The Society for Companion Animal Studies (SCAS) is proud to announce the successful applicants to its 2024 round of research funding. This year’s call prioritised One Health, One Welfare, and focused on applications that included emotional, psychological, and physical interactions of people, animals, and the environment.

Six Pump Priming Grants and one Student Project were awarded in 2024

UK Adaptation of the PET@home Toolkit developed in the Netherlands for clients receiving long term care at home and living with pets.

Peter Reniers (Instituut voor Antrozoologie, Netherlands)
Priming Grant: £10,000

SUMMARY: Pets have been shown to have positive outcomes for older adults and clients receiving home care, including improved quality of life, reduced loneliness and emotional support. However, for clients receiving home care, having a pet also presents a number of challenges, such as reliance on family carers to care for the pet, the need to rehome a pet when the clients move to a care home, and professional caregivers who may be afraid of pets. It can be argued that awareness of the benefits and challenges of pet ownership by caregivers could improve long-term home care services. In previous work, we developed the Dutch version of the PET@home Toolkit for home care professionals to support clients receiving long-term home care. The aims of the toolkit are to promote understanding of the important role pets play for clients, to raise awareness of potential challenges associated with pet ownership in home care, to improve communication and planning about pets, and to prioritisehuman and animal welfare. The PET@home Toolkit includes an information booklet, communication and animal welfare leaflets, a care planning checklist and an implementation plan. Use of the Toolkit has the potential to foster lasting relationships between clients receiving long-term home care and their pets, address challenges, improve animal welfare, and enhance the wellbeing of clients with pets, their family members and professional caregivers. To adapt the Toolkit for use in the UK, it will need to be translated into English and tailored to the UK home care environment. Therefore, we will involve experts in home care, animal welfare, clients, and family caregivers in focus groups and/or individual interviews to assess the toolkit materials and gather suggestions for necessary adaptations for use in the UK.

The PET@home Toolkit-UK can then be disseminated in the UK through local partners, such as SCAS. In addition, the Toolkit-UK will be presented at a conference and in a scientific article. Future research can determine the impact of Toolkit implementation on health outcomes and the value of experienced health services for clients with pets.

“My dog is my home”: Enhancing pet acceptance into homelessness accommodation services in the UK.ion of the PET@home Toolkit developed in the Netherlands for clients receiving long term care at home and living with pets.

Mackenzie Fong (Newcastle University, UK)
Pump Priming Grant: £10,000

SUMMARY:
What are the aims of this research? 
•To enhance pet-friendly policies of homelessness accommodation services (“hostels”)
•To design a future study looking at the economic costs and benefits of improving pet-policies of hostels.

Background to the research. People experiencing homelessness have a profound bond with their pet. Studies show that pets can reduce loneliness, depression, criminal activity, substance misuse, and even self-harm in this group. In the UK, very few homelessness hostels accept pets. Faced with the decision to accept shelter or give up their pet, most people choose to refuse shelter. Remaining homeless is linked to worsening physical, mental, and social health, which is linked to significant financial costs. To enable more hostels to accept pets, we need to know how pet-friendly policies can be delivered, and the costs and benefits of these policies.

How will we do this research? We will interview 15 staff and 15 residents from different hostels in the UK that have improved their pet-policies with support from charities, Street Vetor Street Paws. We will ask participants about their experience of working and living with pets, challenges to housing pets and how these can be managed, and benefits of housing  pets. To inform a future economic study, we will also ask about the impact of pet-friendly policies on residents’ health and wellbeing, and the costs associated with housing pets. We will ask for feedback on surveys and methods that could be used in a future economic study.

How will the public be involved in this research? We will involve in our study a person who has previously experienced homelessness with a pet dog. They will help: 
•design our study materials
•recruit study participants
•interview hostel residents
•give their opinion on the findings of our research

Why is this research important? This work has the potential to impact thousands of human and animal lives by promoting pet-friendly policies in hostels. This is needed now more than ever as more people, including those with pets, are likely to become homeless due to the cost-of-living crisis in the UK.

Companion Cats and Dogs in Nepal: A New Frontier.

Michelle Szydlowski (Miami University, USA)
Pump Priming Grant: £9,983

Summary:
Pet-keeping and human relations to companion-animal species (cats and dogs) in Nepal are very different from Westernised societies. “Owned” (pet or family) Nepalese dogs are typically allowed to wander freely, live exclusively outside the home, and regularly socialise with larger canine groups. Some dogs are referred to as “shop dogs”, and are allowed to inhabit spaces proximate to restaurants, butchers, and dry-goods stores. Many “unowned” dogs are fed or cared for by local community members, who contact animal-based NGOs only when medical intervention is needed. National NGOs provide adoption events, TNVRM programs, and emergency care (local vets work only with livestock, not companion animals). Prior to 2014, domestic cats (Felis catus) were rarely seen in Nepalese cities or villages. However, in the last decade, cats have begun to appear around agricultural land, shops, and in protected areas such as within the boundaries of national parks.

Chitwan and Bardia National Parks are two of these parks and are surrounded by small municipalities and rural villages. In these villages reside numerous livestock species, captive wildlife, free-living (owned and unowned) dogs, and more recently, cats. This project will explore the nature of the human-pet bond within this cultural context, focusing on potential risks and benefits to human and companion-animal (cat and dog) health and wellbeing. Working primarily with Nepalese residents and NGOs, this project seeks to identify how veterinary and social provision can support that bond.

An In-Depth Exploration into the Complex Interplay between the Human-Animal Bond, Perinatal Mental Health, and Companion Animal Welfare.

Roxanne Hawkins (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Pump Priming Grant: £10,000

SUMMARY:
Perinatal mental ill-health is a significant public health concern with new parents displaying heightened susceptibility to mental health difficulties during this life period. Pets may offer an important sense of comfort and support and thus act as a protective factor against the development of mental health difficulties during this life stage. Pets may also, however, worsen caregiver wellbeing through reduced human-pet bond, changes in pet behaviour(e.g., increased avoidance), unsafe pet-baby interactions, and increased caregiver burden. Pets are also likely to be impacted by changes (e.g., attitudes and priorities) within the perinatal period, increasing risk for compromised pet welfare and relinquishment. By taking a One Health, One Welfare approach, and through in-depth qualitative research methodologies (interviews with mothers), this study aims to identify important risk and protective factors for both maternal and pet wellbeing in the perinatal period, and importantly, to identify gaps in support needs and produce guidance and recommendations that will aid the development of future intervention and support resources for pet-owning new parents. This project will also produce findings that will lay important groundwork in which future human-animal studies within the perinatal period can be built, addressing a major gap in the field. Engagement with relevant stakeholder groups and public involvement (an advisory group) will ensure the study’s relevance, validity, and applicability to the communities it aims to serve, will ensure meaningful impact, and will aid the development of recommendations for relevant groups based on the study findings. Such future resources and interventions will be important for not only improving pet wellbeing amidst a time of change, and potentially reduce relinquishment, but also for putting protective and mitigating measures in place to support perinatal mental health and to ensure positive and safe baby-pet interactions.

One Less Barrier: Providing Fear-Free Dog Training to Intimate Partner Violence Survivors and Their Dogs to Strengthen the Human-Dog Bond.

Kristin Snopkowski (Boise State University, USA)
Pump Priming Grant: £9,975

SUMMARY:
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a critical problem facing billions of people worldwide, with approximately nine million American women experiencing IPV in the last twelve months. Companion animals are frequently threatened or harmed by abusers. After leaving an abusive relationship, IPV survivors may experience mental health challenges and companion animals may experience behavioural changes including aggressiveness or timidness. While positive human-dog bonds can improve well-being, the abuse that is experienced in IPV relationships can hinder this bond and reduce the well-being that the human and their companion animal experience from that bond. Little is known about the recovery of IPV victims and their companion animals, representing a big gap in our knowledge. This study will examine the relationship between humans and their companion dogs through an experimental protocol testing the effect of fear-free dog training for victims of IPV on the well-being of people and their companion dogs. There are four main hypotheses that this research will test: 1) dogs who have recently lived in IPV-households will exhibit an insecure-avoidant attachment style, 2) fear-free dog training will improve canine behaviour and welfare, 3) fear-free dog training will improve the relationship between the dog and the IPV survivor and 4) fear-free dog training will improve the well-being of the IPV survivor through the improved relationship with their canine companion. Forty IPV survivors and their companion dogs will be recruited to engage in one of two conditions: the experimental condition that engages the IPV survivor and the companion dog in fear-free dog training over a four-week course and a control condition. An advisory board including members from the humane society, women’s shelter, and expert academics will provide guidance and feedback throughout the study. One aim of this project is to disseminate findings in both academic and non-academic settings, including a peer-review journal article, international conference presentation, policy briefs distributed to potential beneficiaries, and op-eds. The completion of this research will advance the understanding of the relationship between IPV survivors and their companion dogs and if hypotheses are supported, will provide a mechanism to restore and repair the human-animal bond after abuse.

Student, Faculty, and Handler’s Attitudes Toward In-Training Service Dogs in Classrooms

Lindsey Person, Student Project: £1,180
Faculty mentor: Greg Elvers (University of Dayton, USA),

Summary:
The partnership between service dogs and people with disabilities provides important social, psychological, and physical benefits.

The early training of service dogs involves learning the basic commands, such as sit and stay, and exposing the dogs to many different people and situations. Some universities partner with service dog training organizations to perform the early training. Such training involves bringing the service dogs in-training into classrooms. Having dogs that are not fully trained in classrooms could be disruptive for reasons such as allergies, religious beliefs, fear, and distraction. Having dogs in a classroom can also improve the mood of and reduce the stress of students and instructors. This study will use a diverse and inclusive sample to investigate the instructor’s, students’, and dog handler’s attitudes toward having the service dog in-training in the classroom. Perceived stressors for the service dogs in-training will be measured. Best practices for mitigating any issues that are found will be created.