Kennelled dogs in shelters experience significant stress that impairs welfare and adoptability, requiring evidence-based enrichment and care programmes.
Kennel environments cause significant psychological stress through confinement, noise, loss of social bonds, and unpredictability. Long kennel stays progressively impair welfare and make animals less adoptable, creating a cycle of prolonged suffering. Reducing length of stay through effective rehoming, combined with evidence-based enrichment during kennelling, is the highest welfare priority for shelter managers.