Behavioral and physiological predictors of guide dog success

Tomkins, Lisa M.; Thomson, Peter; McGreevy, Paul D.

doi:10.1016/j.jveb.2010.12.002

Cited by 67 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…They suggest that sIgA increases after short-term stressors [27], [28], however one study showed a decrease [29]. Nevertheless, some previous studies detected the relationship between cortisol and sIgA levels after stressful situation in adult dogs: [1], [6], [22], [25], [30], [31] and also in children [32]. In children higher concentration of cortisol related with lower concentration of sIgA and together these associations had relationship with higher incidence of illness [32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Cortisol and Secretory Immunoglobulin A Response to Stress in German Shepherd Dogs

et al. 2014

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The aim of the study was to determine whether cortisol and secretory Immunoglobulin A (sIgA) could be used as an indicator of acute stress in both young and adult dogs. Seventeen German shepherd puppies were exposed to the Puppy test (challenge test) at the age of seven weeks. This test has been routinely used to assess the future working ability of potential police dogs. In addition, ten adult females were subjected to 4 minutes of defense training under stressful conditions. Saliva was collected from the puppies and adult females before testing and 20 minutes after the start of testing, using a cotton swab held for 1–2 minutes in each dog's mouth. Cortisol concentrations increased after the test compared to the control sample both in puppies and the adult females. However adult females showed a significant decrease in sIgA after defense training while puppies showed a tendency of increase in sIgA. We propose that salivary cortisol could be used as an indicator of stress in puppies during early ontogeny. It is not yet clear whether sIgA could be used as a useful indicator of short-term stress in dogs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Cortisol and Secretory Immunoglobulin A Response to Stress in German Shepherd Dogs

et al. 2014

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“…success is associated with high levels of obedience and trainability and low levels of reactivity, hyperactivity, aggression, distraction, and anxious behaviors (e.g., barking) (24,26,29,32,35). To date, however, no study has examined the direct effect of mother-puppy interactions on program success or failure; examined the direct effect of performance on cognitive tests on subsequent working dog success; or simultaneously explored maternal, cognitive, and temperament effects within the same model, thereby testing each variable while controlling for the others.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of maternal investment, temperament, and cognition on guide dog success

Bray

Sammel

Cheney

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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A continuing debate in studies of social development in both humans and other animals is the extent to which early life experiences affect adult behavior. Also unclear are the relative contributions of cognitive skills ("intelligence") and temperament for successful outcomes. Guide dogs are particularly suited to research on these questions. To succeed as a guide dog, individuals must accomplish complex navigation and decision making without succumbing to distractions and unforeseen obstacles. Faced with these rigorous demands, only ∼70% of dogs that enter training ultimately achieve success. What predicts success as a guide dog? To address these questions, we followed 98 puppies from birth to adulthood. We found that high levels of overall maternal behavior were linked with a higher likelihood of program failure. Furthermore, mothers whose nursing style required greater effort by puppies were more likely to produce successful offspring, whereas mothers whose nursing style required less effort were more likely to produce offspring that failed. In young adults, an inability to solve a multistep task quickly, compounded with high levels of perseveration during the task, was associated with failure. Young adults that were released from the program also appeared more anxious, as indicated by a short latency to vocalize when faced with a novel object task. Our results suggest that both maternal nursing behavior and individual traits of cognition and temperament are associated with guide dog success.guide dogs | nursing style | maternal style | temperament | cognition I t is often assumed that, in both human and nonhuman animals, variation in cognitive abilities contributes to variation in problemsolving skills. However, there remains little consensus about what attributes, exactly, comprise such abilities, because performance is affected not just by variation in general "intelligence" (1) or reasoning ability (e.g., refs. 2, 3) but also by variation in more affective attributes, such as impulse control, neophobia, motivation, and exploration (e.g., refs. 4-6).Similarly, the long-term effects of early life experiences remain poorly understood. There is now considerable evidence that early exposure to stress has lasting effects on physiology [e.g., humans (refs. 7-9), rodents (refs. 10, 11), rhesus macaques (ref.12 and reviewed in ref. 13)]. In rhesus macaques, mothering style is correlated with offspring cortisol and serotonin levels (14, 15), and in baboons, the male offspring of subordinate mothers exhibit higher glucocorticoid levels than the offspring of more dominant mothers (16). In rodents, experiences across the early weeks of life have lasting implications for later temperament measures, such as stress reactivity and fear (17, 18), and cognitive skills, such as spatial memory (19). Similar effects are observed in children, where negative life events in childhood are linked to later reductions in adolescent self-control (20).Guide dogs are particularly suited to research on the longterm effects of early experi...

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“…Although assistance dog provider organisations generally oversee the puppy-raising practices of their volunteer raisers, research has found that puppy-raising outcomes vary widely amongst puppy raisers [6][7][8]. Although very little information is available about graduation rates for assistance dog puppies in general, it has been reported that approximately half of all guide dog puppies fail to qualify and work in their intended role [1,9,10]. This high failure rate is unacceptable for various reasons, such as economic inefficiency and welfare of the dogs after being disqualified and rehomed [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raising an Assistance Dog Puppy—Stakeholder Perspectives on What Helps and What Hinders

Loc

Howell

Benton

et al. 2020

Animals

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Assistance dog puppies live with their raisers for up to 16 months before entering advanced training and, hopefully, becoming qualified to help people with a disability. Almost half of the puppies fail to meet the behavioural standards required for assistance dogs, and some puppy raisers produce more behaviourally favourable puppies than others. It is unclear what factors influence puppy-raising practice quality. To understand this, we interviewed 17 participants, including experienced puppy raisers (n = 8), provider organisation staff (n = 4), and those who have served both as puppy raisers and staff (n = 5). Results of a thematic analysis suggest three groups of influencing factors, namely intrapersonal factors, social support, and puppy characteristics. Intrapersonal factors such as expectations, competency, perseverance and passion were reported to influence puppy raisers’ experiences, puppy-raising quality, and continuity of service. Contextual factors such as availability of social support (informational and emotional supports) and less-demanding puppies both led to positive puppy-raising experiences, while the former also contributed to puppy raisers’ perceptions of competency. Future research should quantitatively examine the interrelationships of these factors concerning puppies’ behavioural development. Meanwhile, organisations could consider these factors when developing their recruitment and puppy-raiser support programs.

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Behavioral and physiological predictors of guide dog success

Cited by 67 publications

References 32 publications

Cortisol and Secretory Immunoglobulin A Response to Stress in German Shepherd Dogs

Cortisol and Secretory Immunoglobulin A Response to Stress in German Shepherd Dogs

Effects of maternal investment, temperament, and cognition on guide dog success

Raising an Assistance Dog Puppy—Stakeholder Perspectives on What Helps and What Hinders

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