Date of Award
5-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Behavioral Analysis
First Advisor
Mark T. Harvey
Second Advisor
David Wilder
Third Advisor
Kaitlynn M. Gokey
Fourth Advisor
Darby Proctor
Abstract
Well-trained volunteers are required to help meet the daily needs of dogs waiting to be adopted in animal shelters and to find new homes for them. Inadequate volunteer training leads to mismanagement and attrition of volunteers who are essential to helping shelter dogs get adopted. However, animal shelters often lack access to the resources and funds required to provide adequate training for volunteers. Using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design, this study evaluated a cost-effective program consisting of video modeling with voiceover instruction, on-screen text, examples, and non-examples that instructed volunteers to interact with the dogs in a specific manner to help the dogs learn behaviors that could help in adoption. To demonstrate the secondary effects of the behaviors acquired by the volunteers, investigators collected data on the behavior of the dogs. Data on the volunteers’ behavior was collected during the study and recorded for evaluation by an independent observer afterward. The results of this study demonstrate that video modeling with voiceover instruction, on-screen text, examples, and non-examples can teach shelter volunteers how to interact with dogs in the shelter. These findings could provide new insight into types of procedures for which video modeling might be useful and conditions that promote successful outcomes.
Recommended Citation
Will, Sean Michael, "Evaluating a Video Modeling Approach to Teach Shelter Volunteers How to Interact With Dogs in the Shelter" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 1574.
https://repository.fit.edu/etd/1574
