Clicker training increases exploratory behaviour and time spent at the front of the enclosure in shelter cats; Implications for welfare and adoption rates
Introduction
The welfare of domestic cats may be at risk due to owners relinquishing their animals to rehoming centres and shelters (Casey et al., 2009). Reasons for relinquishment include health problems such as allergies to cat fur, changes in circumstances (such as a move to rented accommodation not allowing pets), and behavioural problems (Scarlett et al., 1999; Shore et al., 2003; Casey et al., 2009). Stray and feral cats also account for a large proportion of the residential shelter population worldwide (Salman et al., 1998, Levy and Crawford, 2004; Alberthsen et al., 2013).
The shelter environment is often stressful for cats, due to a combination of novel stimuli, healthcare and handling procedures which cats perceive as aversive, and close proximity to other felines (as cats tend to be solitary, territorial and intolerant of unrelated conspecifics (Ley, 2015)). Additionally, there are usually restrictions on space and lack of control over the environment (Dybdall et al., 2007; Gourkow et al., 2014a,b).
This stress can manifest in a variety of ways such as aggression to humans or conspecifics, repetitive behaviours such as pacing or over-grooming and stress-related health problems, such as upper respiratory tract infections exacerbated by the immunosuppressive effects of high cortisol levels (Tanaka et al., 2012). Cats generally spend a proportion of their activity budget inactive, but inactivity is seen to increase with long shelter stays, along with agonistic behaviour (Gouveia et al., 2011). Inactivity may be related to stress, as cats more frequently respond to aversive environments by inactivity rather than behavioural abnormality (Rochlitz, 2000), although it is difficult to quantify how much inactivity is indicative of reduced welfare states.
Inactivity in enclosed environments also predisposes cats to health problems such as obesity (Scarlett et al., 1994; Selman, 2017) and diabetes mellitus (Slingerland et al., 2009). Furthermore, activity levels directly affect adoptability, with active cats having greater adoption rates (Fantuzzi et al., 2010). Therefore, decreasing inactivity in shelter cats would be beneficial for a number of reasons.
Long term residents of shelters may experience ongoing stress as well as being at increased risk for euthanasia due to overcrowding (Alberthsen et al., 2013, Salman et al., 2000, Bartlett et al., 2005), therefore early adoption is the goal of many rescue shelters. There are many factors which may influence the adoptability of an individual cat, such as age, breed, sex, pelage and health status (Lepper et al., 2002).
Behaviour and temperament may also play a large role in the likelihood of a cat being rehomed, with many potential adopters citing cats’ willingness to interact with them, friendliness and a happy disposition as a major influencing factor in their decision-making process (Dybdall and Strasser, 2014; Gourkow, 2001; Gourkow and Fraser, 2006). Unfortunately, previous research suggests that the length of time cats spend within shelters may contribute to a reduction in activity levels, with long-stay residents demonstrating greater levels of inactivity and time spent engaging in negative behaviours compared to cats who had spent less time in that environment, perhaps due to their stress levels rising over the duration of their stay (Gouveia et al., 2011). Therefore, adoptability is directly linked to welfare, as early adoptions can prevent the cumulative effect of the stressful shelter environment.
Such research highlights the fact that efforts should be made to reduce the amount of stress experienced by shelter cats, whilst simultaneously reducing the length of time cats spend within a shelter before being rehomed (Gouveia et al., 2011). According to Gourkow and Fraser (2006), consistent and positive handling experiences with humans may directly correlate with lower stress scores and a reduction of fear-induced aggression in shelter cats. This is supported by Gourkow et al. (2014a,b) who discovered that regular gentle, positive handling experiences increased behavioural indicators of contentment and reduced physiological indicators of stress in shelter cats significantly.
In recent years operant conditioning using positive reinforcement-based training methods such as clicker training have become recognised as a valuable method of managing captive species (Melfi, 2013) and can facilitate animals’ voluntary cooperation with otherwise aversive handling procedures (Ward and Melfi, 2013), leading to a decrease in stress (Savastano et al., 2003). Clicker training is also a form of enrichment as it encourages animals to be more physically active as well as stimulating them mentally whilst promoting positive interactions with humans (Laule and Desmond, 1998). However, Westlund (2014) stresses that training may only be considered a form of enrichment if meets certain criteria, such as empowering the animal to feel in control over its environment and facilitating the animal to perform its natural behaviours. Ward and Melfi (2013) add that such positive interactions may serve to reduce animals’ feelings of fearfulness towards humans which reduces their stress levels and therefore improves welfare. Captive felines are particularly susceptible to high stress levels (Shepherdson et al., 1993) and therefore may benefit from training programs that encourage species-appropriate behavioural repertoires in an environment where they have limited sensory stimuli (Wells, 2009). Although domestic dogs undergo regular training and behavioural modification within shelters to alter their behaviour to be more desirable to adopters (Luescher and Medlock, 2009) this practise is rarely, if at all, implemented amongst shelter cats.
Cats can be clicker trained to perform novel behaviour (Kogan et al., 2017), but it is not clear whether training can reduce behavioural signs of stress and increase behaviours likely to result in early adoption. Shelter staff have limited time available for training so a method which is easy to use and takes little time, while demonstrating maximum effectiveness would be the most likely to make a practical difference to the welfare and adoptability of rescue cats. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that 10 min sessions of clicker training 3 times per week for 2 weeks would:
- i
Increase exploratory behaviour in shelter cats
- ii
Increase playful behaviour
- iii
Reduce inactivity
- iv
Increase the amount of time spent at the front of the cage
- v
Improve cats’ initial responses to unfamiliar humans, measured by the human approach test (Arhant and Troxler, 2017)
Section snippets
Methodology
The project was approved by Oxford Brookes University and RSPCA Oxfordshire. Due to the test subjects residing in a rehoming centre and awaiting adoption, it was important that any research being carried out would not disrupt the rehoming procedure or compromise their chances of finding new homes. Therefore, normal adoption proceedings continued throughout the course of the project and a number of subjects were rehomed before the project had run its full course. As one of the primary goals of
Results
Cats spent significantly more time in exploratory behaviour after training (Fig. 2), (n = 12; T = 4.33; p = 0.001). Although the mean time spent playing increased slightly after training, due to the high variability of this behaviour between subjects, no significant difference in play was found (n-12; T=-1.08; p = 0.302). There was a significant decrease in mean time spent inactive (Fig. 3) (n = 12; T = 4.09; p = 0.002).
Cats spent significantly more time at the front of the cage after training (
Exploratory behaviour
Prior to the clicker training sessions, the majority of the subjects demonstrated a considerable lack of exploratory behaviour, with several of the subjects spending absolutely no time exploring during the ten-minute observational sessions whatsoever. The results of this study showed that there was a significant increase in exploratory behaviour post-clicker training, which supports our prediction that clicker training will increase exploratory behaviour. These results suggest that the clicker
Conclusion
The aim of this study was to investigate whether clicker training has a positive effect on the welfare of cats confined to a rehoming centre, measured by behavioural scores and the human approach test. Improvements were seen in the amount of time the subjects spent exploring, engaged in other behaviours, positioned at the front of their cages and individuals’ HAT scores, whilst inactivity decreased. Due to a number of limitations to the study, the author suggests that it may prove beneficial to
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge and give thanks to Common Leys farm campus and the RSPCA, Oxfordshire for giving permission for this research to be conducted on their premises. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their comments, which improved the manuscript.
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