• DVM360_Conference_Charlotte,NC_banner
  • ACVCACVC
  • DVM 360
  • Fetch DVM 360Fetch DVM 360
DVM 360
dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care
dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care
By Role
AssociatesOwnersPractice ManagerStudentsTechnicians
Subscriptions
dvm360 Newsletterdvm360 Magazine
News
All News
Association
Breaking News
Conference Coverage
Education
Equine
FDA
Law & Ethics
Market Trends
Medical
Politics
Products
Recalls
Regulatory
Digital Media
dvm360 LIVE!™
Expert Interviews
The Vet Blast Podcast
Medical World News
Pet Connections
The Dilemma Live
Vet Perspectives™
Weekly Newscast
dvm360 Insights™
Publications
All Publications
dvm360
Firstline
Supplements
Vetted
Clinical
All Clinical
Anesthesia
Animal Welfare
Behavior
Cardiology
CBD in Pets
Dentistry
Dermatology
Diabetes
Emergency & Critical Care
Endocrinology
Equine Medicine
Exotic Animal Medicine
Feline Medicine
Gastroenterology
Imaging
Infectious Diseases
Integrative Medicine
Nutrition
Oncology
Ophthalmology
Orthopedics
Pain Management
Parasitology
Pharmacy
Surgery
Toxicology
Urology & Nephrology
Virtual Care
Business
All Business
Business & Personal Finance
Hospital Design
Personnel Management
Practice Finances
Practice Operations
Wellbeing & Lifestyle
Continuing Education
Conferences
Conference Listing
Conference Proceedings
Resources
CBD in Pets
CE Requirements by State
Contests
Veterinary Heroes
Partners
Spotlight Series
Team Meeting in a Box
Toolkit
Top Recommended Veterinary Products
Vet to Vet
  • Contact Us
  • Fetch DVM360 Conference
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy
  • Do Not Sell My Information
  • About Us

© 2023 MJH Life Sciences and dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care. All rights reserved.

Advertisement
By Role
  • Associates
  • Owners
  • Practice Manager
  • Students
  • Technicians
Subscriptions
  • dvm360 Newsletter
  • dvm360 Magazine
  • Contact Us
  • Fetch DVM360 Conference
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy
  • Do Not Sell My Information
  • About Us
  • MJHLS Brand Logo

© 2023 MJH Life Sciences™ and dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care. All rights reserved.

Assessing the Emotional Repertoire of Shelter Dogs

October 12, 2017
JoAnna Pendergrass, DVM

Shelter dogs have a wide array of emotional states that can be assessed using an innovative approach called Qualitative Behavioral Assessment.

Shelter dogs experience stresses that can negatively affect their welfare. In recent years, there has been increased research interest in shelter dog welfare, necessitating the use of reliable and easy-to-use assessment tools. To be comprehensive, these tools should encompass evaluation of the dogs’ physical and mental health.

Qualitative Behavioral Assessment (QBA), developed by Françoise Wemelsfelder, PhD, from the Animal and Veterinary Sciences Research Group at Scotland’s Rural College, takes a holistic approach to assessing an animal’s dynamic behavioral expressions. Previous studies in various species, including dogs, have reported QBA as a reliable and valid measure of animal emotional states. However, it is not known whether prior QBA findings in dogs, which primarily occurr in standardized settings, represent the emotions of shelter dogs, which are exposed to many social and environmental stimuli.

A study recently published in Applied Animal Behavior Science reported the QBA’s ability to assess the many emotional states of shelter dogs, suggesting its potential to be “integrated into comprehensive welfare assessment tools for shelter dogs,” the study’s researchers wrote.

Emotional Assessment

The researchers exposed dogs in 4 Italian shelters to one of 3 social stimuli: no stimulus, unknown person (a researcher), or familiar person (shelter worker). Thirteen veterinary students (“observers”) with dog experience analyzed video recordings of the social interactions.

RELATED:

  • Private Practices and Shelters: Two Sides of the Same Coin
  • Reducing Stress in Animal Shelters
Advertisement

Using the free-choice profiling technique, which allows for spontaneous judgments, observers first generated terms describing the dogs’ behavioral expressions. They then scored these terms using visual analog scales to indicate behavioral expression levels. Next, the researchers used several data analyses to determine a “consensus profile” of terms and group the terms into 3 emotional dimensions.

Results

There was nearly 76% agreement between observers on assessment of the dogs’ behavioral expressions. The 3 dimensions each included a range of emotions:

  • Dimension 1: Playful/social to bored/apathetic
  • Dimension 2: Relaxed/tranquil to nervous/fearful
  • Dimension 3: Stressed/bored to wary/hesitant

Each dimension contained primary emotions like fear and happiness, which are instinctive; humans, the researchers noted, typically “attribute primary rather than secondary emotions to dogs.” The study dogs were fairly evenly distributed across the dimensions, indicating that the dimensions well characterized the dogs’ emotional states.

This study’s emotional dimensions generally aligned with those identified in prior QBA studies in dogs, demonstrating consistency in canine behavioral expression assessments. However, noticeable differences with expressions of sociability, fearfulness, and boredom were observed between the studies. For example, boredom was rarely expressed in the previous studies yet was common in the current study, indicating that shelter dogs can experience hypostimulation that eventually leads to learned helplessness and inactivity.

Such differences support the need for species- and context-specific QBA tools. Shelter dog-specific QBA tools could add value to on-shelter welfare assessments, the researchers noted, “extending their power to identify and detect emotional shifts in dogs.” This assessment ability is critically important, given the reported link of fearfulness and sociability to an animal’s adoptability and overall welfare.

Future Applications

For the future, the terms generated in this and other previous canine QBA studies could be used to develop a standardized list of terms for QBA usage in dogs. Practically speaking, shelter staff could be trained on QBA and encouraged to incorporate it into their daily shelter responsibilities.

Dr. Pendergrass received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. Following veterinary school, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Dr. Pendergrass is the founder and owner of JPen Communications, a medical communications company.


Advertisement

Latest News

Q&A with a keynote: Walter Brown, RVTg, VTS, ECC

News wrap-up: This week’s headlines, plus dvm360® launches its first CE podcast

Educating clients on brachycephalic breeds

Viticus group seeks applications for veterinary boot camp scholarship

View More Latest News
Advertisement