Courteous service: Its assessment and modification in a human service organization

Emergency Fostering of Dogs From Animal Shelters During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Shelter Practices, Foster Caregiver Engagement, and Dog Outcomes

Each year, millions of dogs enter thousands of animal shelters across the United States. Life in the shelter can be stressful, and one type of intervention that improves dogs' experience is human interaction, particularly stays in foster homes. Prior research has demonstrated that fostering can reduce dogs' cortisol and increase their resting activity. Despite these benefits, little is understood about the utilization of foster caregiving in animal shelters, and even less so during a crisis. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization deemed the coronavirus outbreak a worldwide pandemic, and subsequently a nationwide emergency was declared in the United States. Nearly all states issued stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the virus. During this time, media outlets reported increased interest in the adoption and fostering of shelter pets. This study explores canine foster caregiving at 19 US animal shelters during the first 4 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In our investigation, we found that shelters' utilization of foster caregiving increased from March to April 2020 but returned to initial pandemic levels by June 2020. Slightly less than two-fifths of foster caregivers were community members with no prior relationship with the shelter, and these caregivers were over four times more likely to adopt their fostered dogs than those with a pre-existing relationship to the shelter. Individuals fostering with the intention to adopt, in fact, adopted their dogs in nearly three-quarters of those instances. With regards to shelters' available resources, we found that very low-resource shelters relied more heavily on individuals with prior relationships to provide foster caregiving while very high-resource shelters more often recruited new community members. We also found that our lowest resourced shelters transferred more dogs out of their facilities while more resourced shelters rehomed dogs directly to adopters. To our knowledge, these findings represent the first in-depth reporting about dog fostering in US animal shelters and, more specifically, foster caregiving during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, they provide greater understanding of how monetary and human resources were utilized to affect the care and ultimately, the outcomes of shelter dogs during this time.

They have a Voice; are we Listening?

The field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) has produced powerful changes and improvements to the lives of many. However, the field is not immune from criticism. One criticism from those outside the field is that the goal of ABA therapy is to make Autistic people appear "indistinguishable" from their peers. This paper examines "indistinguishability" and its implications by defining "indistinguishable" in behavior analytic terms, exploring how the term was used in two notable studies in the field (Lovaas, 1987, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55[1], 3-9; Rekers & Lovaas, 1974, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 7[2], 173-190), and providing a review of the social validity and ethical implications of having "indistinguishability" as an explicit or implied goal. This is partially accomplished by incorporating concerns from the Autistic self-advocate community. We argue that the Autistic self-advocate community's concerns surrounding "indistinguishability" as a goal have a degree of legitimacy and need to be given due consideration. Suggestions for addressing these concerns in ABA degree programs and research are discussed, emphasizing the importance of considering stakeholder values, taking criticisms seriously, and making changes when necessary.

Crosscurrents at Sea

As a precursor to making effective prescriptions for leaders of teams, a descriptive study was conducted. Leaders were videotaped while their teams physically executed the task of racing a sailboat. The videotaping enabled skippers to be observed every 15 seconds during practice races ( N = 28) using the Operant Supervisory Taxonomy and Index—by Sequence. The Operant Supervisory Taxonomy and Index—by Sequence highlights the two supervisory behaviors of monitoring and providing consequences shown to be related to effectiveness in a variety of work settings. Time-series analyses indicated both level and slope changes in the leaders’ supervisory behaviors in response to the changing requirements of the task. The findings suggest the need to take into account the temporal patterns of leaders’ behaviors and the dynamics of the task when conceptualizing effective leadership.

Training shelter volunteers to teach dog compliance

This study examined the degree to which training procedures influenced the integrity of behaviorally based dog training implemented by volunteers of an animal shelter. Volunteers were taught to implement discrete-trial obedience training to teach 2 skills (sit and wait) to dogs. Procedural integrity during the baseline and written instructions conditions was low across all participants. Although performance increased with use of a video model, integrity did not reach criterion levels until performance feedback and modeling were provided. Moreover, the integrity of the discrete-trial training procedure was significantly and positively correlated with dog compliance to instructions for all dyads. Correct implementation and compliance were observed when participants were paired with a novel dog and trainer, respectively, although generalization of procedural integrity from the discrete-trial sit procedure to the discrete-trial wait procedure was not observed. Shelter consumers rated the behavior change in dogs and trainers as socially significant. Implications of these findings and future directions for research are discussed.

The behavioral treatment of auditory hallucinatory responding of a schizophrenic patient

This study assessed the efficacy of a behaviorally based treatment package to decrease the frequency of verbal responding to auditory hallucinations and to increase attention to important external stimuli, rather than to the hallucinations. The subject, a 49-year-old male, with a 20-year history of auditory hallucinatory responding (AHR), laughing and talking to himself, was seen in an outpatient clinic. Observations were made during management skill training, given usually twice a week. Observation sessions were divided into 15-minute intervals. The intervention package included reinforcement in the form of praise, pats on the back, and token reinforcement contingent on the absence of auditory hallucinations. Cancellation tests were given to measure his ability to attend to external tasks. Using an ABCAD design, it was seen that the data indicated that the intervention resulted in both a sharp decrease in auditory hallucinations and an increase in the subject's ability to attend to external tasks.