Jennifer Barg
The Buddy Fund (a 501c3 headquartered in NYC), along with several web-based
organizations that it is backing, is attempting to push through an
initiative that they hope to have entered onto the November 2014 Colorado
state-wide election ballot. This initiative, should it pass, would have
extreme consequences on the Colorado Animal Welfare community as well as on
the homeless pet population in this state. While the state of Colorado is
very progressive in many aspects of animal welfare, pet overpopulation is
still an issue in some regions.
Major concerns with this initiative include
but are not limited to: medically necessary euthanasia must be approved in
writing by a Veterinarian; the State of Colorado and not the individual
agencies would maintain ownership of the animals; quality of life issues are
not addressed; and community safety is not taken into account. In its
original form, this Act did not provide for shelters to make any euthanasia
decisions based on behavior. In a recently revised format, the Act now
makes allowances for animal shelters to euthanize based on |
behavior with the following provisions:
(B) IF A PET ANIMAL, AFTER BEING EVALUATED BY AN INDEPENDENT CERTIFIED
ANIMAL BEHAVIORIST, IS DEEMED IN WRITING TO BE IRREDEEMABLY HOSTILE OR
AGGRESSIVE. NO DOG SHALL BE DEEMED IRREDEEMABLY HOSTILE OR AGGRESSIVE BASED
ON BREED OR PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.
Given this recent change to the initiative,
it is only a matter of time before the CAABS and ACAABS will be brought into
the discussion and looked to for expert opinions. Already this issue has
captured much media attention in Colorado and emotions on both sides of the
argument are being passionately voiced. The goal of this presentation is to
help the group understand what is happening in the state of Colorado,
consider individual opinions and discuss how and if we should respond at
this time.
Most shelters aren’t euthanizing for time and
space.
Quality of life and health and safety issues:
1.
Create an awareness of the CAABs and others about
the issue
2.
Make points about the ramifications of the bill
on the shelters and animal control
3.
Discussion of health and safety, animal welfare
issues
4.
Offer our ideas for action - get feedback |
Who’s that Doggie in the Window?
Mark Hines
The current FCI breed standard (revised
11/08/2010) for the German Shepherd Dog reads: “The German Shepherd Dog must
be, in its essential image, well-balanced, firm in nerves, self-confident,
absolutely calm and impartial, and (except in tempting situations) amiable.
He must possess courage, willingness to fight, and hardness, in order to be
suitable as companion, watchdog, protector, service dog, and guardian”. It
has become more and more difficult to find a GSD that fits this standard, as
today’s GSD is a hodgepodge of diverse temperaments. My talk will focus on
the numerous “types" of GSDs we see throughout the world today and how the
breed has been changed geographically and politically since WWII. |
Socializing Feral (under socialized) Kittens
in a Shelter
Helena Kokes
The Humane Society of Boulder Valley’s
kitten socialization program assisted a total of 264 kittens from January
2011 to December 2012. 93% of these kittens were successfully adopted into
homes. This presentation will detail our kitten socialization program and
include post adoption follow up information. Candidates for our feline
behavior modification program present between 1 week to 4 months of age and
do not appear to have a positive association with people upon arrival to the
shelter. These kittens display behaviors including hissing, growling,
swatting and attempting escape from contact with people. Rather than
euthanizing, the Humane Society of Boulder Valley commits to working with
these kittens for a minimum of 3-5 days to condition positive associations
to people. Post treatment behaviors include soliciting attention and
contact, readily approaching novel people, and purring with
loose/comfortable body postures when handled. Many of these kittens present
highly social behaviors post treatment and adopters report surprise upon
hearing the initial behavior reports. Additionally, we see often marked
improvement and success with kittens who are beyond their key socialization
period; findings will be presented for discussion. We believe this behavior
mod program targeted to felines is highly effective and has a great
potential for saving lives. |
Neophobia, Aloofness, And Shyness In
Captive Coyotes In A Natural State
Suzanne La Croix and
Lynne Gilbert-Norton
Avoiding interactions with humans is often
an adaptive behavior for wild animals. Indeed, such behavior can be
imperative among wild species that have been hunted, harassed, and
persecuted. Here, I will describe observations of neophobic, aloof, and shy
behaviors for animals housed in a captive coyote facility. I will discuss
the conflicting merits of these behaviors in managing a captive colony.
Then, I will look at the effectiveness of training methods used to habituate
these animals to human-animal interactions and how it can differ between
animal-care workers and researchers. Finally, the implications of this
knowledge for dogs that present as anti-social will be explored. |
Food-Related Aggression In Shelter Dogs: A
Comparison Of Behavior Identified By A Behavior Evaluation In The Shelter
And Owner Reports After Adoption
Amy Marder
In order to assess the relationship between
food-related aggression in the shelter as identified by a standardized
canine behavior evaluation and owner-reported food-related aggression after
adoption, this retrospective cohort study followed 97 dogs adopted from a
shelter and their adoptive owners. The Match-Up II Shelter Dog Rehoming
Program, a standardized canine behavior evaluation that was administered to
all the dogs in the study prior to adoption, was used to classify dogs as
either food aggressive (FA+) or not food aggressive (FA-). Adoptive owners
were subsequently surveyed to assess the dogs’ behavior after adoption, the
owners’ perception of food-related aggression, and their satisfaction with
the dog as a pet. Twenty (20.6%) dogs evaluated were deemed FA+ in the
shelter, and slightly more than half (11/20; 55%) of them were later
reported by adopters as exhibiting FA+ behavior in the home after adoption,
whereas out of the 77 dogs that were deemed to be FA- in the shelter, 17
(22%) were reported to be FA+ by adopters; conversely, the majority (60/77;
78%) of dogs identified as FA- in the shelter were reported by adopters as
not having exhibited FA+ behavior in the home (P = 0.004). Most adopters,
including those whose dogs were reported FA+ in the home, did not consider
FA+ behavior to be a challenge to keeping the dog as a pet. In conclusion,
in this sample of shelter dogs, the observation of FA+ behavior during a
standardized dog behavior evaluation was associated with FA+ behavior in the
home following adoption, however, an almost equal number of dogs observed to
be FA+ on the behavior evaluation did not show food aggression after
adoption. Failure to observe FA+ behavior on the shelter test was associated
with the absence of FA+ behavior after adoption. The detection of FA+ via a
behavior evaluation should be interpreted with caution, since a positive
finding in the shelter evaluation does not consistently indicate that the
behavior will occur in the home nor that a dog is unsuitable for adoption. |
Taz the Pica Cat Revisted
Barb Pezzanite
Taz, a Domestic Shorthair cat with an
excessive chewing problem including wires (phone, HDMI, computer), glass
table corners, chairs, wall, coffee mugs, etc, was presented at IFAAB 2013.
Taz also displayed some random aggressive behaviors toward her owner under
various circumstances. She had already been prescribed medication by her
veterinarian prior to my consultation. Tazí progress and effective
strategies to help prevent the chewing will be presented at IFAAB 2014.
Additionally, an informative observation on a toilet-trained cat named ì13î
with a housesoiling problem will be discussed if time remains. |
Legal Case Study: Complex Dog Aggression
Case
Jennifer Rommel and Heidi Meinzer
Legal, educational, safety and emotional
challenges in a complex aggression case involving two young sporting breed
dogs, each with multiple behavioral problems, in a home with an
eight-year-old child who has been a target for aggression.
1. Can all of these areas be adequately
addressed at the time of the initial behavioral session?
2. Legally what are our responsibilities:
a. during the first session,
b. in written reports to the
client/referring veterinarian and
c. in follow-up communication with
clients/referring veterinarian, especially when the owner disagrees with the
recommendations?
3. Changes in my aggression case protocols
as a result of this particular case in the areas of: pre-appointment
education, history taking, behavioral assessment procedures, and the
delivery of behavioral and safety information during/after the session. |
Do Animals Lie: A Discussion:
Melissa Shyan-Norwalt
At a veterinary behavior workshop, I was
confronted with a case where the dog was "Fear Aggressive" (diagnosis given
by our team). However, when I asked the client if the dog showed elevated
tail, perked ears and "chesty" behavior (made itself look bigger), the
client replied that he did. These signals, to me, did not represent fear
aggression. However, the "leader" of the group dismissed my concerns by
saying that the dog had been positively reinforced for showing these social
signals and that they did not represent dominance aggression at all. This
led me to return to comparative animal behavior questions of whether animals
lie. By this, I am not talking about Batesian Mimicry or other such
patterns. I am asking whether dogs can actually "consciously" choose to
present false social signals? Can they (removing the word "consciously")
learn to react with misrepresentational social signals by operant or
classical conditioning (suggesting that outward signals do not parallel
inward physiological states)? Are animals misleading us and each other by
how they present communicative signals? Recent research on "sharing" and on
conspecifics and nonspecifics who "lie" about where the food source is, or
about sharing the food source, suggest that there are some sound
evolutionary benefits to misrepresenting resources, but what about emotional
state? I am reminded of a photo we looked at when Patricia McConnell did
her presentation on microsignals a few years ago. The dog was a trained
guard dog, it showed fierce teeth and "guard" grimace (a full frontal
picture). Yet, when one covered the lower half of the face, the eyes showed
calm, not intense, signals that did not agree with the mouth. For this
discussion, I am asking that people bring what they know about this topic,
the science, their personal experiences, and their opinions, for a lively
discussion! (Snacks can be served if it will help). |
Panel: Use Of Dog
Head-Halters, And Restraint ( Response Prevention) Techniques
Victoria Voith, Karen London,
Melissa Shyan-Norwalt, Nancy, Williams
This panel will review the
history of dog-head halters and participants will share their experiences
with halters and restraint equipment. Some of the topics will be what
specific products are designed to do and how they are used, difficulties
clients may have with products and how best to make their use easier for
people, and specialty designed restraint equipment. It is anticipated that
the other participants at the meeting will engage in discussion. Short
demonstrations and presentations followed by time for discussion. |
Does Chronic SSRI Treatment Interfere With
Fear Extinction in Animals?
Mindy Waite
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
(SSRIs) are commonly used, both acutely and chronically, in humans and
companion animals for a variety of anxiety and fear disorders. Recent
studies in rats suggest that chronic SSRI usage may interfere with the
learning process necessary for fear extinction through extinction-based
cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Therefore, chronic SSRI use in companion
animals may actually work counter to the goal of decreasing anxiety/fear
over time when paired with CBT. As such, use of SSRIs may be appropriate
when used for relatively short periods of time, such as for separation
anxiety, but their use for long-term behavioral issues or multiple behaviors
over time may actually inhibit progress. Data from these papers will be
presented in the context of previous drug/behavioral studies (both
supportive and challenging), comparison of animal models, drug facts,
neuroscience, as well as study caveats. A discussion based on professional
experiences with chronic SSRI use in fearful/anxious animals is welcomed
following the presentation. |
Aggression and Castration Controversy
John C Wright and Victoria L Voith
An article in Animal People, July-August
2013, titled “Does castration really alter male dog behavior?”, implied
that castration not only has a limited impact on aggression but may
predispose neutered dogs to be aggressive. Our presentation will discuss
this article and references cited. The talk will focus on interpretation of
findings, methodological & statistical considerations. It is anticipated
that the audience will engage in the discussion. |
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