Abilities of Canine Shelter Behavioral Evaluations and Owner Surrender Profiles to Predict Resource Guarding in Adoptive Homes

Abstract

Some shelters in the United States consider dogs identified as food aggressive during behavioral evaluations to be unadoptable. We surveyed adopters of dogs from a New York shelter to examine predictive abilities of shelter behavioral evaluations and owner surrender profiles. Twenty of 139 dogs (14.4%) were assessed as resource guarding in the shelter. We found statistically significant associations between shelter assessment as resource guarding and guarding reported in the adoptive home for three situations: taking away toys, bones or other valued objects; taking away food; and retrieving items or food taken by the dog. Similarly, owner descriptions of resource guarding on surrender profiles significantly predicted guarding in adoptive homes. However, positive predictive values for all analyses were low, and more than half of dogs assessed as resource guarding either in the shelter or by surrendering owners did not show guarding post adoption. All three sources of information regarding resource guarding status (surrender profile, shelter behavioral evaluation, and adopter report) were available for 44 dogs; measures of agreement were in the fair range. Thus, reports of resource guarding by surrendering owners and detection of guarding during shelter behavioral evaluations should be interpreted with caution because neither source of information consistently signaled guarding would occur in adoptive homes.

Results of Behavioral Evaluations Predict Length of Stay for Shelter Dogs

“…It is worth noting, however, that even though scores on food guarding tests predicted length of stay (present study) and likelihood of return [ 16 ] at our study shelter, food guarding during shelter testing did not consistently signal such guarding would occur in adoptive homes. Surveys of adopters revealed that more than half of the dogs evaluated as food guarding at our study shelter did not show guarding postadoption [ 7 ]; similar findings have been reported for dogs at other shelters [ 5 , 6 ].…”

“…To be consistent with previously published research, we categorized data from the Food bowl test and Possession test somewhat differently than the above descriptions for other tests. First, studies of resource guarding in shelter dogs typically combine results from these two tests [ 6 , 7 , 16 ], so we combined them in our analyses as well. Second, previous studies classified the level of guarding based on behaviors shown during either the food bowl test, possession test, or both tests as follows: dogs that stiffened, exhibited whale eye, snarled, froze, or growled were classified as showing mild to moderate guarding, and dogs that lunged, snapped, or bit the Assess-a-Hand were classified as showing severe guarding [ 15 , 16 ].…”

“…Several studies have surveyed adopters of shelter dogs to determine if results from shelter behavioral evaluations predict the behavior of dogs in adoptive homes. In general, these studies have found poor predictability for behaviors such as food guarding and separation-related behaviors and somewhat better predictability for behaviors related to sociability and fearfulness [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Another approach taken to assess the effectiveness of shelter behavioral evaluations uses privately-owned dogs: owners complete the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ), a validated questionnaire [ 12 ], and then dogs are evaluated by researchers using different shelter assessments.…”

Influence of Sex of Stranger on Responses of Shelter Dogs during Canine Behavioral Evaluations

“…Our study has several limitations. First, canine behavioral evaluations at shelters have been criticized for their lack of rigorous scientific validation and poor predictability of many post-adoption behaviors [8,[31][32][33]. However, proponents view these evaluations as one of several sources of information about dogs in shelters [24,34].…”