Meeting Their Needs: Hiding Places

The crossover between enrichment and husbandry is often overlooked, but remains vitally important to the welfare of animals in care. Enrichment is not just snuffle mats and kongs. It is also manipulating the animals’ environment to encourage for a variety of species-typical behaviors to occur and allow for animals’ needs to be met. One need that is often overlooked in our domesticated animals is the need to hide and to feel safe. Contrary to popular opinion, feeling safe and being safe are different states of being. We see this dichotomy frequently in our shelters. An animal who is safe in their kennel, with meals and maid service as part of their stay, is absolutely certain that they are about to be brutally murdered. They display all the distance increasing behaviors to keep themselves safe from the scary things happening feet from their kennel door. They may be safe, but they don’t feel safe.

The need not being met is feeling safe. We can satisfy this in a number of ways, but the most important is providing a hiding space for all animals. Even animals that appear confident can benefit from having a hidden area to retreat to. Cats especially benefit from having a hiding place as hiding is part of their behavioral repertoire. How many times have you watched confident kittens hiding in a box only to jump out and scare their littermate? Hiding is a species-typical behavior for cats. Hiding places can also benefit dogs who need less stimulation to be able to properly rest. We all know that one dog that can fall asleep at an outdoor café during a parade. Unfortunately, that is not normal for our shelter animals who are under a great deal of stress. Many of our high arousal, easily overstimulated dogs would like nothing more than a quiet space to sleep deeply. A dedicated hiding spot can meet their need for rest, as well as safety. Pocket Pets, such as rats, hamsters, and guinea pigs also perform hiding as an important species-typical behavior.

Hiding only meets the need of feeling safe if that hiding spot is not violated. An animal can only hide if humans aren’t removing the covering to view the animal at their leisure nor dragging them out of their hiding space. This also ties nicely into the fear free practice of avoiding flooding as a behavior modification strategy. If a scared animal is hiding, you’re only meeting their need by allowing them to continue hiding. Removing their hiding space only increases fear and pushes them toward a state of learned helplessness, or it could backfire into increased aggression as the animal fights to protect themself. It is also important to note that removing a hiding space as part of a desensitization protocol could actually sensitize the animal to their trigger and build a stronger negative association.

When can you violate their hiding space? Emergencies! The only reasons to forcibly remove an animal from hiding are for essential medical handling or leaving the shelter for good. Whenever possible, behavioral medications should be considered to reduce the amount of stress or fear the animal experiences. If you’re dragging the animal out of hiding to deliver behavioral medications on a daily basis, try a different approach. Think about how the act of physically forcing them out of hiding, restraining them, and administering the medication is likely more aversive than the chemical support the medication offers.

As shelter caretakers, how can we meet this need? For cats, offer a consistent hiding place that is never violated or removed. This can be a kurunda bed with a blanket draped over it, a cardboard box, a covered bed, a crate, or even a den box. Cats who are especially stressed benefit from having a den box or crate you can easily close during husbandry to reduce stress. Most cats are quite clean and the hiding spot can act as a scent soaker that is rarely (if ever) fully cleaned. Within the “feel safe” framework, cat enclosures should also only be spot cleaned with something that smells like them always available and/or left over between deep cleans. Dogs can be given a crate or an igloo in their kennel. For kennels with a portal to indoor/outdoor, you can actively honor their distance increasing signals by not following them through and/or not closing it when trying to interact with them. Some dogs may benefit from a visual barrier on the front of their kennel, such as a shower curtain, a piece of corrugated plastic, or decorative cling film if the front is transparent. Hamsters and mice enjoy excess bedding to burrow into, and rats prefer a variety of hiding options both on the ground floor of their cage as well as up high.