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Dogs in classrooms? At these private schools, pets are all over the place.
| Contributor(s):: Steve Hendrix
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Therapy dogs help calm people under stress
| Contributor(s):: Patricia Montemurri, L. L. Braiser
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The Effects of Pet Visitation and Human Interaction on the Happiness of Retirement Home Residents
| Contributor(s):: Candace Jean Donaghy, Richard Tucker (adviser)
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Determinants of the Level of Care Provided for Various Types and Sizes of Dogs in New Providence, The Bahamas
| Contributor(s):: William J. Fielding
This paper reports the level of care offered 424 dogs, classified as small dogs, large dogs, pit bulls and potcakes (the colloquial name for the local mongrel) in New Providence, The Bahamas. Levels of care that meet the legal minimum –food water and shelter– as well as care...
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Pets, Purity and Pollution: Why Conventional Models of Disease Transmission Do Not Work for Pet Rat Owners
| Contributor(s):: Charlotte Robin, Elizabeth Perkins, Francine Watkins, Robert Christley
In the United Kingdom, following the emergence of Seoul hantavirus in pet rat owners in 2012, public health authorities tried to communicate the risk of this zoonotic disease, but had limited success. To explore this lack of engagement with health advice, we conducted in-depth, semi-structured...
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I Walk My Dog Because It Makes Me Happy: A Qualitative Study to Understand Why Dogs Motivate Walking and Improved Health
| Contributor(s):: Carri Westgarth, Robert M. Christley, Garry Marvin, Elizabeth Perkins
Dog walking is a popular everyday physical activity. Dog owners are generally more active than non-owners, but some rarely walk with their dog. The strength of the dog–owner relationship is known to be correlated with dog walking, and this qualitative study investigates why. Twenty-six...
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The Interspecies Family: Attitudes and Narratives
| Contributor(s):: Nicole Lynne Owens
Families are conceptualized and accomplished in increasingly diverse ways in the 21st century. A constructionist framework was utilized to examine a widespread contemporary family form, the interspecies family. This mixed-method approach relied on both quantitative survey data and qualitative...
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Validation of a Commercially Available Enzyme ImmunoAssay for the Determination of Oxytocin in Plasma Samples from Seven Domestic Animal Species
| Contributor(s):: Cecile Bienboire-Frosini, Camille Chabaud, Alessandro Cozzi, Elisa Codecasa, Patrick Pageat
The neurohormone oxytocin (OT) has a broad range of behavioral effects in mammals. It modulates a multitude of social behaviors, e.g., affiliative and sexual interactions. Consequently, the OT role in various animal species is increasingly explored. However, several issues have been raised...
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The Human-Animal Bond and Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress
| Contributor(s):: Melissa White
This study explored the lived experiences of Operational Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) service members with combatrelated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms who had a companion animal postdeployment. Twelve OEF and OIF veterans participated in...
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Can you spare 15 min? The measurable positive impact of a 15-min petting session on shelter dog well-being
| Contributor(s):: Ragen T. S. McGowan, Cynthia Bolte, Hallie R. Barnett, Gerardo Perez-Camargo, François Martin
It is well established that human interaction has positive effects on shelter dogs. This work set out to answer the question: “Does one 15-min petting session make a difference for shelter dogs?” Fifty-five dogs were subject to one 15-min petting session with one of five unfamiliar...
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Assessment of Recent Cases of Animal Hoarding in Germany: The Challenge for Animal Shelters and Public Authorities
| Contributor(s):: Sophie Arnold, Henriette Mackensen, Evelyn Ofensberger, Brigitte Rusche
Animal hoarding is a severe problem in the field of human-animal interaction. The goal of this study was to assess the current situation of animal hoarding in Germany. Reports of animal hoarding cases were collected from animal shelters and public media between January 2012 and December 2015;...
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Human-animal interaction as a social determinant of health: descriptive findings from the health and retirement study
| Contributor(s):: Megan Kiely Mueller, Nancy Dreschel, Regina M. Bures
Background We focused on human-animal interaction (HAI) as an important aspect of social functioning at the individual level, framing this emerging field from a public health perspective. Methods Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2012 HAI module, we describe the...
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The Effect of Pet Ownership on ESL Students' U.S. Academic Success
| Contributor(s):: Emily Benjumea
This study examines the academic success of English as a second language (ESL) students based on ownership of and/or relationship with a pet, due to pets’ ability to benefit and support their owners. A survey was compiled for middle school, ESL students in the Fayetteville, Arkansas...
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The Processing of Human Emotional Faces by Pet and Lab Dogs: Evidence for Lateralization and Experience Effects
| Contributor(s):: Anjuli L.A. Barber, Dania Randi, Corsin A. Müller, Ludwig Huber
From all non-human animals dogs are very likely the best decoders of human behavior. In addition to a high sensitivity to human attentive status and to ostensive cues, they are able to distinguish between individual human faces and even between human facial expressions. However, so far little...
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Parent perceptions of the quality of life of pet dogs living with neuro-typically developing and neuro-atypically developing children: An exploratory study
| Contributor(s):: Sophie S. Hall, Hannah F. Wright, Daniel S. Mills
There is growing scientific and societal recognition of the role that pet dogs can play in healthy development of children; both those who are neuro-typically developing and those who live with a neuro-developmental disorder, such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. However,...
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The Truth about Humans: The Decision to Adopt Dogs & Cats
| Contributor(s):: Leann Stadtlander
Millions of dogs and cats are adopted from animal shelters every year, however, little is known about why specific animals are adopted. This study examines the qualitative comments given by adopters of cats and dogs for selecting specific animals. Differences between the species and insights...
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The association between owning domestic dogs as pets and the productivity amongst college students
| Contributor(s):: Emily Gerace
In the class Research Methods in Healthcare, we explored an introduction to the different kinds of research that are commonly used in healthcare and the benefits and uses of each kind. Always having a love for dogs, I wondered whether or not they would have any association with the level of...
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A Vicious Cycle of Abuse: The Relationship between Domestic Violence and Animal Cruelty
| Contributor(s):: Leah Staley
This paper explores research on the relationship between cycles of domestic violence and animal cruelty. It not only depicts that there is an under acknowledged a relationship between the two subjects, but also considers this relationship from multiple perspectives. This paper summarizes what...
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Molecular Characterization of Pneumococcal Isolates from Pets and Laboratory Animals
| Contributor(s):: Mark van der Linden, Adnan Al-Lahham, Werner Nicklas, Ralf René Reinert
Background Between 1986 and 2008 Streptococcus pneumoniae was isolated from 41 pets/zoo animals (guinea pigs (n = 17), cats (n = 12), horses (n = 4), dogs (n = 3), dolphins (n = 2), rat (n = 2), gorilla (n = 1)) treated in medical veterinary laboratories and zoos, and 44 laboratory animals...
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Is the Colonisation of Staphylococcus aureus in Pets Associated with Their Close Contact with Owners?
| Contributor(s):: Karolina Bierowiec, Katarzyna Płoneczka-Janeczko, Krzysztof Rypuła
In human beings and animals, staphylococci constitute part of the normal microbial population. Staphylococcus aureus could be classified as an opportunistic pathogen because the bacteria are noted in clinically healthy individuals, but when the immune system becomes compromised, they...
