Conditioning shelter dogs to sit

Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science : JAAWS
Judith M ThornRoberto R Castillo

Abstract

Human contact in the shelter may lessen effects of change in environment and smooth transition into a home. Training can increase a dog's interaction with people in a shelter environment. Experiments were conducted to determine how rapidly shelter dogs learn to sit, if the dogs can retain sitting behavior over time, and if sitting transfers to novel locations and people. Two experiments trained shelter dogs (n = 21) to sit when a stranger approached over a 10-trial session. Food and a verbal cue or a clicker reinforced the sit. The experiments measured latency to sit for each trial. Latency to sit decreased significantly over trials. Another experiment included reinforcement given to dogs (n = 20) on a noncontingent basis or for sitting. Five days of the experiment (condition training) were in the same room with the same experimenter. The last 4 days (testing) varied by both experimenter and location (familiar or strange). Results indicate that short training sessions are effective for teaching shelter dogs to sit, that dogs can retain sitting behavior over 2 days, and that training transfers to novel people and situations.

References

Dec 29, 1967·Science·J L Fuller
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Sep 1, 1997·Physiology & Behavior·M B HennessyC W Douglas
Dec 21, 2005·Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science : JAAWS·R Coppinger, J Zuccotti

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Citations

Dec 8, 2009·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Monique A R UdellClive D L Wynne
Mar 26, 2014·PloS One·Heather Mohan-GibbonsMeg Allison
Nov 30, 2014·The Veterinary Clinics of North America. Small Animal Practice·Marti G DrumMichael S Davis
Mar 22, 2016·Physiology & Behavior·Alexandra Protopopova
Jun 14, 2014·Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis·Veronica J Howard, Florence D DiGennaro Reed
Jan 29, 2020·Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science : JAAWS·Shlomit Flaisher-Grinberg
Oct 2, 2020·Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI·Nicole Pfaller-SadovskySusan G Friedman
Jan 21, 2021·Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science : JAAWS·Laura A ReeseTessa Grebey

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