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A healthy emotional environment provides regular and predictable caregiving by compassionate, well‐trained staff members and actively reduces potential stressors and fear‐inducing stimuli such as loud noises, other intense or overwhelming stimuli, haphazard schedules, and frequent interruptions. Positive predictable handling is crucial. Staff members should be well trained to recognize signs of stress and fear in patients and to mitigate them through environmental management and positive, calming interactions. Minimal, gentle restraint should be used to handle tractable patients since research indicates that gentle human contact can attenuate the adverse effects of unpleasant stimuli, eliminate fear responses, and alleviate signs of pain in animals (McMillan 2002). Animals quickly become accustomed to schedules of care (e.g. feeding, cleaning, enrichment activities), and rapidly learn to adapt to new and novel stimuli if fear responses are not overwhelming or sensitizing. For these reasons, from the moment an animal enters the shelter, steps should be taken to reduce stress and fear.

Housing design and soundproofing can help to control noises. Loud noise must be avoided (e.g. slamming the cage door while the animal is in the cage, loud equipment or loud music, etc.). In addition, white‐noise recordings (such as the sounds of a fan blowing or rain falling) can be used to drown out other noises; the goal is to hide other sounds that might be distressing or disturbing. For example, many shelters might benefit from using white noise in cat areas to drown out the sounds of barking dogs. Also, for barking dogs, an evaluation of the motivation of the barker may help to solve the problem and alleviate the individual's distress as well as the impact on the environment. A solution for the problem may be as simple as moving a dog away from a door where there is constant provocative activity.

For cats, special care should be taken not to place them within spatial, visual or auditory range of other species, especially dogs. Creature comforts should be provided for all animals, including comfortable bedding and a hiding place or secure refuge. Soft bedding also allows animals to establish a familiar scent that aids in acclimation to a new environment. Importantly, cats instinctively feel more secure when they can perch at a high point; studies indicate that feline stress responses are significantly reduced when cats are housed in elevated cages compared to floor‐level cages (McCobb et al. 2005). For these reasons, carriers containing cats should never be placed on the floor and cats should be preferentially transferred to elevated holding cages whenever possible.

Individuals that are exhibiting marked fear and stress at the time of entry should be housed in specially designated quiet areas away from other animals and foot traffic within the shelter. Whenever possible, animals should be housed in their same enclosure, and whenever appropriate, spot cleaning instead of complete sanitation should be performed to preserve their scent, which is necessary for stress reduction. Spot cleaning is also often preferred because daily removal of a cat from the cage for complete sanitation may be unnecessary for disease control and may create enough stress to reactivate latent viral rhinotracheitis (herpes) as mentioned previously (Gaskell and Povey 1977). Care should be taken during cleaning procedures to minimize stress and noise, and cats should be allowed to retreat to their hiding spot if they choose while their cage is quietly tidied and replenished around them as needed. Commercially available “cat dens” are ideal for this purpose. See Figures 2.1a and b. In most instances, dogs should be removed from their enclosures during cleaning procedures or allowed to move side to side of a double‐sided enclosure to prevent undue stress. See Chapter 8 for more information about sanitation protocols.

The way in which animals are handled in the shelter has a profound impact on their behavior, health and wellbeing and impacts their ability to adapt to a new environment. When animals are provided with regular, consistent, predictable positive interactions and pleasant activities, they learn what to expect and can adapt and adjust to the routine. Even stressful events are less stressful if they are on a schedule. When aversive stimuli are unpredictable, chronic fear and anxiety may result. Conversely, if events that are perceived as stressful (such as cleaning) occur on a predictable schedule, animals learn that a predicable period of calm and comfort will always occur in between or afterwards. In other words, animals quickly learn consistent routines – and they will acclimate to a new environment much more quickly if they know who will be caring for them and when, and that the experience can then be a positive one. The importance of regular schedules of feeding, cleaning, exercise, and play cannot be overemphasized. Animals also respond to positive experiences in their daily routines. For example, feeding and playtime may be greatly anticipated; thus, scheduling positive daily events (e.g. a treat at 3 : 00 p.m. every day) should also be a priority.

Thus, a good emotional environment, combined with behavioral wellness care, promotes adaptation to the shelter environment because animals can learn to what to expect, have the ability to shield themselves from unpleasant stimuli, and are afforded the provision of basic essential creature comforts, as well as some control, variety, and choice.