![]() ![]() ![]() To understand the impact of short-term foster care on rest patterns of shelter dogs, the research team outfitted dogs from the shelters in Arizona, Montana, Georgia and Texas with an activity-tracking collar. "You can't get in a good nap during the day." "Trying to sleep in a shelter is like trying to sleep with noisy neighbors," Gunter said. "The sleepovers let us find out so much about how a dog behaves in a home, and that knowledge helps us match them to their forever home."ĪHS has continued using sleepovers because they benefit the dogs and are an easy way to introduce new volunteers to fostering.ĭogs who live in homes sleep approximately 14 hours each day, while dogs in shelters only sleep just under 11 hours each day. AHS was one of the five shelters that participated in the study. "It was an open question if it would be stressful for dogs to come back to the shelter after being away for a weekend but because of this study, we know a sleepover is a very welcome break," said Debbie McKnight, vice president of field and animal welfare at the Arizona Humane Society (AHS). Gunter said the sleepovers were like a weekend away from work: they provided a short break from the stress of living in a shelter. When the dogs returned to the shelter, their cortisol levels were the same as before. Even though the five participating shelters were very different - some care for 600 dogs a year and others more than 6,000 - the cortisol levels for all the dogs decreased during a sleepover. ![]() The team tracked the dogs' stress by measuring the stress hormone cortisol before, during and after sleepovers. "We wanted to understand what effect sleepovers had on dogs' behavior and if being away from the shelter environment, even temporarily, potentially reduced the stress they experience," said Lisa Gunter, Maddie's Fund Research Fellow in the ASU psychology department and first author on the study. The ASU research team and their collaborator Erica Feuerbacher of Virginia Tech decided to test if such short-term foster care experiences were beneficial to shelter dogs. The sanctuary has a long-standing sleepover program in which volunteers take dogs home overnight. The idea to study sleepovers came after a trip to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah. "We are trying to improve the lives of shelter dogs by helping them finding loving homes," said Clive Wynne, professor of psychology and head of the Canine Science Collaboratory. The study, published in PeerJ on March 27, was conducted in collaboration with shelters in Arizona, Utah, Texas, Montana and Georgia. The research team just finished looking at how sleepovers, or short-term foster care, impact the stress response and rest patterns of shelter dogs. ![]()
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