Therapy Dogs' and Handlers' Behavior and Salivary Cortisol During Initial Visits in a Complex Medical Institution: A Pilot Study

An initial survey of volunteer perceptions of horses in Equine-Assisted Services: Volunteer experiences, training, and educational needs

Equine-Assisted Services (EAS) gained a foothold in the healthcare industry as a unique modality addressing the physical, cognitive, and psychological health issues for people across the lifespan. These services require a team approach, with volunteer support playing a prominent role in service delivery. Volunteers are a precious resource for EAS programs and step into a variety of support roles, including preparation and handling. However, little is known about the horse-volunteer relationship or factors that influence their working relationships. Therefore, the purpose of this web-based survey was to characterize the volunteer experience and explore factors that may impact volunteers' ability to accurately identify equine behavior. A total of 240 volunteers from 25 Professional Association for Therapeutic Horsemanship, International (PATH, Intl.) Premier Accredited Centers participated in this survey. The results of the correlational analyses and a general linear model suggested certain volunteer characteristics can be linked to accurate identification of horse behaviors. Horse leaders (p < 0.001) and volunteers who help with adaptive riding (p = 0.048) or therapeutic driving (p = 0.031) sessions more accurately recognized behaviors than those who held other roles. Volunteers who had any amount of horse experience prior to volunteering correctly identified more behaviors than those who came with none. A qualitative content analysis showed that volunteers felt most unprepared when a horse exhibited a behavior they were not trained to handle, and volunteers indicated their preparation to assist in EAS could be improved with more general training and education related to equine behavior.

Canine-Assisted Interventions and the Relevance of Welfare Assessments for Human Health, and Transmission of Zoonosis: A Literature Review

CAIs (canine-assisted interventions) include "canine-assisted therapy" in which a therapist sets client-oriented goals, 'canine-assisted activities' with recreational goals for clients, and 'canine-assisted education/learning' in which teachers or coaches create learning goals for students or clients. CAIs vary in nearly every way; their only common trait is the involvement of dogs to respond to human need. However, the benefits of involving dogs are highly dependent on the animal's health and behavior. A dog exhibiting negative behavior or an unwell dog might pose a risk, especially for CAI target groups, specifically individuals with immunosuppression, chronic illness, children, elderly, etc. Therefore, positive animal welfare as preventative medicine to avoid incidents or transmission of zoonosis is an attractive hypothesis, with implications for human and animal, health and well-being. This review aims to summarize the current published knowledge regarding different aspects of welfare in CAIs and to discuss their relevance in the light of health and safety in CAI participants. As method for this study, a literature search was conducted (2001-2022) using the Prisma method, describing issues of dog welfare as defined in the Welfare Quality® approach. This welfare assessment tool includes 4 categories related to behavior, health, management, and environment; it was, therefore, applicable to CAIs. Results indicate that dogs working in CAIs are required to cope with diverse variables that can jeopardize their welfare. In conclusion, we propose regular welfare assessments for dogs in CAIs, which would also protect the quality of the CAI sessions and the clients' safety and well-being.

Dog-Owner Relationship, Owner Interpretations and Dog Personality Are Connected with the Emotional Reactivity of Dogs

We evaluated the effect of the dog-owner relationship on dogs' emotional reactivity, quantified with heart rate variability (HRV), behavioral changes, physical activity and dog owner interpretations. Twenty nine adult dogs encountered five different emotional situations (i.e., stroking, a feeding toy, separation from the owner, reunion with the owner, a sudden appearance of a novel object). The results showed that both negative and positive situations provoked signs of heightened arousal in dogs. During negative situations, owners' ratings about the heightened emotional arousal correlated with lower HRV, higher physical activity and more behaviors that typically index arousal and fear. The three factors of The Monash Dog-Owner Relationship Scale (MDORS) were reflected in the dogs' heart rate variability and behaviors: the Emotional Closeness factor was related to increased HRV (p = 0.009), suggesting this aspect is associated with the secure base effect, and the Shared Activities factor showed a trend toward lower HRV (p = 0.067) along with more owner-directed behaviors reflecting attachment related arousal. In contrast, the Perceived Costs factor was related to higher HRV (p = 0.009) along with less fear and less owner-directed behaviors, which may reflect the dog's more independent personality. In conclusion, dogs' emotional reactivity and the dog-owner relationship modulate each other, depending on the aspect of the relationship and dogs' individual responsivity.

Molecular Biomarkers of Adult Human and Dog Stress during Canine-Assisted Interventions: A Systematic Scoping Review

Positive relationships, including those between humans and other animals, particularly dogs, may be a way to reduce stress in humans. However, research into this area is relatively new, and a comprehensive review of the impacts of these interactions on humans and dogs has not been conducted. A scoping review of the scientific literature was conducted to explore what is known about the impacts of canine-assisted interventions on molecular biomarkers (e.g., cortisol and oxytocin) and associated measures (e.g., heart rate and blood pressure) of human and canine stress. As reported across 27 identified studies, canine-assisted interventions have consistently been demonstrated to elicit positive changes in human stress markers, and typically do not cause negative impacts on the studied canine stress markers. However, results were inconsistent across measures of stress. For example, in humans, it was common for a study to show improvements to cortisol levels but no change to self-reported stress, or vice versa. Many of the reviewed studies also had significant methodological issues, such as not aligning the timing of sample collections to when the analyzed stress biomarkers could be expected to peak. More rigorous research should be conducted on the impacts of canine-assisted interventions on a wider range of stress biomarkers.

Personalized Strategy for Animal-Assisted Therapy for Individuals Based on the Emotions Induced by the Images of Different Animal Species and Breeds

Simple Summary

In this study, we hypothesized that the personalized strategies for the animal-assisted therapy (AAT) could be improved by selecting animal species and breeds for individuals (persons) according to the emotions induced in the persons by different animal species and breeds. To our knowledge, this study is the first in the area in which the FaceReader technique has been applied to improve the methodology of AAT, which could be the first step to avoiding and/or minimizing stressful situations during a person’s contact with an animal. To implement the aim, the images of different animal species (dogs, cats, pigs, sheep, and horses) and various breeds of those species were used. This study showed that the animal species is a significant factor in the intensity of the ‘neutral’ and ‘happy’ emotions as well as valence. In addition, animal breed is a significant factor in the intensity of the emotion ‘happy’ and valence. Finally, in this study, we obtained results that could be used as a personalized strategy for improvement of the AAT and to help the individuals select a pet.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to apply the FaceReader technique to select the animal species and breed for a personalized AAT based on the emotions (‘neutral’, ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘angry’, ‘surprised’, ‘scared’, ‘disgusted’, and ‘contempt’) induced in the persons (18–64 years old) by the images of different animal species and breeds. To implement the aim, the images of different animal species (Canis familiaris, Felis silvestriscatus, Sus scrofa domesticus, Ovis aries, and Equus caballus) and their breeds (dogs: Australian shepherd, pug, Labrador retriever, Doberman, miniature schnauzer, beagle, three mixed-breed types, Yorkshire terrier, Cane Corso, Samoyed, and Chihuahua; cats: British shorthair, Himalayan cat, three mixed breed types, Siamese cat, Sphynx, and Bengal cat; horses: Norwegian Fjord, Exmoor pony, Andalusian, and Friesian; pigs: Vietnamese pot-bellied and Kunekune; sheep: Herdwick sheep and Suffolk sheep) were used. This study showed that the animal species is a significant factor in the intensity of the emotions ‘neutral’ and ‘happy’ as well as valence, and the animal breed is a significant factor for the emotion ‘happy’ intensity and valence. The obtained results could be used as a personalized strategy for improving AAT and helping the individuals to select a pet.