You do it, your shelter volunteers do it, and even that latte-making Starbucks guy does it when he’s determining whether you’re going to treat him like a human being or a coffee machine: behavior evaluation.

“Every single person, from the public to the animal professional, conducts a temperament test or behavior assessment,” says Janet Smith, behavior program manager for the Capital Area Humane Society in Lansing, Michigan. “The man on the street corner looking at the lunging dog on a chain is doing a behavior assessment: ‘Hmm, should I walk past that dog? Does he look friendly? Will that chain hold?’”

And when your shelter’s veterinary technician finds herself pinned to the wall by a fluffy and floppy-eared white doggie who didn’t much appreciate the routine health exam, she’s evaluating behavior too. “We’re doing this every time we interact with any other sentient being,” says Smith. “It keeps you safe. It keeps you happy and fulfilled in the relationships you can’t wait to make and influences your decisions about which individuals or situations to avoid.”

The difference between these quick, informal assessments and a structured behavior evaluation program boils down to a shelter’s efforts to introduce objective methods and accountability into the process: Why is the shelter performing behavior assessments? How is the assessment conducted? Which animals are assessed? Where is the evaluation performed? Who is involved with the behavior assessment? When is the assessment done? What does the shelter do with the assessment results?

Resources explaining the mechanics of how to perform an evaluation are already readily available, but this series of articles will help you create a comprehensive program that meets the unique needs of your organization and the community it serves. Whether it’s an established open-admission shelter with a full-time, salaried staff or a newer limited-admission group struggling to fulfill its mission with an all-volunteer crew, your organization can and should implement a behavior evaluation program.

“Short of sending out every animal that comes in with a big ‘As Is—Buyer Beware’ sticker on it, we need to try to do our best to evaluate the dogs,” says Becky Schultz, coordinator of animal training and behavior programs with the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, Minnesota.

In the first of two features, we’ll explore the philosophies behind evaluations and highlight both the benefits and limitations of a basic behavior assessment program. In the next issue, we’ll bring you advice from experienced professionals on everything from training staff to keeping records on evaluated dogs.

JUST WHAT IS A BEHAVIOR EVALUATION ANYWAY?

You walk past a kennel containing a large dog whose breed makes headlines for life-threatening attacks. He lunges at you, snapping and frothing at the mouth. That tells you something: probably that he isn’t going to be a mild couch potato of a dog for little Johnny and his family.

If only behavior evaluations were that simple. Most are not. Dog trainers and behaviorists will tell you that an aggression-prone dog looks and acts fine about 98 percent of the time—it’s that 2 percent you have to watch out for, because all it takes is one attack to send a toddler to the emergency room. Conversely, that softly growling, cowering dog in the corner whose superficial behavior may get him dismissed as “unadoptable” may in fact have what it takes to be a great family dog. That’s why shelters turn to behavior evaluation to uncover the dog’s “true colors.”

Using a fake hand to poke at a bowl full of kibble, an evaluator tries to determine whether this boxer shows signs of food aggression.

But just what exactly is behavior evaluation? What distinguishes it from instant assessments that start the moment front desk staff begin collecting animal histories from relinquishers or the minute officers begin observing stray dogs’ body postures upon approach? And how are they different from ongoing assessments that occur during health exams, meal times, cleaning routines, and other common interactions?

While all the information gathered during these daily routines is valuable, it usually isn’t enough. To make safe, responsible placements, shelters need to know how the dog will behave when he goes home with his new family. This is where the formal “temperament evaluation” comes in.

After an incoming dog has been given time to adapt to the environment and has been assessed for safe handling, the evaluator and an assistant take the dog to a quiet, clean place to conduct the evaluation. The evaluator then exposes the dog to a sequential series of predetermined stimuli, situations, or events similar to those a typical dog may experience in a home environment. Although there is no one standard evaluation used by all shelters, the test components are often similar.

For example, the format may include a step to differentiate between a truly sociable dog and one who is not sociable (even if he initially appears so). In this interaction, the evaluator may ignore the dog for a few moments to see how long it takes him to socialize or engage his human companion. Later, in a different exercise focused on handling, the evaluator may attempt to examine the dog’s teeth—not because she cares how the teeth look, but because she wants to see how the dog reacts. And still further into the evaluation, the handler may use a fake hand (Sue Sternberg’s “Assess-a-Hand” or something similar) to pull a toy or food bowl away from the dog—for the purpose of assessing food possessiveness or “resource guarding” behaviors.

There are many more steps involved, each designed to be done in sequential order to both protect the handler and elicit accurate responses. The evaluator records the dog’s behavior after each procedure, using a standardized format and rating system adhered to by fellow evaluators to derive reliable results. Each evaluation typically takes 10 to 15 minutes—sometimes more, sometimes less—depending on the format.

What’s in a Name?

The subtleties of using observation to evaluate a dog’s personality and adaptive abilities have prompted many in the field to search for new terms to describe the process: “temperament evaluation,” “behavior assessment,” and the like. “Temperament test” is inadequate, as test implies a pass/fail situation with no room for gray areas. In reality, the world is never so black-and-white.

It also implies that a dog’s overall personality will fit a certain “mold” of animal that has already been cast by dogs who have come before him. But each dog and each case is different. And assessing individual temperaments will never be a foolproof process; there are no guarantees of success when one species is trying to understand and communicate with another. Although the dog may demonstrate aspects of his temperament during a 15-minute evaluation, a short, isolated test cannot tell an evaluator “who” the dog really is. Rather, the process reveals the animal’s behaviors and reactions to a series of interactions.

Another popular measurement tool is the “hug test,” designed to reveal how well a dog handles restraint.

And it is in these responses that an evaluator can gain at least some idea about her subject’s overall adaptability to co-habitation with humans—and his “behavior” around other species. While it’s impossible to completely understand a creature in all his complexities after such a brief interaction, a well designed, performed, and analyzed evaluation should unveil at least the overt behaviors and important underlying tendencies, such as aggression or docility. Gathering clues about the dog’s overall temperament is critical to making responsible placement decisions.

“Temperament” and personality are often seen as part of the permanent makeup of the animal—they are who the animal is. “I believe dogs are born with inherent qualities,” says Sue Sternberg, creator of the Assess-a-Pet temperament evaluation and author of Great Dog Adoptions: A Guide for Shelters. “Some are born more fearful, confident, energetic, and this is part of their temperament. It can be modified with care, environment, and training, but the basics remain.” It is this elemental, hard-to-change part of the dog that the evaluation attempts to reveal.

Of course, comprehensive behavior evaluations aren’t limited to identifying aggressive dogs; they can also help shelters make better matches. As materials produced by the HSUS’s Pets for Life Training Centers emphasize, evaluations can yield information regarding a dog’s energy requirements, play styles, tractability, trainability, and reaction to children and other pets.

“Temperament testing or behavior assessments are not about getting bad dogs off of the streets and out of the kennel runs,” says Janet Smith of the Capital Area Humane Society. “Temperament assessments are a tool to identify those wonderful companion animals the shelter must put its time, money, and resources into ... and find them great owners.”

ARE THEY REALLY THAT IMPORTANT?

There isn't a single good reason to perform a behavior evaluation—there are many. A properly conducted behavior evaluation allows your shelter to become a “good citizen,” one that does all it can to prevent dangerous dogs from being released back into the community. Evaluations give you a basis for placement and euthanasia decisions, making them less arbitrary. Evaluations help you learn more about dogs’ personalities and behavior issues so you can create better matches and, if resources allow, customize training and behavior modification programs for specific animals. And evaluations show members of the public that they can trust your shelter to provide dogs who have more in common with Lassie than with Cujo.

As Sue Sternberg outlines in Great Dog Adoptions, a behavior evaluation also allows you and colleagues to tailor training in your shelter to each dog’s strengths and weaknesses, interact safely with shelter dogs, assess where to house each dog, and counsel prospective adopters about potential behavior or training problems and ways to avert trouble.

Involvement in evaluation programs helps staff become more empathetic and sympathetic toward adopters and people considering surrendering, says Sternberg: What may seem like irresponsibility or lack of commitment may actually be a frustrated pet owner who hasn’t been given effective advice on dealing with her difficult or dangerous dog. And implementing behavior assessments can further the idea that shelters are full-service resources; pet owners who experience successful adoptions through their local shelter can also learn to turn to that shelter for advice about behavior and training.

Few doubt that any refuge for homeless animals should carefully screen potential adopters to help ensure safe, lifelong homes for furry charges. No humanely operated shelter would knowingly adopt a dog to a person with a history of aggression toward animals. Do shelters owe the same screening service to adopters—to protect them from dogs who demonstrate aggression toward people?

“It annoys me that we always are so righteous about evaluating people and yet there is such little effort to evaluate the animals we are sending to these people,” says Christie Smith, executive director of the Potter League for Animals in Middletown, Rhode Island. “We need to do the best we can for both the dogs that need homes and the families that are our clients. If we only focus on the animals or the adopters, we are doing a disservice to the other.”

Ending Arbitrary Decisions

The statement is so old it’s almost a cliché—albeit still true: We have too many dogs and not enough lifelong homes. “There are so many wonderful dogs out there who don’t have resource-guarding problems, don’t have fear-aggression problems, and wouldn’t care one bit if a two-year-old child came up as they were chewing on a rawhide and took it away,” says Khris Erickson, a professional trainer and volunteer with a small shelter in Wisconsin. “These are the dogs I think we need to find homes for.”

The sad but real conclusion of “too many dogs, not enough good homes” is that some will get homes and some will not—those who do not will be euthanized or confined to kennels the remainder of their lives. Which ones should be put onto the adoption floor?

“In our shelter, before we had any evaluation tools, the vet tech would walk down the ward, banging on the kennel door,” says Becky Schultz, coordinator of animal training and behavior programs with the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, Minnesota. “If the dog was reactive, it flunked. Also, we were not looking at temperament as a priority, so dogs were getting euthanized for being black, rather than for being aggressive.” But since introducing a comprehensive behavior evaluation program, the Animal Humane Society went from informally and randomly selecting animals to making informed decisions.

“These pups and dogs that fail a temperament test or fail my standards for placement are not ‘bad dogs,’ ” says Janet Smith of the Capital Area Humane Society in Michigan. “I don’t assign labels like ‘bad’ or ‘good’—I think their lives have every bit as much value as those animals that pass the temperament test. Yet I will make a decision that they need to be euthanized . . . simply because there is not a safe place or quality life that I can create or find for them. That is intensely tragic. It happens every day. The injustice of it will never go away, and the moment it ceases to disturb me greatly will be the moment I need to find a new profession. But all that said, I still consider my priorities, time, resources must be spent on the most adoptable dogs and cats.”

Making Meaningful Matches

By evaluating how well dogs will coexist with human companions, shelters protect not just the public and the animals but their own credibility. The more successful matches a shelter makes, the better chance it will have of building a reputation as the best place to adopt a new friend.

And a thorough behavior evaluation can do much more than help determine the adoptability of those animals. “It also aids in making better matches and placements with adoptive families,” says Kelley Bollen, a Massachusetts SPCA animal behaviorist who holds a master’s degree in the subject. “This in turn reduces the return rate—our return rate has dropped considerably since testing has begun.”

For example, the evaluation may indicate a particular border collie mix is well-tempered but “a bit exuberant” and lacking in the manners department. It’s likely he’ll do better with more experienced pet owners willing and able to provide him with training, consistent interaction, and room to roam. Armed with details about the dog’s behavior, adoption counselors can steer potential adopters to those animals who best fit their experience and lifestyle.

For shelters with resources to provide in-house behavior modification and training, the evaluation results can help staff pinpoint the training needs of an individual dog—from basics like teaching him to sit to more long-term assistance like crate training. “Now we can place animals by matching them with appropriate homes that will best suit both the animals’ and humans’ needs,” says Laurie Bame, assistant to shelter coordinators for the Augusta County SPCA in Virginia. “And we can work with ‘special’ animals that used to be euthanized.”

Showing Them What You’re Made Of

To find their animals homes, shelters have to compete with responsible breeders, irresponsible “backyard” breeders, and easy-access, quick-buy pet shops. And shelters have to struggle against the age-old misperception that they have available only sick, old, aggressive animals. The shelter that sends dogs into the community without doing all it can to understand the health and behavior of the dogs risks not only its own reputation but that of all other shelters.

“If we look at what we do as only ‘saving dogs,’ then we’re going to save some that are questionable and may go out into the world and bite somebody,” says Schultz. “That ‘somebody’ has relatives and friends who will be told that the dog came from the shelter. All those people will tell the story to someone else, and the fallout may be that 20 people may not come to our shelter the next time they want to get a dog, because they know that we’ve sent out a dog that bites. If I save one dog, and 20 more dogs are not saved because these people [search the classifieds] for their next dog, have I really done anything good for my shelter dogs? I think not. The greater good for all my shelter dogs is my goal.”

On the other hand, a shelter that not only evaluates the health of the dog but also his temperament sends adopters home not with family-biting dogs but with family-friendly dogs—and a whole new respect for the organization.

“How neat would it be to get to the point where shelters were the places known to be the best places to get a new dog?” says Barbara Shumannfang, PhD, a dog trainer, behavior consultant, and shelter volunteer in North Carolina. “Instead of the $500 going to an entrepreneur down the street, the shelter could offer dogs who were healthy, fully and carefully behaviorally assessed, matched with the right family, altered, and came with some start-up training already ‘installed’ plus a free obedience or agility class.”

Many shelters are starting to see their hard work pay off. The New Rochelle Humane Society in New York can provide more homes for more dogs now that it is gaining more credibility for responsible adoptions, says shelter manager Dana Rocco. And down in North Carolina, Shumannfang even gets calls from potential adopters requesting that she evaluate a favored shelter dog before they adopt him.

“Potential adopters I’ve encountered [seem to] want . . . more solid info ahead of time about how the dog will behave as part of their family,” Shumannfang says. “As a shelter volunteer, I see the move toward wider use of well-executed temperament testing as a way to get more people into the shelters to adopt.”

ARE BEHAVIOR EVALUATIONS A MAGIC PILL?

They can help you make better matches, improve your reputation, and avert tragedy. New evidence of their effectiveness is only further heightening their credibility. But behavior evaluations aren’t foolproof, and they have their share of critics. Understanding the limitations will assist you in both developing an effective program and educating the public about its importance.

Some in California want to outlaw behavior evaluations, while some in New York want to mandate them. The issue is so controversial that civil debate has devolved into extremism in some forums, with self-proclaimed “rescuers” of animals and so-called “shelter reformers” making serious threats against a few prominent behavior evaluation experts.

While the process is never foolproof, teeth checks and other routine steps have proven invaluable in helping shelters identify aggressive animals who cannot safely be placed with new families.

Behavior evaluations certainly aren’t the root cause of euthanasia; rather, they’re designed to enable shelters to be less arbitrary about these tough decisions and to place animals more responsibly in a world where aggression is one of the leading behavior-related causes of dog relinquishments. So why are some detractors not just upset but irate enough to threaten the life of Sue Sternberg, the creator of the evaluation format used widely throughout the sheltering community?

A breed placement group that opposes temperament evaluations went so far as to write a press release about the issue: “A scary growing trend in animal shelters all over the country is that the dogs and cats are temperament tested and set up to fail,” reads the release. “Failing the temperament test allows some of the shelters to justify automatically euthanizing animals and not placing them for adoption. ... Shelters then subtract these animals from their statistics and use only ‘adoptable’ animals as a base for their euthanasia statistics.”

While frustrating and clearly inaccurate, that charge is mild in comparison to others. In one online list group, another opponent accused shelters of “greed,” charging that temperament evaluations are driven by a desire to “dupe” the public into thinking the shelter cares—and that shelter managers want to improve adoption numbers in exchange for bonuses and promotions.

Open Their Eyes

The idea that shelter staff are profit-driven may sound ludicrous, but it’s no laughing matter when the attacks arrive on your doorstep. Regardless of how good your program is, you may still face unfair criticism from people who don’t understand how your shelter works, who blame you for euthanizing animals (especially if the dog was their favorite breed), and who likely have little or no sheltering experience. Tempting as it is to fight back at their level, some sheltering professionals are trying instead to understand a little about where these people are coming from. However vicious their words and misdirected their passions, they too are committed to animals. This approach may even help deflect criticism by helping you direct your response to their way of thinking.

The operations of a shelter are often mysterious to the general public. It’s easy to understand how misconceptions develop, says Willow Foster, kennel supervisor for the Anderson Animal Shelter in South Elgin, Illinois. “People don’t realize which animals are being put down,” she says. “They don’t see the animals that you deadbolt the run door for—just in case. They picture us picking and choosing between wonderful dogs, because all they know are wonderful dogs. People believe ‘there are no bad dogs,’ they believe that if a dog was just treated right and loved enough [he would be okay]. ... They don’t realize just how many dogs are out there. ... I try not to get angry with these people. I know better and that will just have to do.”

Arguing in person, through letters, or over e-mail doesn’t help show outsiders why you do evaluations. Whenever possible, invite them in to see. “Videotape surrender or return interviews, tape behavior consultations and phone calls to the hotline—with permission, of course. Show individuals the pain, suffering, the humans who have lived with aggressive dogs, dogs whose behavior they did absolutely nothing to create. Show non-believers the human victim,” says Janet Smith of the Capital Area Humane Society in Lansing, Michigan.

As most sheltering professionals realize, stopping behavior evaluations is not going to stop euthanasia. Finding new ways to reduce pet overpopulation, encouraging people to view pets as family members rather than cast-offs, helping owners modify their problem behavior before it’s too late, and addressing the growing problem of aggressive dogs in urban areas—these can help stop euthanasia. But these all take a lot of thought, a lot of energy, a lot of money, a lot of planning, a lot of cooperation, a lot of time. It’s easier to point to behavior evaluations as the problem than it is to get to the root of the real one. And, sadly, a lot of passion and compassion is being wasted in the backlash against behavior evaluations, passion and compassion that could instead be channeled into joining forces with shelters to address the real problems affecting the animals and the people who need help.

Do They Have a Point?

Because they are conducted in a kind of make-believe setting, temperament evaluations are limited in their specific predictive abilities. This dog might react politely to a stuffed animal, but that’s no guarantee he’ll behave the same way in a new home with a cat.

Certainly, shelters should not stop their evaluation programs based on a few isolated, illogical attacks or let extremists cause them to forgo their mission to place animals responsibly. At the same time, shelters should not shut their ears to legitimate concerns. These may detail a specific example of a poorly carried out evaluation or problems with a particular shelter’s selection process. For example, some people may criticize strict “pass/fail” tests that overlook the trainability of great dogs with sloppy manners. Or they may voice general frustration over a tendency to use the evaluation as the complete profile of a dog rather than just one of many sources of information. Not all critics want to ban behavior evaluations—they just want to bring attention to those that are not being done correctly.

And they’re right—some organizations probably are not developing and performing evaluations as well as they could be: An untrained evaluator somewhere might perform an evaluation on a newly admitted, scared, injured dog that snaps at him out of panic and pain and then decide to euthanize the dog “for aggression.” Employees in a different shelter might use an evaluation that pushes a dog beyond what most standard, widely used evaluations recommend. And maybe another group elsewhere has unusually lofty definitions of what constitutes an adoptable dog and set criteria that only few evaluated dogs anywhere can meet.

This isn’t fair, this isn’t how it’s supposed to be, and people are right to be upset. But if some evaluations in some shelters in some places are being performed incorrectly or unfairly, that’s not a problem with the behavior evaluation program as a concept or with the way it’s practiced in most responsibly run shelters. It’s a problem with a particular person, a particular evaluation, a particular shelter. Or, more to the point, “Don’t get mad at the test,” says professional trainer and shelter volunteer Khris Erickson. “Get mad at the misuse of the test.”

Everything Has Its Limits

But some trainers and professional behaviorists do question “the test” itself. Although these professionals are not “anti-evaluations” and in fact often perform them, they are concerned that some popular evaluation protocols have never been scientifically validated as accurate predictors of real-world behavior—or, as Jean Donaldson puts it, “have done pretty miserably at validity testing.”

“The concept has become so reified that many shelter workers are more interested in test results than behavior in the real world, which is what the test is supposed to be predicting,” says Donaldson, director of the Academy for Dog Trainers at the San Francisco SPCA.

Experts like Donaldson want shelters to understand that behavior evaluations aren’t a magic pill that will make all your selection and placement headaches go away. Evaluations can’t guarantee a dog will never bite someone, and they can’t identify or predict all undesirable behaviors. They also take time and require trained, experienced personnel. They pose safety risks to staff and can create misunderstandings and resentment; even staff and volunteers who understand the principles behind temperament evaluations may still be upset when a favorite dog is euthanized after repeatedly snapping at the evaluator.

And evaluations can be adversely affected by uncontrollable factors such as stressful shelter environments. Because they are conducted in a kind of make-believe setting, they are limited in their specific predictive abilities. As the HSUS’s Pets for Life Training Centers materials emphasize, assessments don’t allow you to see what a dog’s reaction to actual children or other animals might be in a home environment; a dog who appears indifferent to one cat may attack another cat of different size, age, or temperament. Nor can the assessments accurately predict animals’ responses to completely novel stimuli; every animal encounters new objects daily, a fact that must be strongly considered before declaring any dog “fearful,” “fearless,” or “good for all homes.” Lastly, behavior evaluations cannot safely predict an animal’s relationship with potential owners, and recommending an “experienced owner” for a difficult dog requires some inquiry into the adopter’s past history with dogs.

In short, evaluations can help you get to know the dog—but not the whole dog, and not in all circumstances. You therefore can never place a certified “non-biter” and make the promise that “the dog won’t bite your kids because he passed the behavior evaluation.”

Numbers Are Rolling In

More studies on the efficacy of behavior evaluations might help shelters better address their limitations for the benefit of the public and staff. But the statistics have historically been scarce—a fact that’s caused anxiety among detractors and evaluators alike. It’s a legitimate grievance in some cases, but sometimes the numbers people are looking for simply aren’t attainable or are too broad to ever be representative of the overall picture. For example, several critics recently asked online, “What percentage of dogs in U.S. shelters typically pass the behavior evaluation and what percentage of dogs fail?” Unfortunately, tying information gathered by individual shelters into a neat “national shelter average” package just isn’t that simple. There is no typical statistic just as there is no typical shelter—shelters use different behavior evaluations, analyze and respond to results differently, receive different dogs depending on the demographics of their areas, and vary in their mission and resources. There is no one-size-fits-all “pass/fail” statistic just as there is no one-size-fits-all program.

Aggravating the situation is the dearth of follow-up recordkeeping and tracking systems on the local level—something many shelters have not yet implemented but hope to some day. Until that time, though, shelters can’t afford to not at least try, says the Capital Area Humane Society’s Janet Smith. “It would be easy to sit on one’s hands and wait for the science, for the proof,” she says. “What does one do right now, then? ... The animals cannot wait for the scientific studies. Shelters have a job to do today, to the best of their abilities—for the animals and the public about to walk into their facilities to adopt them.”

But some organizations are starting to heed the call of the facts-and-figures seekers; in fact, several have publicly released and analyzed relevant and revealing statistics.

Behavior evaluations are indispensable in helping shelters identify which dogs can be adopted—and who should adopt them. The process can serve as a mini-personality profile, revealing who among a shelter’s furry charges most enjoys belly rubs and who would rather be scratched behind the ears.

Massachusetts SPCA animal behaviorist Kelley Bollen kept data on all 2,017 dogs who received a formal behavior evaluation at the shelter during a two-year period. Providing strong evidence of the validity of behavior evaluations, her analysis found that the majority (89 percent) of dogs with aggressive histories exhibited aggression during the evaluation, and the majority of dogs who were deemed unadoptable exhibited aggression in multiple components of the evaluation. “Borderline” dogs, or those animals adopted out despite exhibiting questionable behavior during the evaluation, were more problematic following the evaluation than those who had not exhibited any behaviors of concern.

The Massachusetts shelter has interviewed 77 percent of adopters six months after they’ve taken their animals home; the SPCA also asks follow-up questions at the one-year mark on a random sampling of adoptions. “We can then compare the answer to these questions with the temperament evaluation form to determine how we’re doing,” says Bollen, who recently submitted her study to a journal for publication.

In tracking calls to its behavior hotline, the Capital Area Humane Society uncovered concerns that highlight the need for effective behavior evaluation programs. The shelter’s hotline call statistics revealed that more than 95 percent of calls involved canine behavior problems, not feline, and more than 90 percent of calls seeking behavior assistance concerned canines behaving “aggressively.” Of the canine aggression calls, “fear aggression toward humans” is the largest category, followed by “resource guarding.”

Encouragingly, in the two years since the shelter introduced behavior evaluations, calls about dogs and puppies adopted from the shelter are significantly down in all areas, and those regarding adopted animals now represent less than 10 percent of overall calls. In the last year, fewer than 10 calls were received about an evaluated dog or puppy behaving aggressively toward people or resident pets.

The Evidence, Please

Many shelters are seeing changes in their statistics months, not years, after introducing behavior evaluations. “In the first few months after implementing temperament testing, we saw our length of stay for dogs shorten significantly, our kennels become much less crowded, noisy, and stressful for the dogs and prospective adopters, our disease rate fall dramatically, our euthanasia rate come down, and our adoption return rate fall by 50 percent,” says Becky Schultz, coordinator of animal training and behavior programs with the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, Minnesota, which started behavior evaluations in 2001.

Temperament evaluations made a dramatic difference in the post-adoption progress reports at the Kansas Humane Society also. While developing the “SAFER Test” behavior evaluation methodology, Emily Weiss, PhD, conducted a study using 141 shelter dogs, placed randomly into two groups: one group was given the selection test and the second group was not. The fate of these dogs was followed from the adoption floor through adoption, return from adoption, or euthanasia; the study also included a follow-up phone survey of adopters. Of the 18 dogs whose adopters reported they had nipped, 14 had not been evaluated prior to adoption.

The existence of current data doesn’t negate the need for shelters to collect and analyze their own statistics—if anything, those reports should encourage more shelters to gather numbers and determine what types of records to keep. “It is important to follow up on these dogs,” says Val Masters, behavior specialist for the Sacramento SPCA. “What is tracked? What behaviors have changed? What behaviors have stayed the same? This [information] would all help in improving our programs. Knowing what we are looking at and how it may predict future responses is key so that placements and safety can be at their optimal.”

The mounting statistical and anecdotal evidence is beginning to show that what you don’t know can hurt you—and that behavior evaluations can help your shelter, its animals, and the community. Thorough assessments will enable you to remove from the adoption floor that dog who bit the Assess-a-Hand, hard and repeatedly—who without the test may have instead bitten a curious little boy who just wanted to see what was inside the food bowl. And they can help your shelter play matchmaker by identifying which personality and behavior traits are compatible with available adoptive homes.

CAN WE START TOMORROW?

If you don't already perform formal evaluations in your shelter, don’t feel you must create a comprehensive program overnight to fulfill your mission of responsible adoptions. Rushing too quickly into formal evaluations may just gain you skewed evaluation results and a divided workforce, which only hinder responsible adoptions.

Here are some smaller but effective steps you can take now as you work toward your ultimate goal of developing a comprehensive evaluation program.

Review your informal assessment methods and study other organizations’ formal programs. For example, analyze and, if necessary, modify the owner-surrender questionnaires to help you gain important history and behavior details about the animal. Keep in mind that people define aggression and other behavior problems differently—one owner may downplay even extreme problems to give her dog a better chance for adoption whereas another owner may exaggerate problems to justify his decision to give up his dog. Avoid vague inquiries such as, “Does your dog display aggressive tendencies?” Ask instead, “What bothers your dog?” and other open-ended questions. Also, consider a “check-off list” questionnaire to make it easier for the owner to complete and to provide you with specifics.

Learn all you can about what other shelters are doing, too. Review available resource materials, attend seminars, and view evaluations at neighboring facilities. “Get information from shelters that have a program in place,” says Val Masters, behavior specialist for the Sacramento SPCA. “Start out by testing the most highly adoptable animals first if you can only do a few in the beginning. Have someone who has a well-run program come to your shelter to teach your staff, or have your staff go to a shelter with a program in place to observe and learn and hopefully apply.”

Train staff to observe animal behavior routinely and involve them in the creation of an assessment program. Introduce a behavior evaluation process that employees can follow when a dog first comes into the shelter. Staff working in the holding area can learn to observe how dogs react to routine procedures, such as being removed from the kennel and being restrained for a vaccination or spay-scar check. Although this is not a substitute for a formal behavior evaluation, it nevertheless helps in identifying the animals with the most severe aggression problems. Working with staff on identifying key behavior characteristics can also help identify those employees who are best able to “read” dogs and who may make good evaluators after they receive further training.

It’s important to develop the formal behavior evaluation program as a team and as a shelter, says Chelse Wieland, animal behavior coordinator for Dane County Humane Society in Madison, Wisconsin. “This will get much more support than one or two people having an idea—even if it’s so right. Have other shelters present their program as an option. Encourage an open dialogue as problems and concerns arise. Develop criteria as a shelter.”

Do your own work. No matter how great another shelter’s evaluation format and program appear to be, avoid the temptation to blindly replicate it. Every shelter is different, and another shelter’s program may not work with the type and number of animals you receive, your staff and resources, and even your goals and mission. For example, an evaluation used by a rural shelter may be fine for the types of dogs it receives, but the same evaluation may include some components that may be risky for an urban shelter that sees primarily aggressive dogs.

At the same time, avoid hodgepodge evaluations that stick together bits and pieces from various “tests” in the misguided attempt to create a custom one. “Tests such as the SAFER test and Sternberg’s test have been researched and designed to go step by step,” says Emily Weiss, PhD, creator of the SAFER Test behavior evaluation. “If you skip a step, which generally become more invasive as the test proceeds, you could miss critical information and even jeopardize the safety of your testers.”

What’s more, says the MSPCA’s Kelley Bollen, if every shelter modifies these evaluations simply because they want their own test, opponents of behavior evaluation can say there is no consistency. “I truly believe that doing the full test is important, that each component does build on the one before,” says Bollen. “Every component gives us valuable information about the dog.”

Develop your criteria. It’s important to define specific criteria for whether an animal goes up for adoption, says Janet Smith, behavior program manager for the Capital Area Humane Society in Lansing, Michigan. “What is aggressive behavior?” she asks. “What are justifiable bites, if any? When will a shelter place or not place an animal?”

Each shelter must set its own standards for what is acceptable. An organization with ample resources and no space or time limitations may be able to work with animals who have demonstrated mild problem behavior during the evaluation. But a busy shelter plagued by scarce resources and a constant inflow of animals won’t have the time to devote to a few dogs at the expense of dozens of others.

Defining your criteria will help you determine what you want the evaluation to yield. Not all shelters expect the same thing from the process. The more information you expect to glean from the test, the longer it will take to administer and record. Balancing the desire to collect more data with an inventory of available resources is important to developing an efficient and effective program.

But many shelters have already worked out those issues when creating other programs, so laying the foundation for a temperament evaluation program is not as daunting as it seems. However small and however scarce its resources, every shelter can and should create one.

“It doesn’t take money or a big beautiful facility to get to know a dog,” says Bollen. “All you need is a quiet place away from kennels—someone’s office, the garage, even the bathroom; a bowl of food; a rawhide bone; a $16 Assess-a-Hand; and two people who can spare 10 to 15 minutes. Handle the dog in ways you think the owner will handle him, give him a bowl of food and reach for it; give him a rawhide and reach for it; and introduce him to a couple of other dogs—this can be done while walking the dogs. That’s all it takes. These are the important things to find out—how tolerant the dog is to handling, having his resources taken away, and other dogs—before putting the dog in a home.”