title: Improving in-kennel presentation of shelter dogs through response-dependent and response-independent treat delivery.
abstract: In a sequence of studies, we evaluated 2 behavioral interventions designed to decrease undesirable in-kennel behaviors of shelter dogs. In Experiment 1, we compared the efficacy of a simple pairing of person with food (response-independent treat delivery) to an increasing interval differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior (DRO) procedure and a control condition. Both procedures decreased the median percentage of undesirable behavior from baseline (88.13%, interquartile range [IQR] = 52.78% and 66.43%, IQR = 89.06% respectively), and the control condition increased behavior by 15.13% (IQR = 32.08%), H(2) = 6.49, p = .039. In Experiment 2, we assessed the efficacy of a response-independent procedure on the whole shelter population. We found a 68% decrease from baseline in the number of dogs that behaved undesirably (U = -4.16, p < .001). Our results suggest that a response-independent procedure is equivalent in efficacy to a DRO procedure to decrease undesirable in-kennel behavior of shelter dogs.
authors.affiliation: UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Protopopova
authors.affiliation: ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY.
authors.forename: Clive D L
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Wynne
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D004285:Dogs; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology
keywords: adoption; animal behavior; animal welfare; shelter dogs