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Animal Ethical Views and Perception of Animal Pain in Veterinary Students
| Contributor(s):: Anna Valros, Laura Hänninen
Veterinary students face several ethical challenges during their curriculum. We used the Animal Ethics Dilemma to study animal ethical views of Finnish veterinary students, and also asked them to score the level of pain perception in 13 different species. Based on the 218 respondents, the...
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The Other End of the Leash: An Experimental Test to Analyze How Owners Interact with Their Pet Dogs
| Contributor(s):: Giulia Cimarelli, Borbála Turcsán, Friederike Range, Zsófia Virányi
It has been suggested that the way in which owners interact with their dogs can largely vary and influence the dog-owner bond, but very few objective studies, so far, have addressed how the owner interacts with the dog. The goal of the present study was to record dog owners' interaction...
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More than Just Collateral Damage: Pet Shootings by Police
| Contributor(s):: Courtney G. Lee
The Department of Justice estimates that American police officers shoot 10,000 pet dogs in the line of duty each year. It is impossible to ascertain a reliable number, however, because most law enforcement agencies do not maintain accurate records of animal killings. The tally may be...
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Who's a Good Handler? Important Skills and Personality Profiles of Wildlife Detection Dog Handlers
| Contributor(s):: La Toya J. Jamieson, Greg S. Baxter, Peter J. Murray
Wildlife detection dog teams are employed internationally for environmental surveys, and their success often depends on the dog handler. Minimal research is available on the skills that dog handlers believe are important, and no research has been published on the personality profiles of...
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Owners Frequently Report that They Reward Behaviors of Dogs by Petting and Praising, Especially When Dogs Respond Correctly to Commands and Play with Their Toys
| Contributor(s):: Rossi, Alexandre P., Maia, Caroline M.
We characterized the reward patterns of dogs’ owners for the expression of desired behaviors of their pets through a questionnaire made available online on a social media page for 7 days (responses from over 66,676 owners). The questions were related to the type and frequency of rewards that pet...
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Exploring the Effects of Pet Preference, Presence, and Personality on Depression Symptoms
| Contributor(s):: Puskey, Jasmine L., Coy, Anthony E.
Pets live in nearly two-thirds of US households and are thought to increase wellbeing. However, previous research is mixed regarding the extent to which pets actually provide benefits. One understudied factor that may help clarify these findings is pet preference, or the extent to which a person...
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Pets and Loneliness: Examining the Efficacy of a Popular Measurement Instrument
| Contributor(s):: Gilbey, Andrew, Tani, Kawtar
The revised version of the UCLA-Loneliness Scale has been widely used to investigate the effect of pet ownership on human loneliness. This paper reports three tests of its efficacy for this purpose: 1) a qualitative evaluation of the 20 UCLA-LS items, which concluded that only 6/20 items were...
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New Zealand Pet Owners’ Demographic Characteristics, Personality, and Health and Wellbeing: More Than Just a Fluff Piece
| Contributor(s):: Fraser, Gloria, Huang, Yanshu, Robinson, Kealagh, Wilson, Marc S., Bulbulia, Joseph, Sibley, Chris G.
Although the relationship between pet ownership and health and wellbeing has received considerable attention in popular media, research on the topic shows inconsistent findings. We addressed the methodological weaknesses of previous studies by using data from a national probability survey (the...
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Associations Between Pet Ownership, Posttraumatic Growth, and Stress Symptoms in Adolescents
| Contributor(s):: Dominick, Whitney, Walenski-Geml, Aundreah, Taku, Kanako
Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) is the positive changes a person may experience due to the struggle with a highly stressful life event. One of the predictors of PTG is social support, and support from various sources have been shown to help foster growth. Pets have also been shown to provide feelings...
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Battle of the Sexes in Best of Breed: Sex Influences Dogs' Success in the Show Ring
| Contributor(s):: Bethany J.Wilson, Alicia J. Kasbarian, Navneet Dhand, Paul D. McGreevy
Much of the research on pedigree dog breeding has been directed towards understanding the implications of reduced genetic diversity and the prevalence of inherited disorders. An example is the potential role of the popular sire effect in perpetuating genetic defects. If male dogs are more...
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One Health: Fostering Hope for Older Adults and Homeless Companion Animals
| Contributor(s):: L. F. Carver
The One Health model proposes that human and nonhuman animal health be addressed in tandem, considering the well-being of both, and even including the environment. However, in practice One Health initiatives usually focus on animals as disease carriers. This paper is innovative because it...
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"She's Me": An Exploration of Pet Ownership from the Perspective of People Who Are Homeless
| Contributor(s):: Lana Parker, Leonie Boland, Alison Warren
For many people who experience homelessness, having a pet is an important part of their lives. Although the benefit and meaning of pet ownership has been well recognized in the literature, few studies have explored its meaning from the perspectives of individuals who are homeless. This...
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Management of Pet Cats: The Impact of the Cat Tracker Citizen Science Project in South Australia
| Contributor(s):: Philip Roetman, Hayley Tindle, Carla Litchfield
Domestic cats (Felis catus) are popular pets worldwide and play an important role in the lives of many of their owners; however, there is growing awareness of the potential negative impacts of cats. Accordingly, there is increasing interest in pet cat management, including changing the...
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Prevailing Clusters of Canine Behavioural Traits in Historical US Demand for Dog Breeds (1926–2005)
| Contributor(s):: Bethany Wilson, James Serpell, Harold Herzog, Paul McGreevy
Drawing on American Kennel Club (AKC) puppy registration numbers for approximately 82 varieties of pedigree dogs between 1926 and 2005, the current article analyses behavioural reports on 32,005 dogs of these varieties reported through the Canine Behavioural Assessment and Research...
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"Patients' interests first, but … "–Austrian Veterinarians' Attitudes to Moral Challenges in Modern Small Animal Practice
| Contributor(s):: Svenja Springer, Peter Sandøe, Thomas Bøker Lund, Herwig Grimm
Small veterinary practice is experiencing steady improvement in diagnostics and therapies which enable veterinarians to offer evermore advanced medical care for their patients. This focus group study of veterinarians (n = 32) examined the impact of these improvements and the potential...
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Children's experiences of companion animal maltreatment in households characterized by intimate partner violence
| Contributor(s):: Shelby Elaine McDonald, Elizabeth A. Collins, Nicole Nicotera, Trina O. Hagerman, Frank R. Ascione, James Herbert Williams, Sandra A. Graham-Bermann
Cruelty toward companion animals is a well-documented, coercive tactic used by abusive partners to intimidate and control their intimate partners. Experiences of co-occurring violence are common for children living in families with intimate partner violence (IPV) and surveys show that more than...
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Reply to the Comment from Watson, K.M. "Letter to the Editor Re: Kipperman, B.S. and German, A.J. Animals 2018, 8, 143" Animals 2018, 8, 179
| Contributor(s):: Barry S. Kipperman, Alexander J. German
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Awareness of rabies and response to dog bites in a Bangladesh community
| Contributor(s):: Sumon Ghosh, Sukanta Chowdhury, Najmul Haider, Rajub K. Bhowmik, Md. S. Rana, Aung S. Prue Marma, Muhammad B. Hossain, Nitish C. Debnath, Be-Nazir Ahmed
Community awareness regarding rabies and treatment seeking behaviours are critical both for the prevention and control of the disease in human and animals. We conducted a study to explore people’s awareness about rabies, their attitudes towards dogs and practices associated with treating...
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You Are Not My Handler! Impact of Changing Handlers on Dogs' Behaviours and Detection Performance
| Contributor(s):: La Toya J. Jamieson, Greg S. Baxter, Peter J. Murray
Dog-handler relationships can directly impact team success. Changing a dog’s handler may therefore compromise detection performance. However, there are currently few studies which support this. This research explored the performance and behavioural impact of changing a dog’s...
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Empathy in dogs: With a little help from a friend – a mixed blessing
| Contributor(s):: Sabrina Karl, Ludwig Huber
Kujala (2017) presents an extensive overview of existing research on canine emotions in comparison to those of other non-human animals and humans. This commentary provides some additional research results on the intensively debated field of empathy in dogs. We focus on recent advances in...
