Meeting Their Needs: Rest and Relaxation

Historically in shelters, the focus has been getting dogs out of the kennel for intense spurts of physical exercise. While many dogs do need to stretch their legs, it creates a focus on exhaustion instead of rest and sleep. If you’ve ever been exhausted and stressed out, you know how irritable and unfocused it can make you. There have been an abundance of studies on the side effects humans experience when sleep deprived; from impaired immune response, decline in cognitive performance, and changes in mood, to rise of blood pressure and an increase in cortisol secretion, it is detrimental all around (Alhola & Polo-Kantola, 2007). Unfortunately, we lack similar specific data on dogs, but our biology is proven close enough to make some broad leaps that lack of sleep and true rest are bad.

Most studies focused on shelter dogs are measuring stress and ways to decrease stress. One study found that cortisol decreased with human interaction even if the human does not interact but sits passively with the dog (Shiverdecker et al., 2013). This suggests that active engagement is not necessary to create an impact and can be as easy as an office foster program! That same study also suggests that sessions were most effective when done in a quiet indoor space (Shiverdecker et al., 2013). Do your staff need to write notes or have admin work to do? Bring a dog! Some dogs need help settling into rest. We can assist them by bringing them to a quiet indoor space, providing them with a soft comfy place to lay down, and maybe offering a chew or a lick mat to help them settle in. The routine of being offered this rest option regularly can also assist in the dog settling into the space. If the dog can’t settle, even after multiple attempts, it could be a red flag that the dog is more stressed than you realized.

Another way to promote rest is to have a scheduled nap time in the shelter – where people (including staff) do not walk through the kennel area or remove dogs from their kennels. This could be right after morning husbandry or after the population receives a longer lasting enrichment item like a chew, kong, or lick mat. These scheduled rest times can help our animals feel safe enough to rest as the pattern of not being interrupted for that set period of time allows them to lower their vigilance. Remember, feeling safe and being safe are different and can greatly impact an animal’s well being. Scheduled rest times can also help those dogs who are easily stimulated by any activity in the kennel area. You may find that having scheduled nap time can even help dogs learn to take their own naps when the kennels are a bit busier, as they start to relate their kennel to a rest space, instead of a trampoline park.

Classical music specifically has shown to promote sleep in kenneled dogs, over a variety of other music types (Kogan et al., 2012). Another study in 2016, suggests that dogs also like Reggae and that switching between different music genres can prevent habituation to auditory enrichment (Bowman et al., 2017). Most importantly, music seems to promote laying down and a decrease in vocalizations, both of which are important for rest, and reduces the stimulus of other dogs’ sounds/movement for dogs who find conspecifics aversive. 

While all this data is specific to dogs, we know that cats and other species also rely on sleep as a crucial basic need. Just like dogs, having a specified nap time in the cat ward can be highly beneficial. Some cats like to sprawl out on a high perch while others prefer to tuck themselves into a hiding nook for rest. It’s important to provide cats with both (elevation and hiding spots) so they can utilize their preference for true sleep. Not all “rest” is rest though. Many stressed out cats will feign sleep to avoid interactions or be in a state of tonic immobility. How can we tell the difference? The easiest way to discern true sleep from feigned sleep is to not touch them when they’re resting. Instead focus on calling them forward or offering your hands (or other enrichment items) away from where they’re laying so they can get up to engage when they’re ready. Offering engagement as a choice can allow for more true sleep and also make it more clear to the human when the cat is enthusiastically saying “yes, I want to interact with you!” You may be surprised how many cats don’t want to be pet and how many change their mind (to yes) after consent becomes a normalized practice. 

After all, we all need more sleep in this exhausting, overstimulating world. 

References: 

Alhola, P., & Polo-Kantola, P. (2007). Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 3(5), 553. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2656292/

Bowman, A., Dowell, F. J., & Evans, N. P. (2017). “The effect of different genres of music on the stress levels of kennelled dogs.” Physiology & Behavior, 171, 207–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.01.024

Kogan, L. R., Schoenfeld-Tacher, R., & Simon, A. A. (2012). Behavioral effects of auditory stimulation on kenneled dogs. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 7(5), 268–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2011.11.002

‌Shiverdecker, M. D., Schiml, P. A., & Hennessy, M. B. (2013). Human interaction moderates plasma cortisol and behavioral responses of dogs to shelter housing. Physiology & Behavior, 109, 75–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2012.12.002