Separation anxiety is one of the most common behavioral disorder in companion dogs. Dogs not suffering from separation anxiety may still exhibit separation-related behaviors, which can differ depending on environmental contexts. In the present study, dogs without separation-related problems were video recorded during a short separation (3 min) from, and during reunion with, their owner. Comparison was done between if the dogs had played or been calm pre-separation. The dogs spent most time in proximity to the entrance and gazing towards where the owner left during separation. Their body-position was mostly standing, followed by sitting. All dogs were wining during separation, which occurred approximately four times more than barking. Dogs that had played pre-separation were running around more and had a longer latency to the first movement, compared to when they had been calm pre-separation. During reunion, when dogs had played pre-separation, they wagged their tail more and had a longer latency to lip licking, compared to when they had been calm pre-separation. The separation behaviors that occurred in this study aligns with previous work in this subject. Furthermore, one can suggest that play pre-separation might have an effect on separation behaviors, where speculations can be done if the positive affect associated with play might be the underlying cause for these findings.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-148212 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Strid, Matilda |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Biologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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