Felinoterapie, NCHK

Theory of felinotherapy
NCHK Internet course
Term :

Lesson 3 - Selecting Animals for AAT and AAA 

Involving animals in the process of zoo-rehabilitation is quite a unique activity. Throughout our shared history, cats have primarily played the role of pest exterminator- hunting mice and other rodents that threatened crops needed for human survival. Today, we place cats in the role of pets, exhibits, animal companions, and even as cat-people who assist us in therapy, activation, and education in institutions. This is an entirely new role for cats, one for which they may not have been prepared by millennia of evolution.
When working with clients in various facilities, cats experience the intrusion of their intimate zones by complete strangers, in an alien environment full of foreign smells and sounds. Cats have to leave their territories, travel with humans - and we expect them to tolerate and enjoy all of these interactions. We undoubtedly place demands on cats that cause them stress. It is our duty to learn to assess the level of this stress not only with the safety of our clients in mind, but also the welfare of the animals themselves.
So which animals do we select for the activity? According to what criteria? How do we work with stress so that the cat does not pose a threat to the client and at the same time its own mental and physical health is not compromised?

As AAT and AAA expand into more and more facilities and areas, it is obviously very important how accurate our testing procedures are and how we can protect everyone involved, including the cat itself.
In the Handbook on Animal Assisted Therapy, the authors list 11 elements, signals that can help us decide on the hidden dangers of an intended intervention with an animal. Can they also help us when choosing a cat? According to American safety expert, Gavin de Becker, accurate prediction is based on the 11 elements he lists in his bestselling book The Gift of Fear. These elements are :

Measurability
Advantage
Threat
Context
Experience
Comparable events
Objectivity (realism)
Investment
Repeatability
Knowledge
Indicators of future events
The authors of the Handbook on Animal Assisted Therapy state that incorporating these elements and evaluating them in the animal screening process can help determine whether we can confidently predict the outcome of incorporating an animal into the zoo-rehabilitation process.

In order to get accurate results, we need to have accurate measurement and evaluation tools in hand. For example, deciding whether a rabbit will make a good therapy animal is more difficult than predicting whether it will stay in the basket when people pass it between themselves. So we need to know what we want to measure and what will give us the required realistic answer. Clearly, the assumption that the rabbit will stay in the basket when people pass it around is more realistic than the fleeting idea of a "good" therapy rabbit. Weiss and Greenberg (1997) found that a dog's success in the most commonly used selection tests for service dogs has no predictive value that the dog will actually be a successful service dog.
To be able to predict the potential dangers and appropriateness of incorporating an animal, in our case a cat, into a zoo-rehabilitation program we must:
be good, patient, humble and attentive observers
we must know the ethology of the species we are working with
we must be able to read the body language of the species
we must know the complex communication of the species we are working with
we must know the sensory perception of the species we work with and which senses are most important to it
we need to know the body language of the animal we are working with or will work with, both in a calm situation (norm, standard behaviour patterns) and in stressful situations (possibility of comparison and detection of possible threats)
we have to decode this body language correctly
we must know our own body language, its meaning and how it is perceived by the animal we are working with and how it affects them
we must be able to read stress and frustration signals quickly and effectively
we must be able to work with this stress and keep it at an optimal level

All of this is the basis of working towards a mutually deep relationship of understanding and trust between animal and human. All this is a lot of work and a big commitment.
In most organizations there is a basic screening of the cat's temperament, stress responses, and team interactions prior to intended visits with the animal at the destination facility. This is understandable, as such screening also provides feedback to the owner( handler) of the cat on what areas of interaction and cognition they need to work on and whether the cat's temperament conflicts with the intended activity. Once this initial, preliminary screening has been done, we can proceed with the trial integration of the cat and its handler into supervised visits.

Observing the team in action in a facility with clients who may actually encounter the animal will provide a much more relevant picture of the team than looking at the results of tests performed by an unknown person in an unfamiliar and often completely artificial environment.
It is also important to test continuously and repeatedly. In a study on equine character testing, researchers concluded that only a small number of behavioural parameters were consistent over a one-year period( Visser at.al., 2001). This obviously raises concerns about current testing practices in some organisations, as many animals require retesting at different time intervals, including retesting after undergoing general anaesthesia, serious illness or transient trauma. One test in an animal's lifetime does not guarantee the safety of the client or the animal.
Great attention must also be paid to behaviour and the level of potential danger and stress in different contextual situations.
As already mentioned, knowledge of the species we are working with is crucial. For this reason, it is also preferable that the assessment of the suitability of an animal for inclusion in a zoo-rehabilitation programme is carried out by a team of experienced professionals - breeders, behavioural consultants, veterinary technicians, etc. - who have in-depth experience of the species and its behaviour and who are used to working under different conditions with animals other than their own. This teamwork helps to develop an understanding of the full range of possible behavioural responses in an animal under specific or unexpected circumstances.
In 2003, Professor James Serpell of the University of Pennsylvania and his team developed a new method to test dog behaviour. It is the C-BARQ test. A similar test is available for cats - the Fe-BARQ test, which was created in 2017. This test has become a routine test at NCHK since 2022 for baseline screening of cats being incorporated into feline therapy. It is unknown if other organizations use these tests as a tool to assess the appropriateness of including dogs or cats in AAI. The Handbook on Animal Assisted Therapy states that the applicability of this assessment to therapy dogs has not been explored (author's note - this was the predecessor to the 2001 C-BARQ test for service dogs).

Unfortunately, few situations are truly comparable to those that occur with the AAT and AAA. Studying animal behavior in facilities where AAT or AAA is performed can provide important information about how an animal will behave and react in another facility. We must carefully observe the animal in a familiar environment to understand what behaviors are typical for them under low stress levels and compare them to behaviors in an unfamiliar/stranger environment.

We now turn to definitions of some of De Becker's elements:

Reproducibility is a prominent element in scientific prediction because it allows the repetition of an already documented experiment and comparison with a published result.

The success of screening tests depends on the competence of the evaluator. The evaluator must have an accurate knowledge of the dynamics of AAT and AAA interactions in order to assess the appropriateness of incorporating the handler and animal into the process. Understanding the unique interplay of the animal's abilities and talents and the handler's responsiveness to the animal is a critical aspect in any given assessment. For example, an evaluator who shows dogs in obedience competitions and is not intimately familiar with AAT and AAA issues might reject a dog unless it demonstrates precise obedience skills. However, these skills may not be important in the facility in which the dog will be working.

Gavin de Becker states that the most reliable concept for assessing interaction and safety has to do with deciding how things are going to work out on the fly. Behaviour is best predicted by indicators of future events, factors that can be observed during the assessment process. To understand the mechanism of how future event indicators work, suppose you decide to rent a video. As you browse through the rows of videotapes, you see a title that looks interesting and you take the video home. As the video begins, the opening scene gives you the feeling that you have seen this video before. After the video runs a little longer, the music gives you more confidence that you have already watched this video. Over the next few minutes, the voices of the characters and a specific sequence reinforce that you have already seen this video.

All of these factors - music, colours and voices - are indicators of future events at the end of the video. In other words, you already have a personal experience with these elements. The more indicators of future events that can be detected, and the more that is known about the outcomes in any given situation, the more accurate a conclusion and estimate can be made.

Indicators of future events in animals include subtle, non-verbal signals. Abrupt, unexpected movement is the least predictable behavior. Anyone who has been bitten by a tail-wagging dog will agree with this statement. Indicators of future events are certain animal behaviors, including those referred to as calming signals, such as:

• licking lips

• rolling the eyes so that the whites are visible

• squinting

• looking away (looking away)

• yawning

These indicators give a much better idea of the animal's level of well-being and therefore the possibility of a stress response resulting in damage or injury to the intervention participants.

Indicators of future events are part of the flow of behaviour. Pictures illustrating a wide range of animal emotions can still be found in textbooks on animal behaviour. Thus, they create the false image that animal and human behavior appears as a series of pictures, as a series of individual and disconnected actions. In reality, the behavior is more like a moving sequence of film, where one image blends with another. The wagging tail of the dog becomes a wagging tail and the ears press back as the lips begin to curve. In observing the flow of this image as a dynamic change, the behavior of the animal or human can be very predictable.
De Becker's elements provide a way to think about how we incorporate animals into AAA and AAT, which may be more important than whether the animal passed the test. Any test is only as good as the knowledge of its author. Incorporating these elements into routine observations of animals and their handlers working in AAT and AAA-whether they are novice teams or seasoned professionals-gives the opportunity to expand the predictability of potential hazards in any program.