Sutability assessment PADA
Animals participating in animal-assisted interventions must be selected according to their purpose, be healthy, safe, and meet risk management criteria. The suitability assessment ensures the welfare of the animals is taken care of. Safe and social animals involved in animal-assisted interventions are enriched by the experiences.
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The animals must be mentally and physically healthy, have an appropriate size and age, and must demonstrate the necessary skills to interact effectively with all potential users.
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For more information about PADA, please visit their website.
Expertise
It is important that animals are evaluated by objective professionals with education in animal behavior. Many environments and situations in animal-assisted interventions (AAI) jobs can be stressful for the animals, such as sudden loud noises, unpredictable environments, and interactions with people. It is not always easy to determine if animals are experiencing distress in these situations. Signs of negative stress can be subtle or may resemble other behaviors that we perceive as positive.
Advantages of suitability tests
One significant advantage of testing animals is that it allows us to understand them better and identify user groups and environments that best suit each animal. Not all animals are suitable for every situation, but they all have individual qualities that make them more suitable for specific areas. This not only provides a safer and more secure environment for the animals but also makes it easier and safer for us to create interventions that are tailored to both the users and the animals. In this way, we can make the most effective use of the animal's qualities.
We are not looking for obedience
How obedient or well-behaved the animal is does not determine whether it will perform well in a suitability assessment.
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What we look for are signs of fear, aggression, sociability, avoidance behaviors, and more. If the animal is mentally stable but has some disobedient behaviors, these are things that can be improved by training.
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For more information, please visit PADA's website.
