Please cite this article in press as: Duffy, D.L., et al., Evaluation of a behavioral assessment tool for dogs relinquished to shelters. PREVET (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2014.10.003 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model PREVET-3663; No. of Pages 9 Preventive Veterinary Medicine xxx (2014) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Preventive Veterinary Medicine j ourna l h om epa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/prevetmed Evaluation of a behavioral assessment tool for dogs relinquished to shelters Deborah L. Duffy, Katherine A. Kruger, James A. Serpell ∗ Department of Clinical Studies, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 6 December 2013 Received in revised form 11 September 2014 Accepted 4 October 2014 Keywords: Dogs Animal shelters Behavioral assessment Animal welfare Questionnaire a b s t r a c t The goal of the present study was to evaluate a shortened, 42-item version of the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ (S) ) as a behavioral screening tool for dogs relinquished to animal shelters. In contrast to a previous finding, the cur- rent study found no consistent evidence that relinquishing owners gave unreliable or biased responses to the questionnaire depending on whether or not they believed that this information would be shared with shelter staff or used to evaluate dogs for adoption. Relinquishing owners’ C-BARQ (S) responses for items related to aggression and fear directed toward humans and other dogs correlated with independent subjective assessments of aggressiveness made by shelter staff (generalized linear mixed models, P < 0.05, N = 84 aggressive dogs, N = 156 non-aggressive dogs). In addition, C-BARQ (S) scores successfully discriminated between dogs based on their eventual outcomes (i.e., adoption or euthanasia; Generalized Linear Mixed Models, P < 0.05, N = 181 adopted, N = 177 euthanized), indicating convergent validity. Follow-up surveys with a subset of adoptive owners (N = 53) revealed significant correlations (after correction for multiple comparisons) between relinquishing and adoptive owners’ C-BARQ (S) ratings for 3 behavioral traits: stranger-directed aggres- sion (r s = 0.494, P < 0.001), chewing inappropriate objects (r s = 0.402, P < 0.01), and urination when left alone (r s = 0.421, P < 0.01). Overall, the findings confirmed the value of this type of shelter intake survey instrument for screening owner-surrendered dogs for the presence of behavior problems. © 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V. 1. Introduction Current evidence suggests that behavioral problems are probably the leading risk factor for relinquishment of dogs to animal shelters, with nearly 50% of relinquishing owners citing behavioral problems as a contributory factor, ∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Clinical Studies, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 3900 Delancey Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6010, USA. Tel.: +1 215 898 1004; fax: +1 215 746 2090. E-mail address: serpell@vet.upenn.edu (J.A. Serpell). and roughly a quarter citing them as the primary reason for relinquishment (Arkow and Dow, 1984; Herron et al., 2007; Miller et al., 1996; Patronek et al., 1996; Salman et al., 1998, 2000). Canine behavior problems are also a significant concern for animal shelters and adoption cen- ters since behaviorally problematic dogs may be returned post-adoption, or pose a danger to shelter staff, adopting owners, and/or other members of the public and their animals (Christensen et al., 2007; Mondelli et al., 2004; Shore, 2005; Stephen and Ledger, 2006; Wells and Hepper, 2000). Furthermore, growing public pressure to improve the welfare and save the lives of shelter animals has cre- ated a perceived need for reliable and accurate methods http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2014.10.003 0167-5877/© 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.