Today I received the seventeenth response to my questionnaire. Please see below:
Q1: What is your occupation?
Veterinary Technician & animal behavior specialist
Q2: How do you believe current dog shelter designs affect dog behaviour - Positively / Negatively / No affect? Please state your reason for your choice.
negatively- the runs have approximately 2-4 inches between the side wall & front of run which allows dogs to be almost face to face with one another (not ideal for disease prevention & stress)
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
Q4: How would you describe an 'ideal' environment for dog rehabilitation? What key elements would it have?
room to run a bit, mental/environmental enrichment, ability to block some visualization between dogs of necessary (especially for reactive, dog aggressive, and anxious dogs). Also ability to separate dogs that need to be in a quieter area.
Q5: What do you believe are the best methods for dog rehabilitation?
Lots of hands on, one-on-one time with trained staff. In addition to exercise & mental/environmental enrichment
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! Especially in the area of sound absorbtion and natural lighting!
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?
yes!
(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].)