{"id":1468,"date":"2017-11-09T11:47:47","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T16:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=1468"},"modified":"2017-11-15T11:16:10","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T16:16:10","slug":"paw-pals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/paw-pals\/","title":{"rendered":"Paw Pals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 3 million dogs enter animal shelters each year, and while most end up being adopted, the ASPCA estimates that 670,000 are euthanized annually.<\/p>\n<p>To improve a dog\u2019s chances of being adopted, some shelters are taking the animals out of their cages to interact with their four-legged brethren. The idea is that these doggy playgroups reduce the animals\u2019 stress and anxiety, help them expend excess energy, improves their quality of life, and provides a natural setting for staff to assess a dog\u2019s behavior and personality.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<header>Canine Crew<\/header>\n<p>Assisting Mehrkam in this study are several Canine Behavior Research Coordinators: Alexandra Heaney \u201916 and current Monmouth students Angelina Powers, Mary Kate O\u2019Rourke, Amanda Vidal, and Tyra Ward.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>But opinions vary on how the groups should be structured: Some shelters correct undesirable behavior, others use only positive reinforcement; some allow groups of only a few dogs to play together, others allow large groups. And some shelters are altogether opposed to the concept, arguing that playgroups lead to increased dog-on-dog aggression, a greater chance of volunteers being injured, and elevated risk for disease transmission.<\/p>\n<p>Now, in a first-of-its-kind study, Assistant Professor of Psychology Lindsay Mehrkam is seeking to determine whether implementing playgroups in shelters is beneficial to a dog\u2019s welfare, and how their use might relate to the dog\u2019s chances of being adopted.<\/p>\n<p>Mehrkam has partnered with shelters in New York, Philadelphia, and Florida to track the positive and negative outcomes associated with how different playgroups are run. She and her research fellows are collecting salivary cortisol from the dogs to measure the animals\u2019 stress levels before and after playgroup. They\u2019re also monitoring behavior patterns before and after play and instances of dog-on-dog aggression, among other things.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s important to determine the potential positive impacts playgroups can have on a dogs\u2019 welfare, says Mehrkam, as their behavior can diminish rapidly when placed in a shelter, potentially making them less adoptable. She says dogs can go from showing signs of enthusiasm toward people and a willingness to approach the kennel gate to displaying abnormal behavior like pacing and excessive licking, due to boredom and anxiety, in a week or less.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re trying to give some science and data behind what is now becoming a very common practice in shelters\u2014these play groups,\u201d says Mehrkam. \u201cAnd we\u2019re trying to really evaluate objectively: is this good for dog welfare? And if it\u2019s good and it shows some promising benefits\u2026 what is the best way to run them?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The study, which is being funded by a grant from Maddie\u2019s Fund, is expected to run through May 2018.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: OZGURDONMAZ\/ISTOCK<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can playgroups improve a dog\u2019s adoptability? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":1470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":53,\"y\":36}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents"],"thumbnail":"<img width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/dog-300x300.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-1470 wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" role=\"presentation\" style=\"object-position:53% 36%\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/dog-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/dog-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/dog-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/dog-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/dog-2048x2048.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/dog-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/dog-1400x1400.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/dog-828x828.jpg 828w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/dog-360x360.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/dog-9x9.jpg 9w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/11\/dog.jpg 2535w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>","catString":"Currents","issue":"Fall 2017","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1468"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1696,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions\/1696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}