Are domestic dogs able to calm conspecifics by using visual communication? (original) (raw)

2010, Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research

The police of Lower Saxony, Germany, employed a dog as mediator between victims (children/teenagers) and officers during police interviews. Positive effects -maximum relaxation of victims -were found. To render the further use of dogs possible, a special test was developed, assessing the suitability of dogs as police interview assistance dogs. Participating dogs were tested in a behavior test including veterinary examination, frustration test, obedience test, doghuman-contact situations, dog-environment-contact situations, and child-like behavior situations. In each situation, the dog's display was recorded and classified as agonistic behavior, withdrawal, submission/signs of insecurity, socioneutral behavior, and social approach behavior. Per test situation, the behavior was evaluated as appropriate (score 1), conditionally appropriate (score 2), or inappropriate (score 3). Depending on results, successful dogs then underwent a specific training program. Subsequently, dogs were reassessed using the same test and scoring system. Data were analyzed using SAS 9.1. Differences between pre-training and post-training scores were calculated using McNemar's test. Values of p , 0.05 were regarded as significant, values of p , 0.01 as highly significant. Forty privately owned dogs, purebreds and crossbreds, aged 1-14 years, participated in the first test. Ten of these participated in training program and second test. From pre-training to post-training test, the performance of four dogs improved significantly (p 5 0.0194) or highly significantly (p 5 0.0016, p 5 0.0006, p , 0.0001). Five dogs showed improved scores but the changes were not statistically significant (0.1088%p % 0.4669). One dog performed worse (p 5 0.7477). In total, no dog was unconditionally suitable (score 1 at most in all 53 test situations). Six dogs (60.0%) were conditionally suitable (score 2 at most), four dogs (40.0%) were unsuitable (score 3 at least once). All participating dogs were kept as companion dogs, were from various breeds, and had varying histories regarding rearing conditions and previous training. The owners, all police officers, took part in the study voluntarily; they conducted the training sessions in their leisure time and not while being on duty. The results show that the training had an influence on the dogs' behavior, i.e. the dogs improved with respect to their suitability as police interview assistance dogs over time with training. The time available to the dogs' owners in this study was not sufficient and more intense training may well produce unconditionally suitable police interview assistance dogs. Establishing these dogs as a particular type of service dog, i.e. providing police officers with time for training sessions while they are on duty, and re-considering their breeding, rearing, and training might further improve the training the dogs, might be necessary to produce suitable dogs while also meeting animal welfare criteria.