behavior Archives - Page 3 of 3

Why Behavior Evaluations in Shelters Can Be Misleading

Linda Lombardi

There was a time when formal shelter behavior evaluations for dogs seemed like an important breakthrough. But while an objective way to assess behavior seems like a great idea, it’s increasingly clear that these batteries of tests aren’t doing the job it was hoped they’d do.

In 2016, Gary Patronek, DVM, and Janis Bradley published a paper analyzing the literature on canine behavior evaluations, concluding that they were “no better than flipping a coin.”

This did not prompt immediate abandonment of these tests and there were some understandable questions about their conclusion. How was it possible for their review of the literature to conclude that these tests were not valid and predictive, when individual papers said that they were?

In a new paper they address those questions, delving into statistical issues, the difference between colloquial and technical uses of words like “valid,” “predictive,” and “reliable,” and the kind of evidence needed to justify using a test for real life–and sometimes life and death–decisions.

Testing the Tests

Standards exist for judging whether a test has real-world applicability. “This is not something we need to reinvent,” Bradley says. “There is robust human diagnostic test literature that tells us how to do this and what acceptable standards are, and behavior evaluations in dogs–at least the ones that we looked at, that were intended to have application to dogs in shelters–simply don’t meet any reasonable standard.”

One problem with research on predictive ability of behavior evaluations is that most of it has been done on owned dogs, not dogs in shelters.

“Epidemiologists will tell you there’s no such thing as saying a test is valid,” Bradley says. “All you can ever say is that we’ve demonstrated validity with this population, in this context, with this exact instrument. If you change any of those things–and likely all of those things are going to change in any application in a shelter–any claims you make for validity go completely out the window.”

Many shelters modify protocols, and it’s impossible to perform a test as consistently in the shelter environment as in a lab. Tiny details can change results. One study showed that factors like the evaluator’s height and how much they leaned over changed the outcome. “Try to imagine the world where you’d have the kind of consistency that would eliminate confounds like that in a shelter environment,” Bradley says. “It could never happen.”

The context is also different, and in an important way. The ability to identify aggression is of greatest concern in these evaluations, and results can vary by environment.

“The most common underlying motivations for aggression are fear and anxiety because aggression is distance-increasing behavior,” says veterinary behaviorist Wailani Sung, DVM, of the San Francisco SPCA. “Dogs in the shelter are already lower in tolerance because their overall stress level is so high. So they could test more negatively in a shelter environment versus in a home where they have more stable relationships and a more consistent environment.”

Another problem is that serious aggression is rare in dogs, and those dogs probably don’t get evaluated at shelters. “Most shelters eliminate the tail end of the bell curve without ever subjecting them to a behavior evaluation,” says Bradley. “If everyone’s afraid to go into the kennel with the dog, they’re not going to take it out and do a behavior evaluation.” For statistical reasons, it’s more difficult to design a reliable test for a rare behavior if there’s a concern about false positives. In this instance, false positives–a result that claims to show a dog is aggressive when he isn’t really–can result in unnecessary euthanasia.

“This entire enterprise to a certain extent appears to be based on an idea that there’s some elevated risk with regard to shelter dogs,” Bradley says. “There’s no evidence that this is the case.” Shelter dogs are no more or less likely to someday show aggression.

What’s the Alternative?

Although there’s a considerable body of research questioning the validity of behavior assessments, it takes time for that to trickle down to the real world. “There’s a huge discrepancy between the academic world that has been studying these things versus the practical world that’s out there on a day-to-day basis that still has the pressure of putting safe animals out into the world,” says Jeannine Berger, DVM, vice president of rescue and welfare at the San Francisco SPCA.

Change is hard, and this is a hard kind of change. “Sometimes you don’t want to be shown that what you’re doing is not helpful and may be harmful. That’s a bitter pill to swallow,” says Dr. Sung.

Dr. Berger says discussion about behavior assessments has increased since the ASPCA came out with a position statement last year referring to this literature. “People actually in the field are now starting to question if this is the right approach to making those decisions,” she says.

Amy Marder, VMD, who spent much of her career working on these types of assessments, now believes the best approach is for staff to observe dogs in day-to-day interactions and keep good records. This doesn’t have to involve more work or resources, since it happens during physical exams and walks, which need to be done anyway. “You can get a lot of information from doing routine procedures rather than a formal evaluation,” she says.

This is what San Francisco SPCA does. “We use the five freedoms model to assess welfare, and everyone is trained on that,” Berger says. “We are looking at, are they eating, are they drinking, are they comfortable in their environment, are they fear free and distress free, are they performing normal behaviors, are they free of illness and disease,” she says. “We use that to assess each animal every day, and anything out of the norm is reported and is addressed.”

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Linda Lombardi writes about the animals who share our planet and our homes for magazines including The Bark, websites including National Geographic and Mongabay.com, and for the Associated Press. Her most recent book, co-authored with Deirdre Franklin, is The Pit Bull Life: A Dog Lover’s Companion.

Kitten Socialization: Creating the Purrfect Feline Patient and Pet

Rachel Lees RVT, KPA CTP, VTS (Behavior)

As veterinary professionals, wouldn’t we all love ways to keep our clients and feline patients happy, healthy, and even make our jobs safer? Let’s scratch the surface of the basics of kitten socialization, the benefits of kitten socialization classes, and how we can start these courses in our own practices.

Who doesn’t love a sweet, fluffy, and cuddly kitten? But they don’t become that way on their own. Veterinary team members and owners have long recognized the importance of puppy socialization and training classes, and these same tactics can be used for kittens as well. That’s right! Socialization is just as important for kittens as it is for puppies. It’s important for humans, too. Here’s why.

Educating Owners and Staff

As veterinary professionals, we have only a certain amount of time to discuss these things with new kitten owners during appointments. An educated veterinary team is key to starting kittens off on the right track to enjoy handling, being placed in their carriers, and be more comfortable with husbandry care at home.

These things are beneficial for the veterinary team as well. Revenue increases because cats are more compliant about being brought to the veterinary hospital, and everyone is safer because fewer patients display fear, anxiety, or stress. Implementing and recommending these classes in a practice can also increase revenue as a new service and be a way to bond kittens and owners to the practice.

Socialization Timeline

Knowing and acknowledging the kitten socialization period is critical in setting up new owners and kittens for success. For kittens, the socialization period starts at 2 weeks and ends at 7 to 10 weeks. This is the time when kittens begin to become less reliant on the queen for survival and have increased interaction with social and environmental stimuli. It’s the most important sensitive period in feline development and can help to prime felines to live safely and comfortably in human households. Positive social experiences in kittenhood with other species and stimuli are hugely beneficial in creating behaviorally healthy adult cats.

You may be thinking that kittens do not come into the practice until after this developmental period has passed and you are correct! Kittens may not come into our practices until they are 8 to 10 weeks old. Kitten classes can still be beneficial because the socialization window does not slam shut. It closes slowly, so these classes can be beneficial for kittens up to 14 weeks of age.

Kitten Classes

Kitten Kindergarten or Kitten Kindy was brought to the forefront by veterinary behaviorist Kersti Seksel, VBSc (Hons), MRCVS, MA (Hons), FACVSc, DACVB, DECAWBM of Australia. The classes have the following goals:

Socialize kittens
Educate owners about normal feline behavior
Teach owners how to interact and play with their kittens
Train kittens to accept handling procedures
Identify any problem behaviors and provide up-to-date, humane, and scientific advice
Educate owners on all aspects of kitten development, pet care, and living with a cat in the family

I structure and run kitten classes as follows:

Interaction with other pet owners and felines of the same age range (with appropriate health and vaccination requirements)
Provide different surfaces, textures, objects, and sounds for the kittens to experience during exploratory time
Discuss and demonstrate carrier training using marker training
Review the following focus points to set the new kitten owners up for success:
- Litter Box Basics
- Socialization Period
  - Fear Free has a fantastic Kitten Socialization Bingo Worksheet in the Toolbox. I have used something similar in the past and given prizes for owners who get the “Bingo” or successfully socialize their kittens to many positive things from week to week.
- Scratching and playing
- Handling and administering medications

Courses can be offered weekly in a rotational style to get as many kittens into the class as possible, monthly as a kitten party, or in a weekly 3-week course. The possibilities are endless!

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Rachel Lees, a Level 3 Fear Free Certified Professional, is a veterinary technician specialist in behavior, a KPA certified training partner, and lead veterinary behavior technician at The Behavior Clinic in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. She loves helping people create and maintain a strong human-animal bond and has a special interest in kitten and puppy socialization and development.

Fear Free Imaging for Exotics

Linda Lombardi

Low-stress handling techniques are better for all pets, but they’re particularly important for exotics.

“With exotics, you really want to minimize distress, because a lot of them when they’re sick are really prone to cardiovascular failure,” says Jörg Mayer, DVM, DABVP, associate professor of zoological medicine at the University of Georgia.

Exotics are more stressed by handling than domestic animals, and diagnostic imaging can present particular challenges since you need the animal to keep still. Anesthesia will do it, of course, but can present its own problems. Dr. Mayer uses a number of techniques that can eliminate the need for anesthesia in some cases while keeping animals calm and still.

Dark Means Calm

One simple trick is to take advantage of diurnal animals’ natural response to light and darkness, a technique Mayer often uses with birds.

“In the wild, you don’t see a goose flying at night,” he says, “To them, the moment the lights go off, that means ‘We should be resting.’”

Darkness, then, will calm waterfowl. The same is true for parrots.

“A lot of psittacines need a high intensity of light in order to see, so if you can just dim the room, they simmer right down,” he says. It doesn’t need to be pitch black, so you can get the benefit of this effect while still being able to see well enough to do the job.

With birds Mayer says often the image does not need to be perfect or detailed; for example, a scan to see if they’re eggbound or have swallowed something toxic such as a lead sinker. In this case, waterfowl may be laid on their backs in a darkened room and will hold still for long enough without distress. “It’s a very quick scan, so you don’t necessarily need the absolutely perfect position for them,” he says.

Parrots, on the other hand, would be extremely stressed by that position, but can often be scanned on a perch in a darkened room or, if they’re too sick to perch, in a box.

Benzodiazepines Have Multiple Benefits

For cases requiring more detailed imaging, Mayer says heavy sedation is often all that’s needed. Benzodiazepines have several beneficial effects. For an intelligent bird such as a parrot, it’s significant that these drugs suppress both anxiety and memory.

“With very smart birds like most of these psittacines, you do a couple of procedures and quickly they learn that the guy in the white coat is really bad news, because every time he comes he does something horrible to you,” he says. “So this is where these benzodiazepines, because they’re amnesic and anxiolytic, help significantly because there’s no learning effect, so this makes future exams less stressful.”

Small mammals such as rabbits may be too weak to move much when ill, but that doesn’t mean you should try to image them with no medication. “We don’t really want to handle them without any sedation, because that gets the blood pressure up and gets the heart rate up and that’s exactly what you don’t want,” Mayer says. “With a very sick or compromised patient, that can be enough to push them over the edge.”

Benzodiazepines are safe to use in the face of the possibility of cardiovascular complications. “The nice thing is that these have no real cardiovascular depressant effect, so we can use them in the most critically ill patients.”

Use Containers

Mayer has several strategies for containing different animals for imaging. Rabbits frequently need the head imaged to look for dental disease. He’ll contain the lightly sedated animal in a clear acrylic box surrounded and propped up by towels, which help them feel secure and calm.

“They like to feel like they can lean against something,” he says. “And in the clear acrylic box, it’s safe for the animal–even if they would want to walk off the table they can’t–and we can see the animal, so in case they are struggling we can intervene.”

Containers are also the best approach for aquatic animals, since imaging works through water. “Keeping the animal in the natural environment, like an amphibian or fish in water, is the least stressful, so you can do it and the animal doesn’t even know that something happened.”

Imaging a fish might not be an everyday event, but Mayer says he has done quite a few procedures on valuable fish like koi, such as radiographs to check the swim bladder or look for spine fractures.

“You can leave them in a container and shoot the x-rays through the water, or keep them in a plastic bag. That works really well and that means absolutely no restraint,” he says. “You just have to have a little bit of patience and use a smaller container so they don’t swim constantly left and right. Once they get used to it, you can just take a little time and take the radiograph once the fish is in the right position.”

Reptile Dos and Don’ts

With iguanas and other lizards, Mayer often takes advantage of a simple trick of physiology. “What you can do is put pressure on the eyeball, and that induces the vasovagal response,” he says. The heart rate and blood pressure come down and this calms them. “You don’t need to use drugs and they’re not stressing out because everything in their system is telling them to just relax.”

What you should not use, he says, is artificial cooling. “People say, ‘Just put them in the refrigerator and chill them down and they don’t move,” he says. “We don’t advocate this as an appropriate way to deal with these animals.”

It’s a misconception that that would be similar to what a reptile or amphibian would experience in nature. “Hibernation is a more complicated process,” he says. “The animal prepares for that–they stop eating, they empty the GI tract, it’s a gradual thing–they don’t suddenly find themselves in a refrigerator.”

Animals Hide Weakness

For any procedure, Mayer says, remember that all of these animals do feel pain and stress even if it’s not apparent. Not only are we less skilled at reading their signs, they are expert at concealing distress.

“That is hard-wired in them, so with exotics we have to be extra cautious,” he says. “The little dog has no problem limping into the vet clinic and showing that it’s lame, but the rabbit or bird know that if they do that, they’re going to be someone’s dinner.”

Mayer says that in a study testing effectiveness of a pain drug in iguanas, researchers found that behavior was different depending on whether someone was watching. “They noticed that when the iguana knows it’s being watched, it shows significantly less signs of pain, compared to when they used a camera to observe them,” he says. “That’s the prey animal’s instinct, to suppress any signs of weakness.”

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

How Scent Affects Patients and Clients in the Clinic

Susan M. Ewing

Both dogs and cats rely heavily on scent to interpret their surroundings while humans rely more on sight. Blindfold a human just before a visit to a doctor or emergency room, and the stress level would be higher than if the person could see, but most people would at least be able to hear and understand what was happening in the way of treatment. We can’t explain to our pets what is happening, or why they are in a hospital. Take away their sense of smell and you’ve taken away their ability to interpret their world, adding more stress to an already stressful situation. By understanding the effects of scents, you can help them stay calm.

Ban Bleach

No one intentionally stops a dog or cat from smelling, but disinfectants can do just that. Bleach and other disinfectants with a harsh odor can make a pet “nose blind,” creating stress when they try, and fail, to learn about their environment. In one study, “Minimising Stress for Patients in the Veterinary Hospital: Why It Is Important and What Can be Done About It” (published online in Veterinary Sciences, April 13, 2017), lead author Janice K.F. Lloyd cites Karen L. Overall, VMD, in the Manual of Behavioral Medicine for Dogs and Cats: “A solution of bleach, even as low as 1 percent, can destroy olfactory neurones, resulting in a loss of information and heightening anxiety.”

While disinfecting is essential, using one that doesn’t have a harsh odor may help to lessen the negative effect on a pet’s nose. At Applebrook Animal Hospital in Ooltewah, Tennessee, Kathryn Primm, DVM, uses Rescue disinfectant, a hydrogen peroxide product with little odor, which also dries quickly.

Scents From Other Animals

When pets are able to smell, identifying stress in other animals can increase their own level of stress. Secondarily, humans may also experience some stress when smelling clinic odors. Most pets are quick to respond to their owners’ emotions, and if that emotion is stress, it’s going to affect the pet.

“When we have bad odors suddenly, like anal glands,” says Dr. Primm, “it is critical that they be cleaned and deodorized completely, or they will cause fear in all the pets that perceive them.” For those kinds of odors, Primm uses K.O.E. (Kennel Odor Eliminator) by Thornell, a product that quickly eliminates odors and comes in a concentrate, a spray, and individual wipes.

Sometimes, when possible, opening a window can help. Many pets will become distracted from their environment as they process scents from outdoors. Synthetic pheromones may also help to calm a dog or cat. Plug-in pheromone diffusers may reduce stress in a waiting room, and doctors or technicians can spray their clothes with the pheromones. Use diffusers or sprays with caution around birds and fish.

Many people appreciate the calming effects of lavender and chamomile, and both of these scents seem to calm pets, too. Be careful how you use them, though. Certain diffused essential oils can cause some respiratory distress in cats so use them with caution, and alert clients to the risks of active diffusers in the home to pets.

With so many pets depending on their noses for information, it makes sense to pay attention to scents.

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Fear Free, but Just Enough: Reducing Stress in Wildlife Patients

By Linda Lombardi
When you’re dealing with wildlife, a Fear Free approach means a delicate balance that’s different than when you’re treating domestic animals.

“While you want it to be low stress, they need to maintain some level of intolerance towards humans,” says Kristian Krause, DVM, a Fear Free certified veterinarian at Serrano Animal and Bird Hospital in Lake Forest, California, where they treat wildlife for Orange County Bird of Prey Center.

Wild animals are stressed by the presence of people in a way that domestic animals aren’t, but if they get too acclimated, that’s going to be a problem once they’re released. “Especially when we’re dealing with something like a raccoon or a bobcat, we don’t want them to think ‘Oh, people are cool, so I can come hang out in a residential area,’” she says.

Keep Them Quiet and Separate

Minimize exposure to humans as much as possible, starting by keeping them in a quiet, isolated environment. Then, Dr. Krause says, maintain a coordinated schedule of husbandry and medical treatment: “Everything happens at once: they’re fed, treated, the cage cleaned, all at once, so you’re not handling them multiple times.”

Make treatment choices with stress control in mind. “Sometimes you have to treat the animal and not the disease,” she says. “It’s more stressful for them to get treatment than to just sit in a quiet cage, so you have to gauge which is the worse of two evils, letting them sit and letting their body heal, or getting them out of the cage twice a day to give them an oral medication or an injection of an anti-inflammatory.”

For some animals, some medications can be administered in a low-stress manner by hiding them in food. Raccoons are such chowhounds that they’re easy to medicate. “If you can put something in a grape, they’re happy,” she says. Carnivores can also be easy. “Chicks and mice are your friends,” she says. “Give them this mouse first so you know they have their medication, then you can give them the next one.”

Handling Tips

When you do need to handle animals, plan for it. “It changes with the animal and the species,” Krause says. “You have to know what you’re doing before you even think about opening that door.”

For instance, handling birds can be a challenge for new staff. “It takes a while to understand how to quickly and efficiently get a bird out of a cage,” she says. Knowing what the plan is and being quick is critical. “You have to go in, grab, and be done so that bird’s not jumping all over the place and you do more harm than good.”

It’s also important to know your species. Take Cooper’s hawks, Krause says. “You barely open the door and they start bouncing off the walls, like a kid who’s had too much candy at Halloween.”

And like domestic animals, wild animals differ in temperament, so Krause likes to have the same people consistently handling the same individuals, so they know how that particular animal tends to react.

Familiarity with species’ needs is also important for treatment and husbandry. Improper temperatures are a major source of stress for reptiles.

“The knee-jerk reaction is, ‘It’s a reptile; they all need to be warm,’ but that’s not necessarily true,” she says. “Putting a chameleon in an 85-degree tank is going to stress them.”

Pain Relief and Sedation

It’s also common for people to not consider that reptiles feel pain, since they might not express it in ways that we recognize. While they often don’t need to be sedated for basic handling or simple procedures, she says, “If they have a fishhook or an abscess, you do need to sedate them or use a local anesthesia; you need to remember that it’s painful so no different than working on a cat or dog.”

Sedation has its own risks, so that’s another delicate balance to maintain. While many procedures that could be done awake on a domestic animal will require anesthesia for wildlife, there are ways to minimize its use. Simply covering eyes and plugging ears with cotton to minimize sight and sound will calm many animals enough for an exam and assessment without the risk of anesthesia and eliminates the stress of being with humans longer while recovering from it.

Krause uses this technique with deer, rabbits, and even coyotes, and says it’s possible to administer some basic treatments this way, such as fluids and antibiotics. This is possible partly because in these animals the reaction is to shut down, which isn’t entirely a low-stress situation, but for a wild animal it can be better than the alternative, she says.

“Now I don’t have to keep you in the hospital for another day because I had to anesthetize you, so I can get you back out where you belong faster, which to me is less stressful.”

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

For Good Cat-Dog Relationships, Focus on the Cat, Study Suggests

By Linda Lombardi
Do clients have questions about how their cats and dogs get along – or if they can get along? Information from a recent study may help you advise them.

We use the phrase “fighting like cats and dogs” as if it’s a law of nature, but many households include both species and they get along fine – or at least tolerate one another. Still, cats and dogs have very different communication styles and social structures, so harmony isn’t a given. A recent study analyzed a survey of 748 owners mostly in the United Kingdom and the United States to see what factors contribute to having an amicable multi-species family.

What Makes a Good Relationship?

Overall, most owners reported that their pets seemed to get along well. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 was “can’t stand each other” and 10 was “close companions,” few ratings of 4 and below were found. Most relationships fell in the middle although there were a few “best buddy” scores of 9 or 10. Pets with the best relationships were reported to sometimes play together or groom one another, and some even shared food, toys, and beds.

The details suggest that if harmony is the goal, owners should pay special attention to the feline side of the relationship. While owners only rarely perceived their pets as seeming uncomfortable with one another, when they were, it was far more often the cat who was uneasy. Although pets were rarely reported to have injured each other, scuffles more often involved the cat threatening the dog than vice versa.

Age and Environment are Important

When researchers looked at factors found to correlate with better relationships, what was most important was the cat’s comfort level with the dog. The best relationships were those that reported a low frequency of incidents in which the cat appeared uncomfortable. Frequency of the dog’s discomfort was less crucial. Of the demographic factors, the most important was that the cat had been introduced to the dog at a young age – the dog’s age was less important.

Cats who lived indoors full time had better relationships (letting cats go outdoors is still common in the UK compared to the US). This suggests that the more time cats spend with others in the household, the more likely they are to eventually develop good relationships.

Dealing with Conflict

It’s important to note that the study was based on owner observations, not those of trained behavior experts.

“It would be a good follow-up study to see whether behaviorists’ views of how well they’re getting on match up with owners’ views,” says Zazie Todd, Ph.D., author of the website Companion Animal Psychology and the Psychology Today blog Fellow Creatures. “Some signs of stress, like avoiding being in the same room, people might be a bit more likely to miss, but we haven’t assessed that directly so we can’t be sure.”

Since people may not notice subtle signs of conflict and discomfort, dealing with the more obvious ones is important, even if they aren’t ending in bloodshed. Dogs chasing cats is sometimes seen as inevitable, so you may need to explain to clients that it is possible to train a dog not to pester a cat using positive methods.

Appropriate expectations are also important. “It does sometimes happen that a cat and a dog become good friends, but I think one of the striking things from the study is that the relationships mostly weren’t that close,” says Todd. Owners should see lack of conflict as a success, even if the pets don’t seem to be best buddies.

Along with training the dog, though, it’s important to give the cat some control. Make sure owners are providing high places and secluded spots where the dog can’t follow and feeding the cat in an area inaccessible to the dog. Try to see things from the feline point of view – what can be done to help the cat avoid conflict in the first place? Says Todd, “You have to think about helping the cat not to be stressed and to feel safe, as well as training the dog how to behave.”

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

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