Motivational Interviewing in an Animal Shelter – A Pilot Study

Animal control officers serve their communities by communicating with the public to enforce animal-related laws and protect animals. Despite the importance of communication in this setting, research is lacking in this area. Motivational interviewing, a collaborative conversation style for strengthening motivation for behavioral change, is one evidence-based approach that could improve animal control officer communication skills. This pilot study aimed to investigate the implementation of motivational interviewing within an animal shelter. Participants ( n = 10) were randomly assigned to attend a training session and were asked to answer a 3-question survey about their use of motivational interviewing at five different time points. Attending the training significantly predicted perceived opportunities to use motivational interviewing, ability to use motivational interviewing, and frequency of motivational interviewing use. The present study suggests that motivational interviewing training may be beneficial in animal shelters; however, future research should focus on improving training implementation and participant adherence.