Personality and Cognitive Profiles of Animal-Assisted Intervention Dogs and Pet Dogs in an Unsolvable Task

How to Measure Human-Dog Interaction in Dog Assisted Interventions? A Scoping Review

Human-dog interaction is the working tool through which the therapeutic, educational and recreational goals of dog-assisted interventions (DAIs) are achieved. A better understanding of the characteristics of this interaction could improve the effectiveness of DAIs. This scoping review addresses the question: how has the human-dog connection been measured in the context of DAIs? After searching the Web of Science and Scopus platforms, only peer-reviewed, primary research studies reporting measures of therapy dog-human interaction, relationship and bond were included. A total of 70 included articles provided information on what was measured (interaction, relationship or bond) and how, as well as the general context (DAIs or experimental situations with therapy dogs). While the majority of the articles identified use behavioural analysis methods to analyse the interaction between the participant/recipient and the therapy dog during DAIs, it was possible to identify some more structured tools that assess the participant/recipient's interaction, relationship or bond with the therapy dog, as well as tools that consider the animal's perspective or focus on the dog-handler dyad, indicating growing areas of research. The tools and methods identified can be used by both practitioners and researchers to further explore aspects of human-dog interaction in the field of DAIs.

Still-face effect in domestic dogs: comparing untrained with trained and animal assisted interventions dogs

The still-face effect has been extensively studied in human infants and comprises the reduction in affiliative behaviors and increased stress that occurs after a sudden interruption of social interaction with a caregiver. Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) are model candidates for showing this effect, as they form deep bonds with their owners and interspecific social interaction is reinforcing to them. The aim of these studies was to assess if companion dogs exhibit the still-face effect and whether prior experiences during ontogeny modulate this effect. To this end, Study 1 compared dogs with different levels of training (untrained, intermediate, and advanced), while Study 2 assessed dogs that participated in Animal Assisted Interventions (AAIs) and companion dogs (CDs). The procedure was carried out virtually and comprised three phases lasting 1 min: interaction, still-face (the owner turned suddenly indifferent), and reunion (the interaction was resumed). Dogs exhibited a decrease in proximity to and contact with the owner, as well as an increase in begging and stress behaviors during the still-face phase. Moreover, this was not observed in a control condition in which the interaction continued in the same way during all three phases, discarding alternative explanations for these changes. These results show that dogs experience a still-face effect in a similar way to infants, highlighting the value interspecific social interaction has for dogs. Nevertheless, the absence of differences according to their training level or participation in AAIs suggests this is a robust phenomenon, which appears to be less susceptible to the influences of ontogenetic experiences.