KENNEL STRESS MAY INDUCE BEHAVIORAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES - Posted by MCDL 

Many pet owners report that their pet’s behavior takes many weeks to return to normal after a stay in the kennel. Not surprisingly, more and more pet owner’s are opting to use the services of home-based pet care providers such as Fetch! Pet Care. The article below summarizes research that indicates that kenneled animals may experience stress of a magnitude significant enough to result in relatively long lasting behavioral and physiological symptoms. It is suggested that pet owners considering kenneling read it through, so they can make an informed decision about using kennels. According to Dr. Rebecca Ledger (2004) from the Animal Welfare Program at the University of British Columbia, kennels do a good job attending to the biological needs of pets but neglect their emotional needs. Ledger believes that this biological centered perspective of many kennel operators may have arisen from the notion that emotions are not measurable in animals and that emotional health is not relevant to suffering in animals. This belief places an emphasis on biological insult as the singular avenue to suffering in animals and because emotions are foreign to animals, animals can not suffer emotional distress. Consequently, according to Ledger, emotional needs are often neglected in the kennel. Recently, animal welfare scientists and psychological researchers (Gosling, 2001; Gosling, et. al., 1999; 2002; 2003; Ledger, 2004) have turned to cross-species studies to better understand emotions. Many of them have recognized that emotions have survival value and because survival is paramount in all species, animals must therefore have the capacity to experience emotions. According to Ledger, anxiety, fear, frustration, and depression are the most common forms of emotional distress in kenneled animals. Behavioral indicators of anxiety are cessation of normal behaviors including eating, drinking, and socializing along with corresponding attempts to attract attention through barking or avoidance of attention by maintaining an on-guard vigilant stance (a hypersensitivity to environmental stimuli characterized by dilated pupils, pricked ears, and frozen stance) in which the surrounding environment is continually evaluated. Fear is characterized by defensive posturing, attempts to escape, hiding, huddling, and trembling. As a result of lack of access to engaging stimuli, many animals may become frustrated and display displacement behaviors such pacing, circling, and jumping the walls. After unsuccessful attempts to cope with environmental conditions, many animals may display behavior consistent with depression such as listlessness and unresponsiveness. Ledger (2004) reports that in the first 2 weeks of kenneling that almost two thirds of the dogs that she studied exhibited at least one of the behavioral indicators of emotional distress described above. In addition to these behavioral signs of distress, kenneling has been found to produce relatively long-term physiological changes associated stress. Specifically, cortisol (a hormone released during stress) was found to be elevated thirty days after kennel admittance in almost all dogs tested (Ledger, 2004). Apparently, thirty days was the longest period tested and it is likely that elevated cortisol levels persisted well beyond thirty days in many of the dogs. When one considers the emotional stress imposed by kennels and the traumatic effects on behavioral and physiological systems, it is not surprising that many pet owners are opting for in-home based services. References Gosling, S. D. (2001). From mice to men: What can we learn about personality from animal research? Psychological Bulletin, 127, 45-86. Gosling, S. D., & John, O. P. (1999). Personality dimensions in non-human animals: A cross-species review. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8, 69-75. Gosling, S. D., & Vazire, S. (2002). Are we barking up the right tree? Evaluating a comparative approach to personality. Journal of Research in Personality, 36, 607-614. Gosling, S. D., Kwan, V. S. Y., & John, O. P. (2003). A dog’s got personality: A cross-species comparative approach to evaluating personality judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 1161-1169. Ledger, R. (2004). Assessing the welfare of kenneled dogs: Biological functioning, natural living and affective states. Talk presented to the University of Texas Psychology Department. Retrieved 6/18/2007 from the web: http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/group/animpersinst/RLNov2Talk.html

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