The things crossing your desk are pretty darn exciting, I must say!
Your first peer-reviewed scientific journal publication is totally awesome! It’s a study that I really enjoyed reading about and especially like this video illustration of how owner scolding can influence dog behaviour – poor Denver!
Your first peer-reviewed scientific journal publication is totally awesome! It’s a study that I really enjoyed reading about and especially like this video illustration of how owner scolding can influence dog behaviour – poor Denver!
I look forward to hearing more about the research you’ve done and are currently doing.
What things are you up to at the moment?
“I’m working on my PhD”
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I like these words a lot. They are on my wall. |
So what is it anyway? My research is looking at the effect of an enrichment program on the welfare and performance of working dogs housed in a kennel facility. This came up as something that needed further investigation when I was managing the Training Kennel & Vet Clinic Department at Guide Dogs Victoria.
Most kennel facilities are pretty typical - built to easily maintain hygiene, house lots of dogs safely and securely in a limited amount of space. Because of this, even when facilities are new and kept clean, they are often sterile and unable to meet dogs’ behavioural needs.
Certain behaviours seen in kennelled dogs, such as coprophagia (eating their own or other dogs’ poo – a behaviour not many people openly talk about, but it’s widely seen in kennelled populations), barking, floor licking and excessive self-grooming, have been linked to chronic stress in dogs, helping identify where welfare could be improved.
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Too much of a good thing? |
How do you do that? There are a few pieces to my PhD’s pie. First, I showed that dogs had a physical (stress and immune system) response to entering the kennel facility after leaving their family-home foster environment. Then we placed some dogs into the structured enrichment program and others were kept in the typical kennel manner.
We videoed their behaviour and collected saliva/blood to monitor what was going on inside their bodies that we couldn’t see. Using multiple measures (both behavioural and physiological information) is really important when trying to assess animal welfare. I’ll compare the data from the two groups (enriched and standard kennels) to find out if enrichment made a difference to their welfare.
I’m looking forward to my number crunching being finished so I can share my results with everyone! Helping effect change is something I love in my work and it will be satisfying to contribute towards improving the welfare of kennelled dogs who go on to help people with their amazing work.
Mia
Nice that you have access to shelters. At one time, I approached a few shelters in the LA area about doing some behavioral research, but the word "research" makes them so scared.
ReplyDeleteNobody wanted to work with us...
It's definitely tricky. Not always because they don't want to assist.
DeleteIn Australia, there are issues with the animal ethics clearance to conduct research (sometimes even just observational stuff) in shelter populations because of the question of ownership. Sometimes organisations have blanket policy about not supporting 'animal experimentation' - even though that might mean just video cameras observing animal behaviour in their kennel for a week to aid in improved shelter management, it's a stone wall for researchers trying to get involved.
In Australia, the shelter's can't generally authorise research on dogs that are still in their quarantine period (where owners may reclaim them) and generally once that period's over they are up for adoption in the public eye and out of the standard 'shelter kennel' environment - or euth'd.
That said, there has been some research done (cats and dogs) out of the Animal Welfare Science Centre in Melbourne that was conducted in shelters.
Let me know if you want more details! (MC)
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ReplyDeleteYes of course...I love dogs...And i wanna appreciate you to do the great job forever...
ReplyDeleteI think kennels long island can be one of the factors on how dogs behave. I noticed that also on my dog, whenever she's freed after a long time of being leashed, she becomes very active.
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