Today I received the sixteenth response to my questionnaire. Please see below:
Q1: What is your occupation?
Administrator, animal care attendent
Q2: How do you believe current dog shelter designs affect dog behaviour - Positively / Negatively / No affect? Please state your reason for your choice.
Negatively. Not enough 'privacy' for dogs to be on their own. Can not really get away in a small kennel this only option for them is to bite when faced with an uncomfortable situation.
Q3: Do you believe that if given the right environment to rehabilitate, more dogs would be less 'aggressive' in shelters, and have the chance of becoming more adoptable?
Absolutely. Dogs need to roam, need a buddy if possible and enough exercise which is currently not the case in many shelters.
Q4: How would you describe an 'ideal' environment for dog rehabilitation? What key elements would it have?
Room to roam, personal space for dogs to retrieve to, no eye contact between dogs, noise reduced, not concreted ideally tiled, lots of natural light, lots of outings, a playroom for buddies to play
Q5: What do you believe are the best methods for dog rehabilitation?
Praise and 'punishment'.
Q6: Alongside rehabilitation methods, to what extent do you believe architecture has a role in rehabilitation?
Extremely Important
Q7: There are numerous examples of calming architecture, designed to calm people dealing with emotional trauma. Elements of this include panoramic views with lots of natural light, sound absorption and the integration of nature / outdoors. Based on your experiences, could this concept of calming architecture have a similar outcome for troubled dogs?
Yes. We currently use CDs to expose dogs to noise of nature. Scent is a big aspect as well. Calming scents seem to keep the dogs calmer.
Q8: Are you aware of any Rehabilitation Centres that allow traumatised shelter dogs to recover?
No
Q9: If selected 'Yes' on previous question, please state the name of the Rehabilitation Centre and any additional information regarding their methods. Otherwise, please state 'N/A'.
N/A
Q10: Do you believe there needs to be more Rehabilitation Centres of this nature?
Strongly agree. At times dogs have become too disposable. I believe that prevention and education are more effective than rehabilitation itself but circumstances sometimes do not allow for the prevention of certain behaviours therefore rehab centres are extremely important. It gives special need dogs a second chance as after all it is most often the human making the mistake (I.e misinterpreting pre-biting signs.
(SurveyMonkey, 1999-2014. SurveyMonkey [online]. Available at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/ [Accessed on 9th November 2014]. Published questionnaire available at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7PYBVBF [Created on 9th November 2014].)