Based on archeological findings, dogs have been human companions for more than 15,000 years. This intrigued animal behaviorist and Hollywood Heights resident JESSICA LOCKHART, so for her doctoral dissertation, she decided to take a closer look at the dog-owner bond by studying local municipal shelters and applying principles from the field of social psychology to better match people with pets.
WHAT DID YOU FIND OUT?
We found out that the biggest determination of whether someone’s going to be happy with their animal was its energy level the first 30 days at a home. So the more active a dog was, the less satisfied the owner ended up being. Another factor was the amount the money a person had to spend within the first 30 days. In municipal shelters, they come in and go out, and a vet never sees them. You usually get vouchers for the first round of shots, but you may get them home, and they have heartworm or distemper or something that has a high cost to treat. The owners were reporting liking these animals less, but it wasn’t a predictor of whether they would return the animal.
SO PEOPLE GENERALLY DON’T LIKE HYPER DOGS?
That’s a good generalization. You find that because of limited funds, in the city-supported shelters the dogs don’t get walks, they don’t get interaction, they don’t really get out of their little kennel. Before they get adopted, they’re there a minimum of three days and sometimes as long as a month, so when you pull the dog out of the kennel and take it home, its energy is really amplified.
DID ANY OF THE FINDINGS SURPRISE YOU?
The biggest surprise was when we actually just looked at the dog characteristics and tried to predict which ones would be euthanized and which would be adopted. A lot of that turned out to be based on what the animal looked like and not the animal’s behavior. Large black dogs are put down much more than anything else. Those decisions are usually made by one person in a shelter, so we don’t know if it’s really that big black dogs don’t get adopted, or if that’s the perception. Another surprise was that people who already owned a dog were more likely to return a dog they had adopted; it was sort of the more experienced people, which you wouldn’t expect.
SO WHAT SHOULD PEOPLE LOOK FOR IN A PET?
What you would ideally want is a dog that pays attention to the front of the kennel when you walk into the shelter — not necessarily a dog that jumps and twirls and barks trying to get your attention. Those dogs have higher levels of separation anxiety, and it makes them more destructive. But at least look for the ones that perk up and look at you. On the flip side, you don’t want to try to approach a dog that’s cowering in the back of its kennel or stays curled up when you enter a kennel. Those dogs have more fear issues, and if you have children at home, it’s not a good match. Definitely take the animal out of its kennel to a removed, quiet spot, and interact with it there at the shelter before you impulsively take it home. A dog that is just focused on the toy and trying to take the toy from you, that’s a high energy dog. You’ll have to give it exercise daily, or it’ll become destructive. If it kind of equally splits its time between playing with the toy and appealing to you for affection, that’s a more stable animal.
I’M ASSUMING YOU HAVE DOGS?
Nala and Roscoe. They’re both rescues, and one of them came out of this study. There are only so many days you can go into the shelter and pretend not to see, so I ended up with one more — Roscoe. Nala is a Doberman-Rottweiler cross, and Roscoe is a German Shepherd-Rottweiler cross, so they’re both big black dogs.
To hear Lockhart answer common questions about pet behavior problems, visit advocatemag.com/petstudy to watch our streaming video.
