Is This Dog Dangerous? Shelters Struggle With Live-or-Die Tests
researcher whose behavior assessment is one of the best-known, has stepped away from food-bowl tests, saying
that 2016 research showed that programs that omit them “do not experience an increase in bites in the shelter or in adoptive homes.”
Still, Jennifer Abrams, head of the behavior and enrichment staff at Animal Care Centers of
New York City, which sees 8,900 dogs a year, said that anxious adopters needed assurances.
“The tests are artificial and contrived,” said Dr. Gary J. Patronek, an adjunct professor at the veterinary medicine school at Tufts, who roiled the shelter world last summer when he published an analysis concluding
that the tests have no more positive predictive value for aggression than a coin toss.
Dr. Bennett’s 2012 study of 67 pet dogs, which compared results of two behavior tests with owners’ own reporting, found
that in the areas of aggression and fearfulness, the tests showed high percentages of false positives and false negatives.
But predicting an animal’s behavior belies the nature of dogs, Ms. Abrams said: “A dog’s behavior is based on stimuli in the moment.”
Ms. Abrams’s team conducts assessments, considering them snapshots, while gathering information throughout the animal’s stay.
“If you failed aggression testing, you did not pass go,” said Mary Martin, the new director
of Maricopa County animal shelter in Phoenix, which takes in 34,000 dogs annually.
In December, workers at Animal Care Centers of New York City saw nothing remarkable on a standard behavior test of a dog named Blue,
but noted that he had been surrendered for biting a child.