Selection, Acclimation, Training, and Preparation of Dogs for the Research Setting

Abstract

Dogs have made and will continue to make valuable contributions as animal models in biomedical research. A comprehensive approach from time of breeding through completion of in-life usage is necessary to ensure that high-quality dog models are used in studies. This approach ensures good care and minimizes the impact of interanimal variability on experimental results. Guidance related to choosing and developing high-quality laboratory dogs and managing canine research colonies is provided in this article. Ensuring that dogs are healthy, well adapted, and cooperative involves good communication between vendors, veterinarians, care staff, and researchers to develop appropriate dog husbandry programs. These programs are designed to minimize animal stress and distress from the postweaning period through the transfer and acclimation period within the research facility. Canine socialization and training programs provided by skilled personnel, together with comprehensive veterinary health programs, can further enhance animal welfare and minimize interanimal and group variability in studies.

A comparison of pet and purpose-bred research dog (Canis familiaris) performance on human-guided object-choice tasks

“…However, it is presumed that appropriate puppy-human interactions occurred during the critical neonatal period since these types of interactions are important to a dog's adaptability as a research subject (NRC 1992;Meuiner, 2006). Requirements for socialization (i.e., exposure to novel environmental and social stimuli in the first few weeks of life) for dogs used in research are generally the same as for working and pet dogs (Meunier, 2006;Scott and Fuller, 1965). These requirements typically include daily positive human handling, introduction to a variety of environmental sounds and textures, varying the people that interact with the puppy, and accustoming the puppy to medical examination procedures (e.g., touching head and neck, handling legs, touching paws, opening mouth, examining ears) (Meunier, 2006).…”

“…Requirements for socialization (i.e., exposure to novel environmental and social stimuli in the first few weeks of life) for dogs used in research are generally the same as for working and pet dogs (Meunier, 2006;Scott and Fuller, 1965). These requirements typically include daily positive human handling, introduction to a variety of environmental sounds and textures, varying the people that interact with the puppy, and accustoming the puppy to medical examination procedures (e.g., touching head and neck, handling legs, touching paws, opening mouth, examining ears) (Meunier, 2006). While residing at the vendor's facility dogs were pair-housed, grouped by gender, body size, and compatibility from weaning through adulthood.…”

“…The use of this population also addresses concerns regarding sampling bias that have been identified in previous studies using shelter dogs (Hare et al, 2010;Udell et al, 2010a). Additionally, purpose-bred research dogs are socialized to humans at an early age in order to optimize adaptability and tolerance of human handling and use as research subjects (Meunier, 2006). Therefore, altered performance on pointfollowing tasks is unlikely to be attributable to a fear or avoidance of humans.…”

Minimizing fear and anxiety in working dogs: A review

“…Puppies are curious about novel situations, but they can readily develop fear behaviors early in their exposure periods. Studies on research dogs have shown that handling for 3 minutes per day and exposure to stressors (e.g., changes in ambient temperature, different flooring, different handlers) in a manner that gradually increases in intensity and duration has positive effects on resistance to disease, emotional reactivity, and problem solving (Meunier, 2006). Gazzano et al (2008) reported that well-handled puppies of various breeds were calmer.…”

Behavior of laboratory beagles towards humans: Assessment in an encounter test and a simulation of experimental situations

“…Positive human-dog interactions have been recommended in a number of reports (Hubrecht et al, 1992;Bayne, 2003;Joint Working Group on Refinement, 2004;Meunier, 2004) and by the European Convention ETS 123 (Council of Europe, 1986), and the implementation of such interactions is vital for the success of research projects and associated experiments. In view of the very limited interactions of the dogs of 2 research facilities with humans described by Hubrecht et al (1992), the present study aimed to characterize the behaviors of the laboratory dogs of 4 research facilities in Germany toward humans.…”