Animal Welfare Professionals

Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. This month's webinar is presented by Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, and Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student.

Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 12noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern (1 hour)

Cats entering shelters often experience fear, anxiety, and stress while in care. Mitigating negative states in cats is critical to their health and well-being, especially in populations of fearful cats that are already at risk for poor outcomes. One particularly at-risk population are fearful cats rescued from animal hoarding environments. In this presentation, results will be shared from a new study assessing using a standardized behavior modification program and daily gabapentin administration to treat fearful cats from hoarding environments. Further, instructions and resources for conducting behavior modification in shelters will be shared, along with a summary of a growing body of research and in-shelter experience demonstrating that many fearful cats from hoarding environments are treatable in shelters and can have positive outcomes in homes.

Register here

After the webcast, join us right here on Maddie's Pet Forum to continue the discussion or ask questions.

This webinar will be recorded and has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

Speakers

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, Veterinary Behaviorist, Behavioral Sciences Team, ASPCA (Canada)

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, graduated with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2009. She spent 5 years in clinical small animal practice and developed a special interest in clinical behavior. In 2014, she was selected for a residency in Clinical Animal Behavior at the University of California at Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. During her residency, she studied the effects of oral gabapentin on reducing signs of stress in cats with a history of fearful or aggressive behavior during veterinary exams. After completing her residency in 2017, Dr. van Haaften joined the British Columbia SPCA as the Senior Manager of Behavior & Welfare, a position which she held for 5 years.

Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student, University of British Columbia will not be available to join the live webcast but contributed to this research.

Bailey Eagan is a PhD student specializing in animal behavior and welfare in animal shelters. Bailey has a particular interest in conducting applied animal behavior and welfare research and incorporating research findings into animal shelter practice. Bailey's current work focuses on anxiety-medication use in behavioral treatment plans of shelter animals.

#Behavior,TrainingandEnrichment
#CommunityCatManagement
#Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts
#EducationandTraining
#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

------------------------------
alison gibson
Senior Media Specialist
Maddie's Fund
------------------------------

Hi everyone, 

Thank you for the wonderful discussion. Please see below for some links to studies and resources that we chatted about during the session.

1. Downloadable Behaviour Modification documents - 

https://www.baileyheagan.com/animal-welfare-resources

2. Cat Stress Score -
https://www.maddiesfund.org/documents/Resource%20Library/Pet%20Behavior%20Solutions%20-%20Cat%20Stress%20Score.pdf

3. Two studies that were done on hoarding environment cats by Jacobson and colleagues at the Toronto Humane Society  

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315195/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1098612X19854808

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you would like to chat about any of this further!

Thank you, 

Bailey Eagan

bailey.eagan@ubc.ca

Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. This month's webinar is presented by Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, and Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student.

Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 12noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern (1 hour)

Cats entering shelters often experience fear, anxiety, and stress while in care. Mitigating negative states in cats is critical to their health and well-being, especially in populations of fearful cats that are already at risk for poor outcomes. One particularly at-risk population are fearful cats rescued from animal hoarding environments. In this presentation, results will be shared from a new study assessing using a standardized behavior modification program and daily gabapentin administration to treat fearful cats from hoarding environments. Further, instructions and resources for conducting behavior modification in shelters will be shared, along with a summary of a growing body of research and in-shelter experience demonstrating that many fearful cats from hoarding environments are treatable in shelters and can have positive outcomes in homes.

Register here

After the webcast, join us right here on Maddie's Pet Forum to continue the discussion or ask questions.

This webinar will be recorded and has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

Speakers

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, Veterinary Behaviorist, Behavioral Sciences Team, ASPCA (Canada)

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, graduated with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2009. She spent 5 years in clinical small animal practice and developed a special interest in clinical behavior. In 2014, she was selected for a residency in Clinical Animal Behavior at the University of California at Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. During her residency, she studied the effects of oral gabapentin on reducing signs of stress in cats with a history of fearful or aggressive behavior during veterinary exams. After completing her residency in 2017, Dr. van Haaften joined the British Columbia SPCA as the Senior Manager of Behavior & Welfare, a position which she held for 5 years.

Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student, University of British Columbia will not be available to join the live webcast but contributed to this research.

Bailey Eagan is a PhD student specializing in animal behavior and welfare in animal shelters. Bailey has a particular interest in conducting applied animal behavior and welfare research and incorporating research findings into animal shelter practice. Bailey's current work focuses on anxiety-medication use in behavioral treatment plans of shelter animals.

#Behavior,TrainingandEnrichment
#CommunityCatManagement
#Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts
#EducationandTraining
#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

------------------------------
alison gibson
Senior Media Specialist
Maddie's Fund
------------------------------

Hi everyone, 

Thank you for the wonderful discussion. Please see below for some links to studies and resources that we chatted about during the session.

1. Downloadable Behaviour Modification documents - 

https://www.baileyheagan.com/animal-welfare-resources

2. Cat Stress Score -
https://www.maddiesfund.org/documents/Resource%20Library/Pet%20Behavior%20Solutions%20-%20Cat%20Stress%20Score.pdf

3. Two studies that were done on hoarding environment cats by Jacobson and colleagues at the Toronto Humane Society  

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315195/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1098612X19854808

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you would like to chat about any of this further!

Thank you, 

Bailey Eagan

bailey.eagan@ubc.ca

Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. This month's webinar is presented by Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, and Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student.

Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 12noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern (1 hour)

Cats entering shelters often experience fear, anxiety, and stress while in care. Mitigating negative states in cats is critical to their health and well-being, especially in populations of fearful cats that are already at risk for poor outcomes. One particularly at-risk population are fearful cats rescued from animal hoarding environments. In this presentation, results will be shared from a new study assessing using a standardized behavior modification program and daily gabapentin administration to treat fearful cats from hoarding environments. Further, instructions and resources for conducting behavior modification in shelters will be shared, along with a summary of a growing body of research and in-shelter experience demonstrating that many fearful cats from hoarding environments are treatable in shelters and can have positive outcomes in homes.

Register here

After the webcast, join us right here on Maddie's Pet Forum to continue the discussion or ask questions.

This webinar will be recorded and has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

Speakers

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, Veterinary Behaviorist, Behavioral Sciences Team, ASPCA (Canada)

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, graduated with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2009. She spent 5 years in clinical small animal practice and developed a special interest in clinical behavior. In 2014, she was selected for a residency in Clinical Animal Behavior at the University of California at Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. During her residency, she studied the effects of oral gabapentin on reducing signs of stress in cats with a history of fearful or aggressive behavior during veterinary exams. After completing her residency in 2017, Dr. van Haaften joined the British Columbia SPCA as the Senior Manager of Behavior & Welfare, a position which she held for 5 years.

Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student, University of British Columbia will not be available to join the live webcast but contributed to this research.

Bailey Eagan is a PhD student specializing in animal behavior and welfare in animal shelters. Bailey has a particular interest in conducting applied animal behavior and welfare research and incorporating research findings into animal shelter practice. Bailey's current work focuses on anxiety-medication use in behavioral treatment plans of shelter animals.

#Behavior,TrainingandEnrichment
#CommunityCatManagement
#Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts
#EducationandTraining
#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

------------------------------
alison gibson
Senior Media Specialist
Maddie's Fund
------------------------------

Hello Glenda,

Thank you for pointing this out to us.  Please try this link for the behavior modification documents: https://www.baileyheagan.com/resources

Above all thank you for your interest and for all you are doing to help the animals in your community.

Alison

Hi everyone, 

Thank you for the wonderful discussion. Please see below for some links to studies and resources that we chatted about during the session.

1. Downloadable Behaviour Modification documents - 

https://www.baileyheagan.com/animal-welfare-resources

2. Cat Stress Score -
https://www.maddiesfund.org/documents/Resource%20Library/Pet%20Behavior%20Solutions%20-%20Cat%20Stress%20Score.pdf

3. Two studies that were done on hoarding environment cats by Jacobson and colleagues at the Toronto Humane Society  

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315195/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1098612X19854808

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you would like to chat about any of this further!

Thank you, 

Bailey Eagan

bailey.eagan@ubc.ca

Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. This month's webinar is presented by Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, and Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student.

Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 12noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern (1 hour)

Cats entering shelters often experience fear, anxiety, and stress while in care. Mitigating negative states in cats is critical to their health and well-being, especially in populations of fearful cats that are already at risk for poor outcomes. One particularly at-risk population are fearful cats rescued from animal hoarding environments. In this presentation, results will be shared from a new study assessing using a standardized behavior modification program and daily gabapentin administration to treat fearful cats from hoarding environments. Further, instructions and resources for conducting behavior modification in shelters will be shared, along with a summary of a growing body of research and in-shelter experience demonstrating that many fearful cats from hoarding environments are treatable in shelters and can have positive outcomes in homes.

Register here

After the webcast, join us right here on Maddie's Pet Forum to continue the discussion or ask questions.

This webinar will be recorded and has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

Speakers

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, Veterinary Behaviorist, Behavioral Sciences Team, ASPCA (Canada)

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, graduated with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2009. She spent 5 years in clinical small animal practice and developed a special interest in clinical behavior. In 2014, she was selected for a residency in Clinical Animal Behavior at the University of California at Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. During her residency, she studied the effects of oral gabapentin on reducing signs of stress in cats with a history of fearful or aggressive behavior during veterinary exams. After completing her residency in 2017, Dr. van Haaften joined the British Columbia SPCA as the Senior Manager of Behavior & Welfare, a position which she held for 5 years.

Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student, University of British Columbia will not be available to join the live webcast but contributed to this research.

Bailey Eagan is a PhD student specializing in animal behavior and welfare in animal shelters. Bailey has a particular interest in conducting applied animal behavior and welfare research and incorporating research findings into animal shelter practice. Bailey's current work focuses on anxiety-medication use in behavioral treatment plans of shelter animals.

#Behavior,TrainingandEnrichment
#CommunityCatManagement
#Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts
#EducationandTraining
#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

------------------------------
alison gibson
Senior Media Specialist
Maddie's Fund
------------------------------

Hi everyone, 

Thank you for the wonderful discussion. Please see below for some links to studies and resources that we chatted about during the session.

1. Downloadable Behaviour Modification documents - 

https://www.baileyheagan.com/resources 

2. Cat Stress Score -
https://www.maddiesfund.org/documents/Resource%20Library/Pet%20Behavior%20Solutions%20-%20Cat%20Stress%20Score.pdf

3. Two studies that were done on hoarding environment cats by Jacobson and colleagues at the Toronto Humane Society  

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315195/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1098612X19854808

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you would like to chat about any of this further!

Thank you, 

Bailey Eagan

bailey.eagan@ubc.ca

Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. This month's webinar is presented by Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, and Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student.

Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 12noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern (1 hour)

Cats entering shelters often experience fear, anxiety, and stress while in care. Mitigating negative states in cats is critical to their health and well-being, especially in populations of fearful cats that are already at risk for poor outcomes. One particularly at-risk population are fearful cats rescued from animal hoarding environments. In this presentation, results will be shared from a new study assessing using a standardized behavior modification program and daily gabapentin administration to treat fearful cats from hoarding environments. Further, instructions and resources for conducting behavior modification in shelters will be shared, along with a summary of a growing body of research and in-shelter experience demonstrating that many fearful cats from hoarding environments are treatable in shelters and can have positive outcomes in homes.

Register here

After the webcast, join us right here on Maddie's Pet Forum to continue the discussion or ask questions.

This webinar will be recorded and has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

Speakers

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, Veterinary Behaviorist, Behavioral Sciences Team, ASPCA (Canada)

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, graduated with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2009. She spent 5 years in clinical small animal practice and developed a special interest in clinical behavior. In 2014, she was selected for a residency in Clinical Animal Behavior at the University of California at Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. During her residency, she studied the effects of oral gabapentin on reducing signs of stress in cats with a history of fearful or aggressive behavior during veterinary exams. After completing her residency in 2017, Dr. van Haaften joined the British Columbia SPCA as the Senior Manager of Behavior & Welfare, a position which she held for 5 years.

Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student, University of British Columbia will not be available to join the live webcast but contributed to this research.

Bailey Eagan is a PhD student specializing in animal behavior and welfare in animal shelters. Bailey has a particular interest in conducting applied animal behavior and welfare research and incorporating research findings into animal shelter practice. Bailey's current work focuses on anxiety-medication use in behavioral treatment plans of shelter animals.

#Behavior,TrainingandEnrichment
#CommunityCatManagement
#Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts
#EducationandTraining
#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

------------------------------
alison gibson
Senior Media Specialist
Maddie's Fund
------------------------------

Thank you for sharing this information, I had bookmarked the presentation back in Dec and finally got a chance to watch it. Very interesting stuff.

I am curious if you are aware of any cases where this program has been used on cats in foster homes. We are a TNR organization and sometimes end up with kittens that are a little older than the socialization window. So now we have several cats that have aged out of kittenhood but are very shy, do not show well, and have pretty dismal adoption prospects. Two of them were just adopted finally, and after only 11 days the adopter wants to return them. That is what finally prompted me to watch this, hoping it would be something I could try to persuade our adopter to try before returning the cats.

I assume they would need to be contained in some way where they can't hide under furniture, etc. Is a small bathroom or spare room with hiding places blocked ok? Or is that too much space? I feel like it would not be great if he has to "chase" them around the room to perform the touching exercises. Would it be better to put them in a large dog crate for the duration?

We have a couple of other shy foster cats still waiting for adoption that I was also thinking of trying this with. At this point all of them have free roam of the fosters home, so I'm just trying to figure out how I would best implement this program in these cases. Thanks for any insight!

Hi everyone, 

Thank you for the wonderful discussion. Please see below for some links to studies and resources that we chatted about during the session.

1. Downloadable Behaviour Modification documents - 

https://www.baileyheagan.com/resources 

2. Cat Stress Score -
https://www.maddiesfund.org/documents/Resource%20Library/Pet%20Behavior%20Solutions%20-%20Cat%20Stress%20Score.pdf

3. Two studies that were done on hoarding environment cats by Jacobson and colleagues at the Toronto Humane Society  

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315195/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1098612X19854808

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you would like to chat about any of this further!

Thank you, 

Bailey Eagan

bailey.eagan@ubc.ca

Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. This month's webinar is presented by Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, and Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student.

Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 12noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern (1 hour)

Cats entering shelters often experience fear, anxiety, and stress while in care. Mitigating negative states in cats is critical to their health and well-being, especially in populations of fearful cats that are already at risk for poor outcomes. One particularly at-risk population are fearful cats rescued from animal hoarding environments. In this presentation, results will be shared from a new study assessing using a standardized behavior modification program and daily gabapentin administration to treat fearful cats from hoarding environments. Further, instructions and resources for conducting behavior modification in shelters will be shared, along with a summary of a growing body of research and in-shelter experience demonstrating that many fearful cats from hoarding environments are treatable in shelters and can have positive outcomes in homes.

Register here

After the webcast, join us right here on Maddie's Pet Forum to continue the discussion or ask questions.

This webinar will be recorded and has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

Speakers

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, Veterinary Behaviorist, Behavioral Sciences Team, ASPCA (Canada)

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, graduated with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2009. She spent 5 years in clinical small animal practice and developed a special interest in clinical behavior. In 2014, she was selected for a residency in Clinical Animal Behavior at the University of California at Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. During her residency, she studied the effects of oral gabapentin on reducing signs of stress in cats with a history of fearful or aggressive behavior during veterinary exams. After completing her residency in 2017, Dr. van Haaften joined the British Columbia SPCA as the Senior Manager of Behavior & Welfare, a position which she held for 5 years.

Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student, University of British Columbia will not be available to join the live webcast but contributed to this research.

Bailey Eagan is a PhD student specializing in animal behavior and welfare in animal shelters. Bailey has a particular interest in conducting applied animal behavior and welfare research and incorporating research findings into animal shelter practice. Bailey's current work focuses on anxiety-medication use in behavioral treatment plans of shelter animals.

#Behavior,TrainingandEnrichment
#CommunityCatManagement
#Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts
#EducationandTraining
#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

------------------------------
alison gibson
Senior Media Specialist
Maddie's Fund
------------------------------

Hi Julie, 

Thanks for your message! I am sorry to hear about the challenges you are facing. 

While this program was only tested on cats in shelters from hoarding environments, I have heard informally from people who have used the program in homes for fosters, and they have had good success with it (including them sending me some very encouraging data tracking sheets showing their great progress!)

Regarding the methods for implementing this in homes, there are a few references that may be helpful. The textbook "Animal Behavior for Shelter Veterinarians and Staff 2nd Edition" has a chapter specifically on Behaviour Modification and Training for Cats, so if you have access to that, there are more specifics on this topic in there that may be useful! Additionally, there is another Maddie's Fund webinar I really like, "Helping Cats Who Hiss and Hide" https://www.maddiesfund.org/helping-cats-who-hiss-and-hide.htm that is definitely worth checking out if you haven't seen it! 

Regarding hiding spaces, while I think it is beneficial for safety to block hiding spaces that the cats could go in and not come out of/be hard to reach (e.g., under a bed), it would be good to make sure you are still providing plenty of hiding space options for them (e.g., boxes), as this will likely ultimately help the behavior modification progress. Some research shows that ensuring they have hiding spots and access to space to move around and have control of their environment can increase human interaction in fearful cats. It seems that making sure they have some form of control, and some ability to hide if they choose, is important. Based on this as well, a spare room or bathroom, as you suggested, would likely result in better success than a smaller dog crate to further help allow them to have that control.  Otherwise, also, if you haven't already, I definitely suggest trying a wide range of food. We have found that our success with some cats depended on us finding their most-preferred food! 

I hope this is helpful. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions or if you want to chat more!

Bailey

Thank you for sharing this information, I had bookmarked the presentation back in Dec and finally got a chance to watch it. Very interesting stuff.

I am curious if you are aware of any cases where this program has been used on cats in foster homes. We are a TNR organization and sometimes end up with kittens that are a little older than the socialization window. So now we have several cats that have aged out of kittenhood but are very shy, do not show well, and have pretty dismal adoption prospects. Two of them were just adopted finally, and after only 11 days the adopter wants to return them. That is what finally prompted me to watch this, hoping it would be something I could try to persuade our adopter to try before returning the cats.

I assume they would need to be contained in some way where they can't hide under furniture, etc. Is a small bathroom or spare room with hiding places blocked ok? Or is that too much space? I feel like it would not be great if he has to "chase" them around the room to perform the touching exercises. Would it be better to put them in a large dog crate for the duration?

We have a couple of other shy foster cats still waiting for adoption that I was also thinking of trying this with. At this point all of them have free roam of the fosters home, so I'm just trying to figure out how I would best implement this program in these cases. Thanks for any insight!

Hi everyone, 

Thank you for the wonderful discussion. Please see below for some links to studies and resources that we chatted about during the session.

1. Downloadable Behaviour Modification documents - 

https://www.baileyheagan.com/resources 

2. Cat Stress Score -
https://www.maddiesfund.org/documents/Resource%20Library/Pet%20Behavior%20Solutions%20-%20Cat%20Stress%20Score.pdf

3. Two studies that were done on hoarding environment cats by Jacobson and colleagues at the Toronto Humane Society  

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315195/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1098612X19854808

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you would like to chat about any of this further!

Thank you, 

Bailey Eagan

bailey.eagan@ubc.ca

Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. This month's webinar is presented by Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, and Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student.

Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 12noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern (1 hour)

Cats entering shelters often experience fear, anxiety, and stress while in care. Mitigating negative states in cats is critical to their health and well-being, especially in populations of fearful cats that are already at risk for poor outcomes. One particularly at-risk population are fearful cats rescued from animal hoarding environments. In this presentation, results will be shared from a new study assessing using a standardized behavior modification program and daily gabapentin administration to treat fearful cats from hoarding environments. Further, instructions and resources for conducting behavior modification in shelters will be shared, along with a summary of a growing body of research and in-shelter experience demonstrating that many fearful cats from hoarding environments are treatable in shelters and can have positive outcomes in homes.

Register here

After the webcast, join us right here on Maddie's Pet Forum to continue the discussion or ask questions.

This webinar will be recorded and has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

Speakers

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, Veterinary Behaviorist, Behavioral Sciences Team, ASPCA (Canada)

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, graduated with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2009. She spent 5 years in clinical small animal practice and developed a special interest in clinical behavior. In 2014, she was selected for a residency in Clinical Animal Behavior at the University of California at Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. During her residency, she studied the effects of oral gabapentin on reducing signs of stress in cats with a history of fearful or aggressive behavior during veterinary exams. After completing her residency in 2017, Dr. van Haaften joined the British Columbia SPCA as the Senior Manager of Behavior & Welfare, a position which she held for 5 years.

Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student, University of British Columbia will not be available to join the live webcast but contributed to this research.

Bailey Eagan is a PhD student specializing in animal behavior and welfare in animal shelters. Bailey has a particular interest in conducting applied animal behavior and welfare research and incorporating research findings into animal shelter practice. Bailey's current work focuses on anxiety-medication use in behavioral treatment plans of shelter animals.

#Behavior,TrainingandEnrichment
#CommunityCatManagement
#Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts
#EducationandTraining
#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

------------------------------
alison gibson
Senior Media Specialist
Maddie's Fund
------------------------------

Hi Julie, 

Thanks for your message! I am sorry to hear about the challenges you are facing. 

While this program was only tested on cats in shelters from hoarding environments, I have heard informally from people who have used the program in homes for fosters, and they have had good success with it (including them sending me some very encouraging data tracking sheets showing their great progress!)

Regarding the methods for implementing this in homes, there are a few references that may be helpful. The textbook "Animal Behavior for Shelter Veterinarians and Staff 2nd Edition" has a chapter specifically on Behaviour Modification and Training for Cats, so if you have access to that, there are more specifics on this topic in there that may be useful! Additionally, there is another Maddie's Fund webinar I really like, "Helping Cats Who Hiss and Hide" https://www.maddiesfund.org/helping-cats-who-hiss-and-hide.htm that is definitely worth checking out if you haven't seen it! 

Regarding hiding spaces, while I think it is beneficial for safety to block hiding spaces that the cats could go in and not come out of/be hard to reach (e.g., under a bed), it would be good to make sure you are still providing plenty of hiding space options for them (e.g., boxes), as this will likely ultimately help the behavior modification progress. Some research shows that ensuring they have hiding spots and access to space to move around and have control of their environment can increase human interaction in fearful cats. It seems that making sure they have some form of control, and some ability to hide if they choose, is important. Based on this as well, a spare room or bathroom, as you suggested, would likely result in better success than a smaller dog crate to further help allow them to have that control.  Otherwise, also, if you haven't already, I definitely suggest trying a wide range of food. We have found that our success with some cats depended on us finding their most-preferred food! 

I hope this is helpful. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions or if you want to chat more!

Bailey

Thank you for sharing this information, I had bookmarked the presentation back in Dec and finally got a chance to watch it. Very interesting stuff.

I am curious if you are aware of any cases where this program has been used on cats in foster homes. We are a TNR organization and sometimes end up with kittens that are a little older than the socialization window. So now we have several cats that have aged out of kittenhood but are very shy, do not show well, and have pretty dismal adoption prospects. Two of them were just adopted finally, and after only 11 days the adopter wants to return them. That is what finally prompted me to watch this, hoping it would be something I could try to persuade our adopter to try before returning the cats.

I assume they would need to be contained in some way where they can't hide under furniture, etc. Is a small bathroom or spare room with hiding places blocked ok? Or is that too much space? I feel like it would not be great if he has to "chase" them around the room to perform the touching exercises. Would it be better to put them in a large dog crate for the duration?

We have a couple of other shy foster cats still waiting for adoption that I was also thinking of trying this with. At this point all of them have free roam of the fosters home, so I'm just trying to figure out how I would best implement this program in these cases. Thanks for any insight!

Hi everyone, 

Thank you for the wonderful discussion. Please see below for some links to studies and resources that we chatted about during the session.

1. Downloadable Behaviour Modification documents - 

https://www.baileyheagan.com/resources 

2. Cat Stress Score -
https://www.maddiesfund.org/documents/Resource%20Library/Pet%20Behavior%20Solutions%20-%20Cat%20Stress%20Score.pdf

3. Two studies that were done on hoarding environment cats by Jacobson and colleagues at the Toronto Humane Society  

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315195/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1098612X19854808

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you would like to chat about any of this further!

Thank you, 

Bailey Eagan

bailey.eagan@ubc.ca

Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. This month's webinar is presented by Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, and Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student.

Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 12noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern (1 hour)

Cats entering shelters often experience fear, anxiety, and stress while in care. Mitigating negative states in cats is critical to their health and well-being, especially in populations of fearful cats that are already at risk for poor outcomes. One particularly at-risk population are fearful cats rescued from animal hoarding environments. In this presentation, results will be shared from a new study assessing using a standardized behavior modification program and daily gabapentin administration to treat fearful cats from hoarding environments. Further, instructions and resources for conducting behavior modification in shelters will be shared, along with a summary of a growing body of research and in-shelter experience demonstrating that many fearful cats from hoarding environments are treatable in shelters and can have positive outcomes in homes.

Register here

After the webcast, join us right here on Maddie's Pet Forum to continue the discussion or ask questions.

This webinar will be recorded and has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

Speakers

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, Veterinary Behaviorist, Behavioral Sciences Team, ASPCA (Canada)

Dr. Karen van Haaften, DACVB, graduated with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2009. She spent 5 years in clinical small animal practice and developed a special interest in clinical behavior. In 2014, she was selected for a residency in Clinical Animal Behavior at the University of California at Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. During her residency, she studied the effects of oral gabapentin on reducing signs of stress in cats with a history of fearful or aggressive behavior during veterinary exams. After completing her residency in 2017, Dr. van Haaften joined the British Columbia SPCA as the Senior Manager of Behavior & Welfare, a position which she held for 5 years.

Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student, University of British Columbia will not be available to join the live webcast but contributed to this research.

Bailey Eagan is a PhD student specializing in animal behavior and welfare in animal shelters. Bailey has a particular interest in conducting applied animal behavior and welfare research and incorporating research findings into animal shelter practice. Bailey's current work focuses on anxiety-medication use in behavioral treatment plans of shelter animals.

#Behavior,TrainingandEnrichment
#CommunityCatManagement
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#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

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alison gibson
Senior Media Specialist
Maddie's Fund
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Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. This month's webinar is presented by Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student.

Recorded on Thursday, December 1, 2022  (1 hour)

Cats entering shelters often experience fear, anxiety, and stress while in care. Mitigating negative states in cats is critical to their health and well-being, especially in populations of fearful cats that are already at risk for poor outcomes. One particularly at-risk population are fearful cats rescued from animal hoarding environments. In this presentation, results will be shared from a new study assessing and using a standardized behavior modification program and daily gabapentin administration to treat fearful cats from hoarding environments. Further, instructions and resources for conducting behavior modification in shelters will be shared, along with a summary of a growing body of research and in-shelter experience demonstrating that many fearful cats from hoarding environments are treatable in shelters and can have positive outcomes in homes.

WATCH HERE

After viewing, join us right here on Maddie's Pet Forum to continue the discussion or ask questions.

This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

Speaker

Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student, University of British Columbia

Bailey Eagan is a PhD student specializing in animal behavior and welfare in animal shelters. Bailey has a particular interest in conducting applied animal behavior and welfare research and incorporating research findings into animal shelter practice. Bailey's current work focuses on anxiety-medication use in behavioral treatment plans of shelter animals.

Maddie's® Insights are monthly webcasts with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. This month's webinar is presented by Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student.

Recorded on Thursday, December 1, 2022  (1 hour)

Cats entering shelters often experience fear, anxiety, and stress while in care. Mitigating negative states in cats is critical to their health and well-being, especially in populations of fearful cats that are already at risk for poor outcomes. One particularly at-risk population are fearful cats rescued from animal hoarding environments. In this presentation, results will be shared from a new study assessing and using a standardized behavior modification program and daily gabapentin administration to treat fearful cats from hoarding environments. Further, instructions and resources for conducting behavior modification in shelters are shared, along with a summary of a growing body of research and in-shelter experience demonstrating that many fearful cats from hoarding environments are treatable in shelters and can have positive outcomes in homes.

WATCH HERE

After viewing, join us right here on Maddie's Pet Forum to continue the discussion or ask questions.

This webinar has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association.

Speaker

Bailey Eagan, MSc, PhD Student, University of British Columbia

Bailey Eagan is a PhD student specializing in animal behavior and welfare in animal shelters. Bailey has a particular interest in conducting applied animal behavior and welfare research and incorporating research findings into animal shelter practice. Bailey's current work focuses on anxiety-medication use in behavioral treatment plans of shelter animals.