Study on aggression in dogs in a public shelter

Abstract

Assessing the behavior of a dog in a shelter is extremely important because the type of behavior can tell us if the animal can be given up for adoption, to whom it can be given up for adoption, if it cannot be given up for adoption and in which direction improvements in behavior need to be made to get it safely given up for adoption. This study aimed to assess the behavior of dogs in a public dog shelter by how a dog behaves towards a person (examiner) in a sequence of situations and to determine the number of individuals who responded with aggression. The behavior test was developed by The Rottweiler Rescue Society (Ontario, Canada) and John Rogerson, Blue Cross, Britain. Following minor modifications, has been used to examine dogs in public shelters. The test contains two additional assessment items from the article "An Evaluation of a Behavior Assessment to Determine the Suitability of Shelter Dogs for Rehoming" [1]. A total of 187 adult dogs were examined, of which 24 were identified with aggressive behavior and the types of aggression identified were dominance, interspecific, or territorial aggression. No behavioral test can show specifically how a dog will behave in a new environment, but the information obtained from the examination can indicate extreme manifestations of canine behavior, such as dominance aggression, possessive aggression, territorial aggression, and separation anxiety.