Better to Have Loved and Lost? Human Avoidant Attachment Style Towards Dogs Predicts Group Membership as 'Forever Owner' or 'Foster Carer'

A prospective study of mental wellbeing, quality of life, human-animal attachment, and grief among foster caregivers at animal shelters

Foster care programs at animal shelters have emerged as an important tool for promoting animal welfare and supporting shelter life-saving efforts. Preliminary evidence suggests that foster caregiving may also be health-promoting for humans. The goals of this study were to investigate the experiences of foster caregivers at animal shelters based on measures of positive and negative affect, quality of life, and grief, and to describe human-animal attachment among foster populations. Between March 2022 and 2023, 131 foster caregivers from five shelters in the United States completed three online surveys before, during and after providing foster care to a shelter animal. Positive affect decreased significantly from baseline to post-foster (F = 5.71, p<0.01), particularly among dog caregivers (F = 6.17, p<0.01). Negative affect remained unchanged (F = 0.47, p = 0.63). Foster caregivers perceived their foster animal provided companionship, affection and emotional support, although dog foster caregivers reported significantly higher emotional (U = 313.50, p<0.01) and social/physical quality of life (t = 4.42, p<0.01) than cat foster caregivers. Caregivers reported low mean avoidant and anxious attachment, suggesting they were able to develop secure bonds with their foster animals. Retention of fosters was also strong, with 86% of caregivers reporting they were likely to provide foster care in the future. Our findings suggest that fostering at animal shelters may serve as a One Health intervention to offer companionship, affection and emotional support to human caregivers while promoting animal welfare. However, these benefits did not translate to improvements in caregiver mental wellbeing, so caution should be applied when considering foster caregiving as a potential mental health promotion tool.

Current Perspectives on the Challenges of Implementing Assistance Dogs in Human Mental Health Care

The prevalence of mental health disorders, driven by current global crises, is notably high. During the past decades, the popularity of dogs assisting humans with a wide spectrum of mental health disorders has significantly increased. Notwithstanding these dogs' doubtless value, research on their legal status, certification processes, training and management practices, as well as their welfare status, has been scarce. This scoping review highlights that in contrast to other assistance dogs such as guide dogs, there exists no consistent terminology to mark dogs that assist humans with impaired mental health. Legal authorities monitoring the accreditation process, training and tracking of mental health supporting dogs are broadly lacking, with only few exceptions. This review emphasizes the need to address several topics in the promotion of progress in legal and welfare issues related to assistance dogs as well as emotional support dogs for humans with a mental health disorder. The current body of knowledge was assessed in three different areas of focus: (1) the legal dimension including definitions and certification processes; (2) the dimension of performed tasks; and (3) the dog welfare dimension including aspects of the relationship with the handler and risks associated with children recipients. Considering the challenges associated with a mental health diagnosis, collaborations of dog provider organizations and health care professionals would be desirable to continuously assess the efficiency of the human-dog dyad regarding their overall compatibility, general satisfaction and mutual well-being.

Why Do People Want Dogs? A Mixed-Methods Study of Motivations for Dog Acquisition in the United Kingdom

With an estimated 12. 5 million dogs in the UK alone, many people acquire a dog at some point during their lives. However, there are gaps in understanding about why UK owners decide to get dogs. Using a mixed-methods convergent design, this study identified the reasoning behind dog acquisition in a sample of UK current and prospective owners. An online survey of current (n = 8,050) and potential (n = 2,884) dog owners collected quantitative and qualitative data. Current owners were asked about the acquisition of their most recently acquired dog, whilst potential owners were asked about their dog ownership aspirations. Additional qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with current (n = 166) and potential (n = 10) dog owners. Interviews focused on the factors that affected why and how people acquire dogs. Of survey responses, companionship for the respondent was the most common reason for wanting to get a dog, reported by 79.4 and 87.8% of current and potential owners, respectively. Facilitating exercise was reported as a reason for wanting to get a dog by 48.2 and 69.7% of current and potential owners, respectively. There were significant differences between current and potential owners in their likelihood of reporting pre-defined reasons, factors and influences involved in their decision to get a dog. Compared to current owners, potential owners were significantly more likely to report being motivated by most of the survey response options offered (including companionship for themselves or other adults in the household, helping a dog in need, lifestyle changes and previous experiences of meeting dogs), suggesting that current ownership status may affect experience and/or reporting expectations around dog ownership. Reflexive thematic analysis of qualitative data confirmed the importance of these motivations and identified additional reasons and factors that drive dog acquisition. These were organized into three overarching themes: Self-Related Motivation, Social-Based Motivation, and Dog-Related Positive Affect-Based Motivation. These findings provide insights into owners' expectations of ownership which may inform the development of interventions to support potential owners' decision-making around acquisition to maximize both dog and human welfare.

The Animal Welfare Science of Working Dogs: Current Perspectives on Recent Advances and Future Directions

Working dogs are prevalent throughout our societies, assisting people in diverse contexts, from explosives detection and livestock herding, to therapy partners. Our scientific exploration and understanding of animal welfare have grown dramatically over the last decade. As community attitudes toward the use of animals continue to change, applying this new knowledge of welfare to improve the everyday lives of working dogs will underpin the sustainability of working with dogs in these roles. The aim of this report was to consider the scientific studies of working dogs from the last decade (2011–2021) in relation to modern ethics, human interaction, and the five domains of animal welfare: nutrition, environment, behavioral interaction, physical health, and mental state. Using this framework, we were able to analyze the concept and contribution of working dog welfare science. Noting some key advances across the full working dog life cycle, we identify future directions and opportunities for interdisciplinary research to optimize dog welfare. Prioritizing animal welfare in research and practice will be critical to assure the ongoing relationship between dogs and people as co-workers.

Facilitators and Barriers to Assistance Dog Puppy Raisers' Engagement in Recommended Raising Practices

Simple Summary

Raisers volunteer to raise and manage an assistance dog puppy for about a year and typically receive instructions for a wide range of puppy raising tasks from a host organisation. Those tasks vary among organisations, although the literature suggests that raisers should provide frequent socialisation and consistent training to their puppy, and engage in effective learning to improve their own practices. As those tasks are heavily embedded in the raisers’ daily lives, it is not easy to determine if any factors could affect their puppy raising. In this study, we interviewed eight puppy raisers monthly during their participation in an 11-month puppy raising program based at a university campus. Raisers thought that their puppies received more socialisation when they had more availability or someone else to share this responsibility with them, or when the puppies behaved well. Raisers could train their puppy more consistently when they had been prepared to deal with different scenarios occurring during their daily activities. While raisers found that some learning methods suited them better, they generally appreciated opportunities to learn, seek help from, and practise with other raisers. We hope these findings will inform development and evaluation of future programs aimed at improving practices and experiences of raisers.

Abstract

Many assistance dog providers use volunteer raisers to manage each puppy’s learning and daily experiences, which partly determines the puppy’s behavioural development. Therefore, it is important that raisers engage in recommended practices. Three common recommendations from the literature include frequent socialisation and consistent training for the puppies, and effective training for the raisers. However, what facilitates or hinders raisers’ engagement in these practices remains unclear. To understand this, we interviewed eight raisers (three men and five women) every month during their year-long puppy raising program, and pseudo-randomly selected 16 from 48 interviews for data analysis. Thematic analyses revealed several facilitating and/or hindering factors corresponding to each of the three recommended practices. Frequent socialisation was influenced by the raisers’ availability, sharing of puppy raising responsibility with others, support from their workplace, and the puppy’s behaviours (e.g., soiling indoors, jumping). Consistent training was challenged by the presence of everyday distractors, accessibility to timely advice, perceived judgement from others, and the puppy’s undesirable behaviours. Effective learning was facilitated by having information available in raisers’ preferred learning modality, opportunities for peer-learning, and willingness to seek help. Future research should examine these factors quantitatively, which will enable more robust evaluation of programs aimed at supporting puppy raisers.