Effects of Diet Change on Shelter Dog Kennel Behaviors and Cortisol Levels

Ketogenic diets have shown beneficial behavior effects as well as decreases in stress in mice and humans; however, this has not been empirically evaluated in dogs. The purpose of this study was to investigate if a ketogenic diet would be effective in reducing kennel reactivity, with a focus on barking, and cortisol levels in shelter dogs that currently display kennel reactivity. We placed 33 shelter dogs on a ketogenic diet over our nine-week study period (two weeks of a gradual diet change and four weeks on a full ketogenic diet). We collected one minute video recordings for the dogs twice every collection day for a total of eight videos over our four collection periods during Weeks 0, 3, 6, and 9. Of the 18 behaviors we analyzed, six significantly differed between the baseline and treatment phases. The positive behavior change we saw was a decrease in barking during treatment compared to baseline. Despite seeing a positive effect on barking, several affiliative behaviors observed in our study showed a significant decrease from baseline to treatment (facing forward, front of kennel, gazing, and wagging tail) while facing away increased during treatment. To assess the effect of diet on cortisol levels, we collected four fecal samples starting with Week 0 and then one every three weeks after during the nine-week study period. We found a significant decrease in fecal cortisol levels between baseline and treatment phases. In summary, we saw changes in cortisol levels to indicate decreases of stress when on a ketogenic diet, as well as a decrease in our main target behavior, barking. The results indicate something as simple as a change in diet is a feasible intervention for shelters to implement in real time to address in-kennel behavior issues, such as barking.