Dogs admitted to animal shelters exhibit behavioral and physiological signs of stress.
Among these is activation of the body's primary stress-responsive system, the hypothalamic–
pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. HPA activity provides a metric for assessing both the dog's
physiological response to the shelter as well as the effectiveness of attempts to reduce this
response. Glucocorticoid measures of HPA activation are high for days following entry into a
shelter. Further, it is unclear if eventual reduction in glucocorticoid levels represents actual …