The qualifications to become a therapy animal do not specify the breed or background of the dog participant, so any dog can become a therapy dog if they possess the right attributes. The question of what exactly those right attributes are is what drives research in this field. Furthermore, finding out which tools are the most valid and reliable in finding out these characteristics is just as important. If a valid and reliable tool can be used to find appropriate dogs for use in therapy from a shelter setting, many dogs can fill an important role in society while awaiting adoption and experience a novel form of enrichment. For this research, a literature review was conducted in order to determine how dogs are chosen for AAT and if these methods are appropriate in terms of validity and reliability. Next, the interest in involving shelter dogs in AAT was identified utilizing a survey. Finally, a test battery was developed in order to select shelter dogs appropriate for a simulated AAT session. In order to assess preferences in terms of the type of dog used in AAT, whether that be a trained therapy animal or a shelter dog, a survey was administered to assess the respondent’s trauma background, interest in AAT, and any stigmas associated with shelter dogs. It was hypothesized that individuals with a trauma history would be more likely to express interest in working with shelter dogs in AAT, due to increased empathy and prosocial behavior (Hoffman, 2008). Results from the survey indicated respondents were more likely to agree with certain questions as the number of traumas they had experienced increased. Respondents believed that AAT would benefit shelter dogs due to interaction with a person, and as traumas increased (on a continuous scale), respondents were 1.436 (CI: 1.037 – 1.988) times more likely to choose that they strongly agree with this statement. As traumas increased, respondents were 1.512 (CI: 1.016 – 2.249) times more likely to report that they strongly agree that having time out of the kennel during an AAT session would be beneficial for shelter dogs. Finally, respondents were 1.403 (CI 1.094 – 1.799) times more likely to indicate that AAT with a shelter dog would be beneficial because of possible shared trauma as traumas increased. Most notably, these questions related to the dog’s experience during AAT (i.e. respondents agreed most strongly with prompts that indicated the dog would gain enjoyment from the activity). Therefore, it is speculated based on these results that our population of respondents were more inclined to participate in AAT because of the potential benefits to the dog participants, and this may be influenced by their trauma history.The cylinder detour task (Bray & Gruen, 2020), pointing test (Hare & Tomasello; 1999), impossible test (Cavalli et al. 2020), empathy assessment (Meyers-Manor & Botten, 2020), and novel object test (Bray & Gruen, 2020) were all used in order to identify dogs in terms of their impulsivity, social cognition, help seeking behavior, empathy, and resilience, respectively. It was hypothesized that dogs that displayed low levels of impulsivity, high levels of social cognition, frequent help seeking behaviors, high levels of empathy, and high levels of resilience would be best suited for a simulated group animal-assisted therapy scenario. To evaluate this hypothesis, dogs were screened via the aforementioned behavioral assessments 24 hours prior to a simulated AAT experience. Only about half of all dog participants (24/49) performed above chance in the pointing test, that is, they correctly chose the bowl containing the treat based on following the human point indicating where the treat was located. Despite this, the analysis was still significant, with a p-value of 0.0314. Only around one-third of dog participants (17/49) displayed the help seeking behavior during the impossible task; however, analysis for this variable also proved significant, with a p-value being 0.0322. The analysis for all other variables were non-significant. Human participants were asked to evaluate their overall level of enjoyment during simulated AAT, as well as their mood (MFS) and stress level (SFS) before and after sessions. The dogs’ experiences were evaluated using the Human Animal Interaction Scale (HAIS), a validated scale, reported by the human participants. All human participants found simulated AAT enjoyable, and based on HAIS scores, the majority of dog participants had positive experiences. All human participants reported positive experiences with nearly 85% of participants reporting simulated AAT to be a very positive experience and 15% reporting it to be somewhat positive. Approximately half of all participants also experienced an improvement to their MFS and SFS scores (54.84% and 41.94%, respectively). A third of participants had no net change to MFS (32.26%) and SFS (29.03%). A few individuals reported an increase in stress and mood levels post-AAT session (9.68% and 3.23%, respectively). Out of the 47 dog participants with complete HAIS profiles, almost 90% of dogs had a net positive experience (HAIS greater than 0). The main takeaways from this research are that the population surveyed was eager to engage in AAT, regardless of the background of the dog participants. Also, human participants seem particularly motivated to participate in AAT due to the potential benefits to the dog participants, not only to themselves. During the simulated AAT session in the second research study, all human participants reported a positive experience. Dog participants also showed an overwhelming majority in terms of a net positive experience. Therefore, the One Welfare goal of the research was successful.
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