The role of the emotional relationship with humans on dog welfare

The overall aim with this thesis was to identify reliable ways to assess the emotional bond between dogs and humans and to investigate the effect of length of separation from the owner on dog behaviour upon reunion. In Study I, an evaluation was made as to whether the Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Procedure (ASSP), developed in child psychology, can be reliably transferred to investigate attachment between dogs and humans. In a balanced cross-over design, 12 research dogs participated in the ASSP in two different treatments, where the target figure was either a familiar person or a stranger. Results showed that dogs clearly preferred to be in physical contact with the familiar person, indicating that the dogs discriminated between people according to their previous experience of the relationship. They also showed more intense greeting behaviour towards the familiar person. However, there was no evidence to support the earlier proposal that the emotional relationship with a familiar person is of the ‘secure base’ attachment type, since the results for this comparison were similar when the target figure in the ASSP was a stranger. In paper II, the behaviour and cardiac activity of privately owned dogs without separation anxiety was investigated when they were left alone at home for 0.5, 2 and 4h. Each period of separation was preceded and followed by a 10-min period during which the owner was present and could interact with the dog. It was found that dogs were inactive most of the time they were alone and that their behaviour did not change over time. However, the length of time left alone significantly influenced the dogs’ behaviour when the owner returned. After longer separation periods (2 and 4 h), dogs had a higher heart rate and expressed a higher frequency of behaviours previously suggested to indicate arousal (body shaking and lip licking) during reunion with the owner. Dogs also displayed more tail wagging and initiated more contact with their owners after longer times of separation, regardless of owner behaviour. It was concluded that the ASSP is an inappropriate method to assess the emotional bond between dogs and humans due to inherent order effects in the procedure. Instead, dog behaviour upon reunion with their attachment figure is proposed as a better and more robust measure to assess the quality of the emotional bond

Promoting positive states: the effect of early human handling on play and exploratory behaviour in pigs

It is known that tactile stimulation (TS) during ontogeny modifies brain plasticity and enhances the motor and cognitive skills. Our hypothesis was that early handling including TS would increase play and exploratory behaviour in commercial pigs under standardized test conditions. Piglets from 13 litters were subjected to three handling treatments from 5 to 35 days of age: all the piglets were handled (H), none of the piglets were handled (NH) or half of the piglets in the litter were handled (50/50). At 42 days of age, the pigs' behaviour was observed in pairs in a novel pen with a toy' (tug rope). The main results were that more locomotor play was performed by pigs from litters where all or half of them had been handled, whereas social exploratory behaviour was more pronounced in pigs from litters where half of them had been handled. Although behaviour was affected by the interaction of treatment with sex or with weight category, we propose that the handling procedure does seem to have acted to increase locomotor skills and that handling half of the piglets in the litter may have triggered a series of socio-emotional interactions that were beneficial for the whole group

Reliability of an injury scoring system for horses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The risk of injuries is of major concern when keeping horses in groups and there is a need for a system to record external injuries in a standardised and simple way. The objective of this study, therefore, was to develop and validate a system for injury recording in horses and to test its reliability and feasibility under field conditions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Injuries were classified into five categories according to severity. The scoring system was tested for intra- and inter-observer agreement as well as agreement with a 'golden standard' (diagnosis established by a veterinarian). The scoring was done by 43 agricultural students who classified 40 photographs presented to them twice in a random order, 10 days apart. Attribute agreement analysis was performed using Kendall's coefficient of concordance (Kendall's <it>W</it>), Kendall's correlation coefficient (Kendall's τ) and Fleiss' kappa. The system was also tested on a sample of 100 horses kept in groups where injury location was recorded as well.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Intra-observer agreement showed Kendall's <it>W </it>ranging from 0.94 to 0.99 and 86% of observers had kappa values above 0.66 (substantial agreement). Inter-observer agreement had an overall Kendall's <it>W </it>of 0.91 and the mean kappa value was 0.59 (moderate). Agreement for all observers versus the 'golden standard' had Kendall's τ of 0.88 and the mean kappa value was 0.66 (substantial). The system was easy to use for trained persons under field conditions. Injuries of the more serious categories were not found in the field trial.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The proposed injury scoring system is easy to learn and use also for people without a veterinary education, it shows high reliability, and it is clinically useful. The injury scoring system could be a valuable tool in future clinical and epidemiological studies.</p

Best of friends? Investigating the dog-human relationship

Dogs are commonly referred to as man's best friend, but the main focus of this thesis was to investigate how the dog experiences the relationship. The first part of the thesis dealt with methodology currently used to assess the dog-human relationship: the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) and the Monash Dog Owner Relationship Scale (MDORS). In one experiment, possible associations between the dog's bond to its owner (using the SSP) and the strength of the owner's relationship to the dog (using the MDORS) were investigated. Associations found were linked to how much the owner interacted with the dog on a daily basis, but not to the level of the owner's emotional closeness to the dog. In another experiment, the SSP was evaluated for its suitability to measure a dog's bond to a human. Findings showed that the test procedure was sensitive to order effects, but that there was variation in how the dog behaved during reunion with the person. The second part of the thesis targeted the dog's reaction upon reunion with a human in different situations. In one study, the effect of time being separated from the owner was studied in the dog's home. While the owner was away dogs rested for most of the time, regardless of the duration of time alone. But once the owner returned, dogs initiated more physical contact and expressed higher frequencies of lip licking, body shaking and tail wagging after a longer duration of separation compared to a shorter one. In the final study, the type of interaction initiated by the human upon reunion was manipulated and endocrine measures were taken to better interpret the dog's behavioural reaction. It was found that when the person initiated both physical and verbal ('full') contact with the dog, oxytocin levels increased and stayed high for a longer time after the reunion event compared to when the person only talked to the dog or ignored it. The levels of physical contact initiated by the dog and lip licking behaviour were highest when the person interacted fully with the dog. In summary, at reunion the dog's greeting behaviour differed according to the familiarity of the person, to the duration of the separation and to the type of interaction initiated by the person. It is proposed that this variation in dog behaviour during reunion should be the target of future studies of dog-human relationships

Links between an Owner’s Adult Attachment Style and the Support-Seeking Behavior of Their Dog

The aim of this study was to investigate if an owner’s adult attachment style (AAS) influences how their dog interacts and obtains support from them during challenging events. A person’s AAS describes how they perceive their relationship to other people, but it may also reflect their caregiving behavior, and so their behavior toward the dog. We measured the AAS of 51 female Golden retriever owners, using the Adult Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), and observed the reactions of the dog-owner dyads in response to different challenging situations [visual surprise, auditory stressor and social stressors like a person approaching dressed as ghost or in coat, hat and sunglasses]. In addition, the dog was left alone in a novel environment for 3 min. Interactions between the dog and owner were observed both before and after separation. Spearman rank correlation tests were made (between owner AAS and dog behavior) and where correlations were found, Mann–Whitney U-tests were made on the dogs’ behavioral response between high and low scoring groups of owners of the different subscales of the ASQ. The more secure the owner (ASQ subscale ‘Confidence’), the longer the dog was oriented to the two sudden stressors (the visual and auditory stressor). The more anxious the owner (ASQ subscale ‘Attachment anxiety’), the longer the dog oriented toward the owner during the approach of the strange-looking person and the dog showed less lip licking during separation from the owner. The more avoidant the owner (ASQ subscale ‘Avoidant attachment’), the longer the dog oriented toward the owner during the visual stressor, the less it was located behind the owner during the auditory stressor and the less it was oriented toward the auditory stressor. These links between owner attachment style and dog behavior imply that dogs may develop different strategies to handle challenging situations, based on the type of support they get from their owner

Treatment overview.

<p>The behaviour of 14 cats was recorded during two different treatments (T_0.5: the cat was left alone at home for 0.5 h; T₄: the cat was left alone at home for 4 h). Data collection started 5 min prior to owner departure (PRE-: pre-separation) and continued until 5 min after the owner returned (POST-: post-separation). Summarised data from different intervals were compared between treatments (circled areas). In addition to the 5-min pre- and post-separation intervals, comparisons were based on one 5-min interval in the beginning (‘IR’: initial response) and two 5-min intervals towards the end of the separation phase (‘LR1’: late response 1; and ‘LR2’: late response 2). Moreover, a 5-min interval occurring at min 20–25 in T₄ (‘C’: control) was compared to the equivalent time from separation from the owner in treatment in T_0.5 (‘LR1’). Time intervals with the same colours were compared between treatments.</p