Socialization in Commercial Breeding Kennels: The Use of Novel Stimuli to Measure Social and Non-Social Fear in Dogs

Abstract

Understanding the behavioral welfare of dogs in commercial breeding kennels (CBKs) is important for improving breeders’ management practices as well as dog welfare. In the current study, breeding dogs from CBKs were exposed to novel stimuli to evaluate their behavioral responses, with emphasis on indicators of fear. Subjects were presented with a standard stranger-approach test, a traffic cone, and a realistic dog statue. Sixty dogs were exposed to the three stimuli and behavioral responses were scored using an ethogram developed for this study. Dogs spent significantly more time investigating the environment, staying further away from the stimulus, and they took longer to approach and investigate when presented with the cone than with the dog statue or stranger (p < 0.01). These findings suggest that the cone elicited more fear-related behaviors than the dog statue and stranger. Given these results, in addition to socializing their dogs to unfamiliar people and other dogs within their kennels, commercial breeders should be encouraged to increase the exposure of their dogs to more diverse novel stimuli to reduce non-social fear and support the welfare of dogs while they reside in the kennel and when they transition to new homes.

Management and behavioral factors associated with rehoming outcomes of dogs retired from commercial breeding kennels

“…Often, dogs are turned out in exercise yards in large groups, and they are often group-housed. These results also align with previous studies where a fake dog was used in behavioral assessments and a higher occurrence of social behaviors was recorded compared to other inanimate objects not resembling a conspecific [ 13 , 21 , 22 ]. The responses to exposure to these different objects loaded together in a single behavioral category that was labelled boldness.…”

“…Training and adult social interactions were less common. A moderate proportion of dogs showed fearful responses toward either social or non-social stimuli, confirming previous findings from this population of dogs [ 2 , 11 , 13 ]. Factors such as sex, social housing, and the number of dogs per caretaker ratio appeared to have an effect on the in-kennel behavior and health scores of the dogs.…”

“…However, half of the scored dog population responded fearfully as the tester increased the intensity of the interaction (i.e., opened the dogs’ pen doors and reached to touch them) [ 2 , 12 ]. Another study found mildly fearful responses in dogs from CB kennels toward non-social stimuli (such as a plastic cone and a dog statue) [ 13 ]. How these findings collected in the kennels of origin might be associated with dogs’ behavioral responses and abilities to cope with stressors encountered during and after rehoming has yet to be explored.…”

Evaluation of an easy-to-use protocol for assessing behaviors of dogs retiring from commercial breeding kennels

“…In the present study, the presentation of the artificial dog was used as a proxy measure of dogs' sociability, but the EFA revealed that this stimulus was responded to similarly to other novel objects presented. However, exploratory analysis using a more refined ethogram suggests that the dogs were actually reacting significantly differently to the artificial dog than, for example, the cone, in terms of types and frequencies of behaviors displayed [44]. When interacting with the artificial dog, our subjects showed less fear and more social behaviors (i.e., behaviors shown when interacting with a conspecific such as approaching with a low or a high body posture, increased duration of sniffing) than when introduced to the plastic cone [44].…”

“…However, exploratory analysis using a more refined ethogram suggests that the dogs were actually reacting significantly differently to the artificial dog than, for example, the cone, in terms of types and frequencies of behaviors displayed [44]. When interacting with the artificial dog, our subjects showed less fear and more social behaviors (i.e., behaviors shown when interacting with a conspecific such as approaching with a low or a high body posture, increased duration of sniffing) than when introduced to the plastic cone [44]. It is possible that the scoring system used here was unable to capture qualitative differences.…”