The Reality of Kennel Stress
By Stacey Price
KHS Director of Animal Welfare
Imagine living in a room the size of your bathroom in an unfamiliar setting, surrounded by strangers, your neighbors constantly playing their music too loud and little to no activity to keep yourself occupied. How long would you last before you went stir crazy or became stressed from boredom or lack of silence? This is the daily reality for many animals living in a shelter environment, especially canines.
Providing animals with physical and mental stimulation is critical to maintain their behavioral health. At KHS, we strive to provide enrichment activities, potty breaks and walks, open paw training, real room time for relaxation, toys to combat boredom and play groups for socialization. Frequently people think that as long as an animal is available on the adoption floor they are out of harm's way, but this is not the case.
Kennel stress refers to confinement insanity that occurs from being kept in enclosures for extended periods of time without enough opportunity to exercise, think, socialize and rest. Often disease and illness are the focal point in shelters, but stress can be just as serious as an illness despite a shelter's best efforts.
If you have ever walked through our Main Kennel, then you know it is loud. Dogs have four times better hearing than humans, causing noise to be a physical stressor that can lead to behavioral, physiological and anatomical responses. It can create a constant state of stress, agitation and nervousness. Exhibiting such behaviors often result in pets being overlooked for adoption and their stay prolonged. Many times the solution is a home and such behaviors will cease.
Sound isn't the only factor contributing to kennel stress. Dogs require daily changes of scenery and time out of the kennel to combat boredom. Many cats don't like to be confined in small places. The impact of a human touch, massage or petting can have on an animal's well being should not be underestimated.
Studies indicate a dog staying two weeks in a shelter environment will reach their stress threshold. Beyond this point behavioral changes or signs of kennel stress can develop. At 30 days a dog should have an involved enrichment plan to maintain their mental well being. Luckily our average canine stay is 14 days, but what about those that fall far past 14 days? We rely on staff and volunteers to provide enrichment activities for our animals. Once a dog begins to exhibit signs of kennel stress, if not actively worked with or placed into foster care, rehabilitation may or may not work depending on the level and length of stress.
KHS pets are monitored and reviewed on weekly basis. We place urgency on those who show such signs, seek rescue, promote our long term residents as Pet of the Week, ask for foster assistance and add additional enrichment activities to keep them healthy.
So next time you see our Pet of the Week, Great 8 Canines or Nine Lives Cats posted in various publications, know that it is not an animal randomly selected or a staff favorite - it is a pet with the greatest need for a home. We encourage you to share these postings with friends and family to save a life or volunteer as a foster family to provide our animals with much-needed kennel breaks.
