Boise State’s Kristin Snopkowski and Hallie Shean recently won a $12,000 grant from the Society for Companion Animal Science to study the impact of intimate partner violence on dogs and evaluate the ability of fear-free dog training to improve the well-being of dogs and survivors after an abusive situation.
Intimate partner violence is a critical problem facing billions of people worldwide. In addition to the danger they present to their partners, abusers can also threaten and harm companion animals.
“There’s a lot of research diving into how animals of abuse victims have also been abused,” said Shean, a second-year student from Medford, Oregon pursuing her Master of Arts in Anthropology. The grant will help fund Shean’s research as she works to finish her program this summer.
That abuse can manifest in fearful or aggressive behavior in animals, causing the harm of an abusive household to persist even after the victim has been removed.
“The animals can have strange behaviors like OCD, where they do the same thing over and over,” added Snopkowski, professor and chair in the Department of Anthropology, who supervises Shean.
Snopkowski and Shean hope to fill a gap in knowledge related to recovery after abuse, for both humans and animal companions. They will test four hypotheses:
- Dogs who have recently lived in households with intimate partner violence will exhibit an insecure-avoidant attachment style.
- Fear-free dog training will improve canine behavior and welfare.
- Fear-free dog training will improve the relationship between the dog and the intimate partner violence survivor.
- Fear-free dog training will improve the well-being of the intimate partner violence survivor through the improved relationship with their canine companion.
“In terms of fear-free, we’re talking about positive reinforcement training,” Shean said. “With this training, we don’t want to punish the dogs. We’re just rewarding them for their good behavior.”
The Society for Companion Animal Science grant will help compensate research subjects. It will also pay for fear-free training classes at the Idaho Humane Society, one the local partners for this research project.
Upon completion of the study, Snopkowski and Shean will advance the understanding of the relationship between intimate partner violence survivors and their companion dogs. If their hypotheses pan out, it will provide a mechanism to restore and repair the human-animal bond after abuse.
In addition to its academic impact, this research will directly benefit local organizations like the Idaho Humane Society and Women and Children’s Alliance.