Training and behavior modification for shelter cats

Bollen, Kelley

doi:10.1002/9781119421313.ch13

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Animal shelters have a responsibility to safeguard the psychological well-being of the cats in their care. Recommended strategies for this often include minimizing exposure to environmental stressors [ 1 ], enriching their enclosure [ 2 ], and behaviour modification plans [ 3 ]. To optimize these efforts, it is necessary to assess the impact they are having on the animal, for example by monitoring changes in behaviour across time and in response to specific interventions [ 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond “Doing Better”: Ordinal Rating Scales to Monitor Behavioural Indicators of Well-Being in Cats

Ellis

2022

Animals

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Safeguarding the well-being of cats is essential to the mission of any responsible animal shelter. Environmental enrichment and behaviour modification are often key to this goal. Measuring response to these interventions is essential to ensure strategies are successful. There are often many staff and volunteers involved in these efforts, and a lack of standardised language can make monitoring progress difficult. Ordinal rating scales of key behaviours can be a useful way to summarise observations and ensure that common language is used. However, it is crucial that these scales have good interobserver agreement and reliability, so operational definitions and training systems are important. This paper presents a method for evaluating four different expressions of cat welfare on a 0–5 scale: modified Fear, Anxiety, and Stress score; Response to Petting score; Participation in Play score; and Food Intake Summary score. All scales showed almost perfect average interobserver agreement (linear weighted κ) and excellent average interobserver reliability (interclass correlation coefficient). These scales may prove useful to other shelters, or any other environment where evaluating response to interventions is important to the welfare of cats, such as research facilities or home environments. The exceptional interobserver agreement and reliability of this study compared with some others highlights the importance of standardised training programs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond “Doing Better”: Ordinal Rating Scales to Monitor Behavioural Indicators of Well-Being in Cats

Ellis

2022

Animals

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“…Grant & Warrior (2019) attempted to make their training method as accessible as possible for that specific shelter environment, namely 10 minutes of training three times per week and aiming for the cats to spend more time in the outside area so visitors could see the cats. The authors speculated that encouraging these behaviours would improve adoptability, a view shared byBollen (2015) Grant & Warrior (2019). did not have a separate control group and so it is difficult to assess whether clicker training had this desired effect, although research suggests that active and playful cats tend to be viewed more positively by potential adopters(Gourkow, 2001;Fantuzzi et al, 2010;Sinn, 2016;and Caeiro et al, 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

Does clicker training reduce stress in shelter cats?

Travers

2022

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PICO question In domestic cats in a shelter setting, does clicker training decrease proxy measures of a stressed emotional state (behavioural or physiological) compared to no clicker training? Clinical bottom line Category of research question Treatment The number and type of study designs reviewed Two papers were critically reviewed. One was a prospective quasi-randomised clinical trial, the other was a quasi-experimental before-and-after study with each cat being its own control Strength of evidence Weak Outcomes reported Both papers reported a decrease in behavioural stress indicators in shelter cats following a clicker training programme. Not all of these decreases were statistically significant and there are large issues with confounding factors in both papers Conclusion Preliminary evidence suggests that clicker training can be implemented as one form of enrichment to reduce stress in shelter cats alongside other means. Further evidence is required to demonstrate superiority to other forms of enrichment to reduce stress in shelter cats, especially given the practical limitations of implementing such a programme in most shelters How to apply this evidence in practice The application of evidence into practice should take into account multiple factors, not limited to: individual clinical expertise, patient’s circumstances and owners’ values, country, location or clinic where you work, the individual case in front of you, the availability of therapies and resources. Knowledge Summaries are a resource to help reinforce or inform decision making. They do not override the responsibility or judgement of the practitioner to do what is best for the animal in their care.

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Management of Community Cats

Slater¹

2022

Animal Behavior for Shelter Veterinarians and Staff

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Training and behavior modification for shelter cats

Cited by 4 publications

References 35 publications

Beyond “Doing Better”: Ordinal Rating Scales to Monitor Behavioural Indicators of Well-Being in Cats

Beyond “Doing Better”: Ordinal Rating Scales to Monitor Behavioural Indicators of Well-Being in Cats

Does clicker training reduce stress in shelter cats?

Management of Community Cats

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