Assessment of fear-related behaviours displayed by companion dogs (Canis familiaris) in response to social and non-social stimuli

作者：Stellato Anastasia C; Flint Hannah E; Widowski Tina M; Serpell James A; Niel Lee^*

来源：Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 2017, 188: 84-90.

DOI：10.1016/j.applanim.2016.12.007

• Dogs
• Behaviour
• Fear
• Social stimuli
• Non-social stimuli

Dogs that experience fear in response to everyday stimuli are likely to have reduced welfare, and are at a higher risk for the development of behaviour problems. To properly investigate the causes and consequences of canine fear it is important to correctly identify affected individuals. The aim of this study was to determine which behaviours are associated with fear in response to social and non-social stimuli. Testing took place within an outdoor pen and involved 31 owned companion dogs. Each dog completed a series of separate trials with either no stimulus (neutral), or sudden appearance of either a masked stranger or a garbage bag filled with crumpled newspaper. The dogs' responses were coded following the appearance of each stimulus, and when they were encouraged to approach each stimulus. Dogs in each test were categorized as fearful if they showed responses that are known to be associated with fear in dogs, including avoidance (retreat/evade), and/or a reduced body posture. The test stimuli were effective at inducing increases in these behaviours for a significant number of dogs during both the stranger trials (appearance: 74% of dogs, p <0.0001; approach: 60% of dogs, p <0.0001) and the garbage bag trials (appearance: 42% of dogs,p <0.01; approach: 58% of dogs,p <0.0001). Other potential indicators of fear that have been discussed previously in the literature were assessed for validation, including body shaking, hiding, yawning, vocalizing, tail wagging, lip licking, paw lifting, and displacement activities. More of the fearful dogs displayed subtle fear-related behaviours than non-fearful dogs during approach towards the stranger (p = 0.018), but not during the appearance of the stranger or the bag, or during approach towards the bag (p > 0.1). The number of subtle behaviours shown during testing was relatively small. A combined score for all subtle behaviours was correlated with the intensity of avoidance when the stranger appeared (p = 0.030, r, =0.39), and when the dog was encouraged to approach the stranger (p =0.026, r(s) =0.41), and with posture scores when the dog was encouraged to approach both the bag (p = 0.0084, r(s) = 0.46) and the stranger (p = 0.041, r(s) = 0.37). While subtle behaviours were displayed during the trials, performance was infrequent, so these behaviours are of limited use for fear assessments for mild responses to everyday scenarios where dogs can control their level of exposure.

• 出版日期2017-3