HABRI Central

Thirty adult participants provided perceptions of their dog's behaviour and were then randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: the Obedience group, which received obedience training and canine behaviour counselling; the Time Instructed group, which was asked to spend 20 min a day interacting with their dog; the No Instruction group, which did not receive any instructions. After assignment, the Obedience group completed an 8-week obedience and canine behaviour counselling class where all the participants again provided information about their dog's behaviour. In addition, all participants were also asked to keep daily logs of the time spent with their dogs in training, play, exercise and other activities. A video-camera was used to obtain pretest and posttest measures of obedience behaviour, proximity, tactile behaviour and separation anxiety exhibited by each dog. Results indicated that the Obedience group showed the most improved obedience behaviour and the highest improvement in the human-canine relationship. The Obedience group also showed lower separation anxiety than the No Instruction group. The Time Instructed group also displayed improvement in obedience behaviour and improvement in the relationship and showed lower separation anxiety than the No Instruction group. The No Instruction group shower higher separation axiety, no improvement in obedience and no change in the relationship. Results were interpreted in terms of positive interaction and quality time.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

1. Abnormal behavior
2. Animal behavior
3. Animal rights
4. Animal welfare
5. Anxiety
6. Deviant behavior
7. Dogs
8. Mammals
9. Pet ownership
10. Pets and companion animals
11. training
12. training of animals