Aggressive behavior in adopted dogs that passed a temperament test

Abstract

Relatively few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of standardized temperament testing in preventing the adoption of dogs with aggressive tendencies from animal shelters. The objective of this study was to evaluate the following hypotheses: (1) a percentage of dogs passing a standardized temperament test (i.e. not exhibiting aggressive tendencies) in an animal shelter will exhibit aggressive behaviors after adoption, and (2) these aggressive behaviors will be heavily weighted towards behaviors that may not be effectively simulated during a temperament test such as territorial aggression, predatory aggression, intra-specific aggression, and owner-directed aggression, rather than resource guarding or fear-related behaviors. In order to test these hypotheses, owners of 67 dogs temperament tested and subsequently adopted from one shelter were interviewed by telephone within 13 months of adoption. The interviews included questions about jumping up, house soiling, separation-related behavior, barking, and aggressive behavior. Based on these interviews, the frequency of various types of aggression and levels of aggression were estimated for these dogs. In evaluating dogs that passed the temperament test used by this shelter, it was found that 40.9% exhibited lunging, growling, snapping, and/or biting after adoption. When barking was included, this percentage rose to 71.2%. Our results indicated that there are certain types of aggressive tendencies (territorial, predatory, and intra-specific aggression) that are not reliably exhibited during temperament testing using this particular evaluation process. These findings suggest that this temperament test fails to identify certain types of aggression. Efforts to protect public heath through temperament testing should take this into account by combining temperament testing results with shelter and/or foster behavioral evaluations, offering both pre- and post-adoption behavioral counseling, and encouraging other educational opportunities for owners.