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Could it be particularly stressful for dogs to live in a shelter for an extended period of time?
Reasons for Stress
Dogs prefer familiarity, so the busy and constantly changing environment of an animal shelter may be a source of stress.
Dogs surrendered to shelters by a family tend to experience increases in cortisol levels upon introduction to a shelter, while stray dogs do not appear to exhibit elevated cortisol. Likely, some of this apparent stress comes from the separation of the dog from its family and home.
Social restrictions and physical confinement result in stress-related behaviours such as circling, barking, and paw lifting. Ideally, dogs would be given lots of room to run around and explore, and have plenty of social interaction.
Implications of Stress
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Dogs with anxiety or high stress may have a more difficult time getting adopted from a shelter.
Most anxious or stressed dogs come to the shelter as strays. Since strays tend to have poor adoption success, it makes sense that anxious dogs are generally adopted later in life.
A willingness to approach humans is important to potential adopters. Perhaps anxious or stressed dogs are less likely to approach humans due to their anxiety or fear, and so are overlooked by potential adopters.
In a traditional shelter, extending the length of stay puts the dog at risk of euthanasia!
Reducing Stress
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A good volunteer program that allows every dog to have lots of attention from humans is important for dog welfare. Petting, especially, can prevent cortisol levels from rising.
Training as a form of enrichment can keep dogs occupied and may mentally stimulate them enough to prevent stress, but it does not significantly affect adoption.
Assessing individual personalities of dogs in shelters may help predict if a dog is susceptible to high levels of stress. Measures can be taken to ensure that the dog is not introduced to many new stressors, or the shelter staff can keep an eye on that dog in particular.
Ideally, reducing a dog’s stress through calm human contact and enrichment training will help the dog get adopted, and therefore will eliminate the risk of euthanasia.
Ethics
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If a dog is going to be very stressed during its stay at an animal shelter, adoption (i.e. removing the dog from the shelter) may be the best way to deal with the stress levels.
Since anxious dogs are more likely to have longer stays in shelters, is it ethical to keep the dog alive for a long shelter stay, considering its high stress levels?
Can we really consider a highly stressed dog to be “healthy?” Stress is an indicator of poor welfare, and can affect the immune system. Overall, we may consider high stress to be a mental health issue. Is it ethical to keep a dog living in a situation where its welfare is not ideal?
Euthanasia is an immediate release of stress for the dog, as it results in death.
Perhaps, if there is no adoption interest in a dog, and it faces a long shelter stay with high stress, euthanasia may be in the best interests of the animal.