The Challenge
Lumie, a Maltese Poodle in a busy shelter, was struggling. She had been living in this shelter for six months, and though physically healthy, she paced constantly, vocalized excessively, and was steadily withdrawing from human interaction. She was sadly labelled as “difficult to rehome,” after she was returned to the shelter twice. This is where MHERA™ was applied.
MHERA™ Assessment
Mood state (Current Emotional Baseline): Lumie was constantly in a high arousal, negatively valenced mood – as shown on the Mood state graph. Recognizing this distinction reframed her behaviour as a wellbeing challenge rather than a ‘behaviour problem’.
Cognitive Bias: Testing revealed a pessimistic Q3 bias. Lumie interpreted ambiguous cues as not predicting anything good – she was always hesitant when encountering neutral stimuli. This affected how she responded to changes in her environment.
Hedonic Budget: Using the hedonic budget calculator, staff compared Lumie’s activity patterns to those of her canine counterparts. Her graph revealed deficits in rest, SEEKING, CARE and PLAY, highlighting the imbalance in systems that support wellbeing.
Emotionality: Lumie showed joy when interacting with certain volunteers but quickly reverted to stress behaviours when routines were unpredictable. This documented her sensitivity to environmental change and her limited emotional range under shelter conditions. As her mood state deteriorated, Lumie
Reinforcement Analysis: MHERA™ revealed that Lumie’s pacing and vocalisation were internally reinforced – the behaviours themselves provided a form of self-soothing in response to her mood state. This meant that external rewards (like food treats) were ineffective at influencing her behaviour permanently. Lumie needed support to change how she was experiencing her environment.
Treatment:
- The shelter reduced environmental triggers via smart kennel designs aimed at encouraging rest (i.e. temporary visual barriers between her and other dogs), Lumie could increase the amount of time she rested or slept.
- Activities that specifically targeted the deficits in her hedonic budget were designed. This included:
SEEKING: changing the way she was fed from a bowl once a day to scatter feeding, providing food in food dispensing toys and giving her enough dog-safe items to chew.
PLAY: providing at least one opportunity per day for an hour for social play with a dog-friend in the securely fenced field, as well as giving her the right kind of toys for object play on her own in her kennel.
CARE: making sure she had dedicated time with several different carers each day to improve her mood. This prevented over-attachment to just one carer, while at the same time meeting her need for calm, gentle human contact.
By creating predictable, calm routines, the shelter supported Lumie’s wellbeing needs, allowing healthier behaviours to emerge.
The Outcome
Within 8 weeks of applying the program that was developed specifically for her based on the MHERA™ assessment outcome:
- Lumie’s pacing decreased as her hedonic budget re-balanced, reflected in her willingness to explore and engage.
• Her current mood state shifted from anxiety to calm curiosity.
• Volunteers reported consistent positive moods, with Lumie actively seeking gentle interaction.
The team worked at Lumie’s pace, as her cognitive bias cautioned them to not proceed too quickly with the changes, as that could have negatively affected her. And most importantly, MHERA™ helped the shelter team see Lumie’s emotional reality rather than viewing her behaviour as problematic. This insight proved invaluable: Lumie was successfully rehomed into a family who understood her emotional needs, and her transition was smooth and joyful.
Why This Case Matters
Lumie’s story demonstrates how MHERA™ focuses animal care to what the animal needs. Together, these tools created a holistic wellbeing profile that guided interventions and changed Lumie’s future.
Her case reminds us that when we measure wellbeing through MHERA™, we don’t just see behaviour – we uncover the emotional truth behind it, and more importantly, it guides us to a better understanding of how animals experience their care. The targeted insights provided by the MHERA™ assessments allow us to be precise in what we do, setting behaviour management and modification up for success.
I learned a lot from this. Thank you.