The development and evaluation of a novel Cat Assisted Training (CAT) intervention for youth with developmental disabilities and their family cat

项目摘要/摘要 该R21应用程序提供了一种多学科的One Health方法来开发和评估 猫辅助训练(CAT)动物辅助干预(AAI)对早期发育不良青少年的帮助 残疾(DD)和他们的家猫。新的猫咪干预措施将是为期6周的遛猫和训练 为10-12岁的青少年提供的方案。参与者将学习如何对猫咪的肢体语言做出适当的回应， 练习无畏和基于积极强化的处理和培训技能，以及如何安装马具和 用皮带遛猫。对于人类参与者来说，在干预过程中学到的技能和行为是 期望促进和支持长期的身体活动、社会福祉和持久的 即使在干预本身结束之后，也要负起责任。我们也希望这些经验能够改善 儿童参与者与家庭中的猫之间的关系，进而减少孩子 存在并增加猫的社交能力和行为健康指标。因为每个孩子都会 与一只已经生活在他们家中的猫一起参与，这一计划将创建一个独特的积极合作伙伴关系 在孩子和猫之间，考虑到双方的健康和幸福。Pis Udell最近的试点工作 &麦克唐纳发现，无论有没有孩子，他们的身体和社交情绪都有所改善 基于AAI的宠物狗伙伴后的发育障碍。狗还表现出更强的社交能力和 在AAI参与后，他们对孩子伴侣的依恋。皮尤德尔和维塔尔的研究已经证明了 许多猫是高度社会性的，并与人类形成牢固的依恋纽带，猫可以成功地 训练了一系列的行为，包括用皮带走路，猫的训练课导致了兴奋 参与者保留率。猫的社会行为和福利也受到人类行为和 培训，使猫极有可能也受益于这一计划。仍然迫切需要 进一步对人工智能实践进行实证评估，特别是针对处于风险中的特定需求的做法 人口和青年。进一步扩大以活动为基础的人工智能系统的开发和评价 包括狗和马也有助于解决考虑和包括不同人类的迫切需要 参与者，为那些可能接触到猫的人创造了参与人工智能的新的公平机会， 但不包括狗和马(由于实际、健康、文化、社会经济或其他个人原因)。

Project Summary/ Abstract This R21 application provides a multidisciplinary One Health approach to developing and evaluating a novel Cat Assisted Training (CAT) animal assisted intervention (AAI) for early adolescents with developmental disabilities (DD) and their family cat. The novel CAT intervention will be a 6-week cat walking and training program for youth 10 - 12 years old. Participants will learn how to respond appropriately to cat body language, practice fear-free and positive reinforcement-based handling, and training skills, and how to fit a harness and walk their cats on leash. For the human participants, skills and behaviors learned during the intervention are expected to promote and support long-term physical activity, social wellbeing, and lasting feelings of responsibility even after the intervention itself has concluded. We also expect these experiences to improve the relationship between the child participant and household cat, and in turn, reduce cat stress in the child’s presence and increase cat sociability and indicators of behavioral wellbeing. Because each child will participate with a cat already living in their household, this program will create a unique active partnership between child and cat that considers the health and wellbeing of both partners. Recent pilot work by PIs Udell & MacDonald has revealed physical and social-emotional improvements in children with and without developmental disabilities following a pet dog-partner based AAI. Dogs also showed increased sociability and attachment towards their child partner after AAI participation. Work by PI Udell & Vitale has demonstrated that many cats are highly social and form strong attachment bonds with humans, that cats can be successfully trained a wide range of behaviors, including leash walking, and that cat training classes result in high participant retention rates. Cat social behavior and welfare is also heavily influenced by human behavior and training, making it highly likely that cats would also benefit from this program. There remains a critical need for further empirical evaluation of AAI practices, especially those that target the specific needs of at-risk populations and youth. Further extending the development and evaluation of activity-based AAIs beyond those that include dogs and horses also helps address the critical need to consider and include diverse human participants, creating new equitable opportunities for AAI involvement to those who may have access to cats, but not dogs and horses (due to practical, health, cultural, socio-economic, or other personal reasons).