Dr. Alexandra Protopopova

@KateMyers20 Such a good question. Unfortunately tracking return rates is very difficult as these numbers are typically very low so the needed sample size would be in the thousands.

@dr_prot I recently read that you are increasing adoptions by changing dog behavior to be more attractive to a doctors. I would be curious as to the retention rate of these adoptions. Have you tracked that and if not, why?

Vets hold breed-specific pain sensitivity beliefs, but no scientific proof. Veterinarians' ratings were associated with dogs stranger greeting, but not pain sensitivity. Further research is needed to understand mechanisms behind pain management for dogs. frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

📢New study alert 'Daily gabapentin improved behavior modification progress and decreased stress in shelter cats from hoarding environments in a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial' doi.org/10.2460/javma.… @BaileyHopeEagan @dr_prot @BC_SPCA

What happens when pets are posted online for home-to-home rehoming? NEW open access research by @LexisHLy and @dr_prot investigates predictors of successful diversion away from shelters through an online self-rehoming platform doi.org/10.1017/awf.20… #ubcAWPcompanion

The best research yet finds no overall association between depression and pet ownership. By my count, of 51 studies on pet ownership and depression: no effect - 35 studies, pet owners less depressed - 6 studies, more depressed - 7 studies, mixed results - 3 studies.

Monitoring the behaviour of individual animals is a challenge in shelters. Recent research shows that computer vision may be used for automatic behaviour monitoring. Check out this article in the new issue of West Coast Veterinarian Magazine here canadianveterinarians.net/media/luujuvzi… on pg. 16

When many cats in a recent study looked similar, we needed to find a new way to record animal behaviour in a shelter automatically. For our new study rdcu.be/cXXk4, we used computer vision for automatic animal behaviour monitoring @dr_prot @beneagan @BC_SPCA

I’m excited to be presenting at the 2022 ASPCA-AAWA Research Forum! Join me and other animal welfare professionals online on November 9 to explore the results of new studies in community and shelter animal welfare: aspcapro.org/splash/aspca-a… @aspcapro instagram.com/reel/CjQwObXJq…

Join us to celebrate Pablo's graduation at UBC Human-Animal Interaction Lab 🥳🎓🎉🎊 Pablo the science dog is one the first few dogs who joined us for one of our in-person studies at UBC and helped us a lot. Here he is celebrating his graduation with his mom 😍 Congrats Pablo!

Super excited about our new publication that explores challenges and resiliency factors in animal shelter staff in India. There are a ton of exciting tidbits (e.g., thoughts about what free-ranging dogs need to lead a happy life)! mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/1…

@dr_prot launches the new Human-Animal Interaction Lab! Learn about this initiative here news.ubc.ca/2022/09/20/new… #ubcAWPcompanion #ubcAWP25

Just in time for #InternationalCatDay !Download the resource here curtesy of @EaganBailey : baileyheagan.com/animal-welfare…

It's #NationalDogPhotographyDay 🐶📷 Have you ever wondered what makes an appealing dog adoption photo? In an online experiment, @dr_prot et al. investigated whether artificial backgrounds affected adoption interest 🤔 Check out the study in @PLOSONE 👉tinyurl.com/4a75vx2a

. @BaileyHopeEagan investigated the effect of animal shelter sound on cat behaviour and welfare. Through her research, she found that there are various methods which can help reduce sound, and attempt to keep shelter noise under 60 decibels. Watch this video to learn more!

Traveillez-vous dans un refuge pour animaux au Canada, aux États-Unis, ou au Mexique? Nous voulons vous entendre! Ici est noutre enquête sur lútilisation des médicaments anti-anxiété pour chats et chiens dans les refuges pour animaux: ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6t…

If you work or volunteer in a dog and/or cat shelter in Canada 🇨🇦, the USA 🇺🇸, or Mexico 🇲🇽, please consider completing our 20-minute survey (available in English, French, and Spanish) investigating the use of anxiety-reducing medications in animal shelters. Thank you! 🐱🐕

Why do people adopt free-ranging dogs in India? 🐕 1/4

Thank you to the Canine Olfaction Research and Education Lab at @TexasTech (and their dogs!) for having @ubcAWP PhD Student @BaileyHopeEagan join their lab for a project assessing the palatability of bacteriophage applications to dog food @dr_prot @UBCFoodSafety #ubcAWPcompanion

A new paper published by Antonio Hou with @dr_prot explores 5 years of rat admission and outcome data from the BC SPCA and discovers what characteristics of a rat increase its time to adoption. Read it here: journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…. #ubcAWPcompanion