TY - JOUR
T1 - The effects of social training and other factors on adoption success of shelter dogs
AU - Protopopova, Alexandra
AU - Gilmour, Amanda Joy
AU - Weiss, Rebecca Hannah
AU - Shen, Jacqueline Yontsye
AU - Wynne, Clive David Lawrence
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding for this project was provided by Morris Animal Foundation , Merial , and Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program . The authors thank the administration and staff of Alachua County Animal Services for their support and to Dr. Cynda Crawford and Dr. Andreas Keil for their guidance. A big thank you to the student assistants who dedicated many hours to this project: Melinda Hua, Sandy Au Yeung, Jaclynn Key, Rebekah Pfaff, Daniel Snook, Amber Robinson, Claire Spieler, Melissa Campo, Leah Parker, Jiali Zhang, Kim Marrazzo, Jose Garcia, Yelena Gonzalez, Kreetee Dutta, and Lucie Cavanagh. The authors thank Dmitri Kisten for the development of the survey software.
PY - 2012/12/15
Y1 - 2012/12/15
N2 - The aim of the present study was to increase adoption rates of dogs housed in shelters. Previous research suggests that the public perceives friendly and sociable dogs as more adoptable. The present study hypothesized that dogs trained to gaze into potential adopters' eyes would be perceived as more attractive and would therefore have a greater likelihood of being adopted. In addition, we investigated other individual factors that may predict adoption success. For each dog in the study, we tracked outcome (adoption or euthanasia), physical characteristics, and how they were acquired by the shelter. Dogs in a group trained to gaze at people were not significantly more likely to be adopted than untrained dogs in a control group (70.7% in the training group vs. 67.8% in the control group, P>0.10). However, breed type, mode of intake (how dogs were taken into the shelter), and kennel location were predictive of adoption (P<0.001, P<0.05. and P<0.05 respectively) and size, breed type, and mode of intake were predictive of length of stay (P<0.05, P=0.05, and P<0.01 respectively). In a second experiment, participants unaware of the dogs' outcomes (adoption or euthanasia) rated photographs of the dogs, according to attractiveness, on a scale ranging from 0 to 1. The average rating of attractiveness for the adopted and euthanized group were significantly different: 0.50 (SD. =0.08) for adopted dogs and 0.46 (SD. =0.09) for the euthanized dogs (P<0.05). These findings suggest that other factors besides gazing may be more important to adopters when considering adoption of a dog.
AB - The aim of the present study was to increase adoption rates of dogs housed in shelters. Previous research suggests that the public perceives friendly and sociable dogs as more adoptable. The present study hypothesized that dogs trained to gaze into potential adopters' eyes would be perceived as more attractive and would therefore have a greater likelihood of being adopted. In addition, we investigated other individual factors that may predict adoption success. For each dog in the study, we tracked outcome (adoption or euthanasia), physical characteristics, and how they were acquired by the shelter. Dogs in a group trained to gaze at people were not significantly more likely to be adopted than untrained dogs in a control group (70.7% in the training group vs. 67.8% in the control group, P>0.10). However, breed type, mode of intake (how dogs were taken into the shelter), and kennel location were predictive of adoption (P<0.001, P<0.05. and P<0.05 respectively) and size, breed type, and mode of intake were predictive of length of stay (P<0.05, P=0.05, and P<0.01 respectively). In a second experiment, participants unaware of the dogs' outcomes (adoption or euthanasia) rated photographs of the dogs, according to attractiveness, on a scale ranging from 0 to 1. The average rating of attractiveness for the adopted and euthanized group were significantly different: 0.50 (SD. =0.08) for adopted dogs and 0.46 (SD. =0.09) for the euthanized dogs (P<0.05). These findings suggest that other factors besides gazing may be more important to adopters when considering adoption of a dog.
KW - Adoption
KW - Dog
KW - Overpopulation
KW - Shelter
KW - Training
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84868487380&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84868487380&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.applanim.2012.09.009
DO - 10.1016/j.applanim.2012.09.009
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84868487380
SN - 0168-1591
VL - 142
SP - 61
EP - 68
JO - Applied Animal Behaviour Science
JF - Applied Animal Behaviour Science
IS - 1-2
ER -