Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1943. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1944. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1944. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-32).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Colorado State University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

[Truncated abstract] The Dogs and Physical Activity (DAPA) study sought to examine the relationship between dog ownership and physical activity, in particular walking. It used an ecological model to examine the socio-demographic, intrapersonal, social environmental, physical environmental and policy-related factors affecting dog owners walking with their dog. Results from this study are presented as a series of papers four which are published, in press or accepted for publication. A review of the dog ownership, health and physical activity literature and results from qualitative research of the potential barriers and motivators to dog owners being physically active with their dogs were used to develop and test an instrument for measuring dog walking behaviour. The DAPA tool was designed to measure the amount of physical activity people undertake with their dog and dog-specific individual and environmental factors affecting people walking with their dog. It was developed as a supplementary tool for the second RESIDential Environments (RESIDE) survey. RESIDE is a 5-year longitudinal study of the physical activity levels of people building homes in new housing estates in Western Australia. Findings from the baseline survey of 1813 RESIDE participants (44% dog owners) showed that dog owners were 60% more likely than non-owners to achieve sufficient physical activity and sufficient walking and almost 80% more likely than non-owners to achieve sufficient walking for recreation in the neighbourhood after controlling for demographic, intrapersonal and environmental differences. ... Findings from the DAPA study highlight the importance of the local policy and physical environment in encouraging dog walking behaviour. Perceived lack of accessible public open space (POS) and dogspecific exercise areas were identified by focus group participants as major barriers to dog owners walking with their dog. Objective measurement of the local physical environment of dog owners supported their concerns; no dog owners in this study had access to a sign-posted off-leash park [greater than or equal to] 2 acres within their neighbourhood. Furthermore, access to local POS with dog-supportive infrastructure was associated with being a regular dog walker. Overall, the results of this study draw attention to the needs of dog owners in the allocation and design of POS. The prospective component of the DAPA study enabled examination of the causal relationship between dog ownership and physical activity. After adjusting for baseline variables, dog acquisition significantly increased minutes of recreational walking within the neighbourhood by 37 minutes. However, after further adjustment for changes in baseline variables, the increase in minutes of recreational walking within the neighbourhood from dog acquisition reduced to 21 minutes and was no longer statistically significant. Increase in intention to walk appeared to mediate the relationship between dog acquisition and increased recreational walking. This study highlights a number of important physical activity benefits associated with dog ownership and provides evidence to suggest that dog walking has the potential to positively affect the proportion of the community who are sufficiently active.

The aim of this study was to measure the effects of video self-modelling on three children with dog fears aged between 7 and 13 years old. The study also aimed to teach these three children appropriate dog safety techniques and dog body language identification skills which they could use in everyday life. All three participants were recruited through school newsletters. The three participants attended two meetings with the researcher to discuss their dog fears and what they wanted to achieve from taking part in the study. Videos of each participant were then created to depict the participants being within the same environment as a dog while acting calm and displaying coping skills. Participants were also given hypothetical scenarios of where they may encounter a dog and were asked to rate their fear level. A book was created to teach the participants how to read a dog’s body language and how to behave around dogs. Participants viewed their videos and read their books for two weeks. They then went back to the same setting of the video with a real life dog and were asked to rate their fear levels for the same hypothetical scenarios. Results showed an overall decrease in reported fear levels in two of the three participants, with the third participants showing variable fear levels. It can be concluded that the video along with the book had positive effects on the participants’ fear levels and knowledge about dog behaviour. One major limitation of this study is whether the video or the book alone or a combination of both was responsible for the participants’ results and behaviour changes.

Thesis (MSc (Production Animal Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Dog adoption is a popular way for people to find pets in the United States. With dog adoption comes dog adoption narratives, ideologically about the dog, told by humans for humans. Dog adoption narratives, a genre of personal experience narrative, enact a series of formalized conventions that reveal societal binaries, tensions, and anxieties in the interspecies relationship. Using an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, I highlight the way these narratives are performed, organized, and interpreted. By comparing the adoption narratives of two different groups, people who regularly visit dog parks and people who do dog rehabilitation work, I argue that these narratives yield insight about the way humans perceive dogs in the United States within the context of how humans themselves want to be perceived by other humans. Dogs become a form of cultural capital and dog adoption narratives a reflection of cultural attitudes towards, and informed interactions with, the human-dog relationship.

No description available.

No description available.