<p>Accurate
assessments of behavior and welfare are needed to evaluate the state of
domestic dogs maintained in commercial breeding (CB) and other types of
kennels. Field assessments of dogs’ states of being must be reliable, valid and
efficient. However, observer subjectivity and situational variation in dogs’
responses pose a challenge to incorporating behavioral metrics into welfare
assessment tools. The published Field Instantaneous Dog Observation (FIDO)
tool, designed to capture the immediately observable physical and behavioral
status of dogs in kennels, was thus evaluated on its reliability and validity. Specifically,
the main goals were to determine 1) reliability of the behavioral scoring when
used by novice raters, 2) whether and to what extent dogs’ behavioral responses
to stranger-approach changed during a 30-second observation period, and 3) the
predictive power of the FIDO scoring on behavioral responses of dogs placed
within a standardized arena with a stranger. Behavioral responses to stranger-approach
were organized into three categories: red, indicating a fearful response to
approach, green, indicating an affiliative or neutral response, and yellow,
indicating an ambivalent response. In study one, behavior assessment was
conducted by two novice raters with 50 dogs housed at two US shelters. A
stranger approached the home pen of each dog in a non-threatening manner, stood
quietly, extended a hand to the dog and scored the response while the test was
video-recorded. Intra-rater reliability was assessed by comparing each rater’s
live observation scores with their scores of the same dogs using video recordings.
Inter-rater agreement between scores from video recordings was also calculated.
In study two, 81 commercial breeding dogs maintained at four USDA-licensed CB
facilities in the US were approached by one observer and scored once every five
seconds for 30 seconds. Of the 81 subject dogs, 56 met the criteria for full
sampling. In study three, 40 pairs of dogs were scored using the FIDO tool in
their home pens at four USDA-licensed CB facilities and assessed on responses
to an unfamiliar observer in a field test conducted in an outdoor arena.
Behavioral measures from the field test such as latencies to approach the
stranger and durations in different areas of the arena were captured from video
recordings and subjected to a principal components analysis [PCA] for reduction
of variables. A multivariate multiple regression analysis was thereafter used,
with principal component scores obtained from the PCA as outcome variables, and
FIDO scores as predictor variables, accounting for other factors such as breed
and group composition. Results from study one indicated that raters showed
almost perfect agreement between their own scores of live and video-recorded
shelter dog responses (kappa = 0.83, 0.89) and between each other’s
video-recorded scores (kappa = 0.87), indicating high intra- and inter-rater
reliability. Results from study two indicated that over a 30-second time frame
with five-second increments, 91% of the dogs showed no change in their
behavioral response to approach. This suggests that the first five seconds of scoring
provide a reliable time point for assessing behavior using the FIDO tool and
indicates no benefit to extending the FIDO scoring period to gauge dogs’ immediate
responses to stranger-approach. Results from study three showed that dogs
scored as red, as determined by the FIDO scoring, also showed higher scores
associated with avoidance, indicated by greater time spent away and more time
taken to approach the unfamiliar person in the field test (p = 0.039). FIDO
scoring was, however, not significantly predictive of other behavioral responses
such as interaction with the unfamiliar person. How dogs were housed was also
significantly associated with incidences of escape attempts from the arena;
dogs paired as a mixed sex (i.e. male-female) showed lower scores on incidences
of escape attempts than dogs paired as a same sex (i.e. female-female) (p =
0.003). Taken together, these results suggest that the FIDO tool can be used by
individuals without much expertise in canine behavior, and also attest to the
practicality of the tool via a reliable five-second approach. Further, results
also indicate that the FIDO scoring can help to identify fearful dogs in need
of greater socialization towards unfamiliar people. Future research would,
however, be valuable in validating behavioral scores obtained using the tool
against long-term indicators of overall welfare.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/7423649 |
| Date | 17 January 2019 |
| Creators | Lynda W. Mugenda (5930759) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/Refining_and_Validating_an_on-site_Canine_Welfare_Assessment_Tool_Developed_for_use_in_Commercial_Breeding_Kennels_/7423649 |
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