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Conference abstract2012

Body language of dogs responding to different types of stimuli

Norling, Yezica; Wiss, Viktoria; Gorjanc, G.; Keeling, Linda

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify behavioural indicators of positive emotional states in 9 female beagles by studying a variety of subtle movements. Dogs were trained to remain stationary in a test cubicle with transparent sides while filmed from the front, side and above. Dogs faced a stimuli presentation device with a shutter that revealed one of three stimuli; a familiar person smiling and talking in a praising voice (P1), a meatball (P2), both presumed positive, and a wooden block (N) presumed neutral. To each dog, each stimulus was presented once in each of 6 sequences. Behaviour was recorded for 5 seconds before and after each stimulus presentation. Data were analysed with generalized linear mixed model. Only significant differences with P<0.05 from Tukey post-hoc test are reported. As expected, there were no behavioural differences before the stimuli appeared. The initial reaction (1-2 sec) to all stimuli was to raise the head and turn it briefly to the right. Subsequently (sec 3-5), the most substantial changes were elicited by the familiar person with greater amplitude of tail wags (smallest difference P1: 4.07±0.95 vs. P2: 1.56±0.95 (mean no of zones±SE) in sec 4; 1 zone=13° deviation from centered position) and elevation of the tail (smallest difference P1: 2.15±0.30 vs. N: 1.16±0.20 in sec 5; one zone= 20°) compared to all other stimuli. Also paw lifting (P1: 0.19±0.12 vs. P2: 0.08±0.05 (mean lifts/s±SE) in sec 3) and lip licking were performed more often (least difference P1: 0.24±0.08 vs. N: 0.05±0.04 (licks/s±SE) in sec 4) to the familiar person. Although we cannot confirm the positive valence of the emotional states in this first study, these results lay the foundation for further controlled studies of behaviour or combinations of behaviour in order to map the body language of emotional states.

Published in

Title: Quality of life in designed environments? Proc. of the 46th Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology
ISBN: 978-90-8686-204-7
Publisher: Wageningen Academic Publishers

Conference

46th Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology