Study On Which Dogs Get Adopted:

[sandgrubber]

The Science Dog blog summarized an interesting study, based on videotaping dogs in shelters, of what dogs do and don't get adopted.

https://thesciencedog.wordpress.com/2016/08/24/when-sit-doesnt-mean-sit/

Bottom line was 1) more social / outgoing dogs that interact with people walking by their cages get adopted faster; and 2) it's easy to make dogs more social by teaching them to associate treats with people walking by their cages. Here's the blog's take away:

Sad as it may seem, when it comes to a dog’s behavior, potential adopters appear to be more concerned with avoiding dogs who demonstrate behaviors that they don’t like rather than seeking dogs who show behaviors that they do like (such as responding to sit). The good news in this story is that the behaviors that people generally avoid (and which may signal a lack of sociability on the dog’s part), were demonstrated to be reduced in a substantial number of dogs without the need for a detailed and labor-intensive training program. This is classical conditioning at its best folks. Pair the approach of a visitor with yummy treats (visitor predicts treat) and over time, the appearance of a person flips the dog’s emotional response from apathy/distraction/fear to happiness, joy and interaction. The fact that the researchers improved in-kennel behaviors that were related to poor adoption rates in almost 70 percent of dogs using a simple, non-contingent procedure of food delivery is an enormously important bit of evidence. And it is evidence that can and should be used to encourage shelters everywhere to invest in treat pouches, arm their workers with a pouchful of yummy goodness and get going.

[Two Best Dogs!]

:) I just saw this on FB and was going to post it in SG's thread!

Every tiny new discovery is more tools to help the dogs.

[RuralPug]

Sounds like it is not a bad idea to hand a few treats out to each visitor to give the dogs also, depending on how many visitors per day is normal for the shelter (we don't want obese over-treated dogs! lol)

[cannibalgoldfish]

Sounds like it is not a bad idea to hand a few treats out to each visitor to give the dogs also,

right up until a visitor not paying attention/not dog savvy meets a dog with no manners around food and gets a finger or two accidentely nipped....

[The Spotted Devil]

The research around dogs at the front of the pen getting adopted more readily has been around for a while. But not jumping up is a nice thing to have too. An easier way to do it in shelters is to have containers of food/treats attached to individual pens - with a big sign saying please give me a treat if I have "4 paws on the floor" etc - then you ensure treats are rationed to prevent obesity and dogs that you don't want folk treating aren't. It seems to work pretty well.

[Two Best Dogs!]

There was a youtube 'case study' on using the manners minder to help counter condition over excited dogs.

Looking for it...looking for it.

Would also be good for the worried and scared ones. Could just use their daily kibble so no-one gets too porky.

But also, realise most pounds and rescues probably couldn't afford one let alone that many manners minders...

[_PL_]

This works on rescuers too (not meaning you should give treats to make us sit LOL)

I'm not a big dog rescuer ... mostly. But walking past the big dog cages, Toby was sitting up the front and he was sitting as hard as he could. Just being a beautiful boy Ignoring his fence fighter neighbour.

He is one of the most special dogs and was an incredible foster. And it was because he spoke to me.

I didn't have a treat with me but the pound (Renbury) did hang up treats a couple of years later and the dogs loved it.

[corvus]

The research around dogs at the front of the pen getting adopted more readily has been around for a while. But not jumping up is a nice thing to have too. An easier way to do it in shelters is to have containers of food/treats attached to individual pens - with a big sign saying please give me a treat if I have "4 paws on the floor" etc - then you ensure treats are rationed to prevent obesity and dogs that you don't want folk treating aren't. It seems to work pretty well.

They were doing exactly this at Renbury Park shelter when I was there last year. I was there towards the end of visiting hours, and many of the dogs were no longer taking treats. Kibble was on the floor and they were not interested. They wanted other reinforcers is my guess. Kennels are challenging environments. Food is one of the few things dogs in kennels get plenty of.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

There were two puppies of the kind of dog I like at the shelter when I went. I took the pretty one with symetrical markings to the play pen first and all she wanted to do was go back to her pen / litter mate. Would not interact with me at all - never mind "sit" or "jump up".

The other one - her sister, was asymetric, played with me, got distracted, played with me some more, got distracted... was generally interested (intermittantly) in what I was doing. The volunteers said she was noisy at dinner time - that hasn't changed. She was definitely the friendly one and very food motivated.

I'm still glad I chose her. I see a lot of people trying to deal with timid dogs from shelters - some of those dogs never get better no matter how much training and good experiences they get.

[Cosmolo]

If I ran a shelter the dogs would get their entire daily food allocation through enrichment activities and exercises like this unless there was a medical reason not to feed this way. The simple way to ensure no nipped fingers and only paws on the ground to be rewarded is to run pvc pipe or similar from the outside to inside of the kennel door so treats can be 'posted' through the door on to the ground.