Döring Dorothea, Nick Ophelia, Bauer Alexander, Küchenhoff Helmut, Erhard Michael H
Chair of Animal Welfare, Ethology, Animal Hygiene and Husbandry, Veterinary Faculty, Department of Veterinary Sciences, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
Statistical Consulting Unit StaBLab, Department of Statistics, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
PLoS One. 2017 Jul 25;12(7):e0181303. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181303. eCollection 2017.
When laboratory dogs are rehomed into private households, they experience an extreme change in their life situation. They leave their familiar, limited environment in the research facility and encounter a multitude of animate and inanimate stimuli in their new home. Although literature reports have described the experiences with rehoming as being mostly positive, scientific observations of the dogs in everyday situations have not been done. Hence, we conducted an observational test with 74 laboratory beagles 6 weeks after adoption in their new homes. This test included standardized tasks and elements; the dogs were observed during specific interactions with their new owners and during a walk. Furthermore, the owners of these 74 and of 71 additional dogs participated in standardized phone interviews 1 and 12 weeks after adoption, during which they answered questions about the dogs' behavior in everyday situations. In the observational test, the dogs behaved mostly friendly towards humans and dogs, were tolerant during manipulations by the owner and were relaxed during the walk, even in traffic. Eighty percent (of n = 71) of the dogs walked well behaved on the leash without pulling. According to the interviews, the majority of the dogs showed desired, friendly and relaxed behavior, and the survey results reflected the bonding between dog and owner. The analysis of a possible influence of various factors (age, sex, origin, etc.) using mixed regression models confirmed the results from two previous behavior tests and interviews. Specifically, dogs that had been bred in the research facility scored significantly better than dogs that the research facility had purchased from commercial laboratory dog breeders (p = 0.0113). The results of this study demonstrate a successful adaptation of the rehomed beagles to their new life situation.
当实验用犬被重新安置到私人家庭时，它们的生活状况会发生极大变化。它们离开研究机构中熟悉且有限的环境，在新家中会遇到大量有生命和无生命的刺激因素。尽管文献报道称重新安置的经历大多是积极的，但尚未对犬在日常情况下进行科学观察。因此，我们在这些犬被领养到新家6周后，对74只实验用比格犬进行了一项观察测试。该测试包括标准化任务和元素；在犬与新主人的特定互动期间以及散步时对它们进行观察。此外，这74只犬以及另外71只犬的主人在领养后1周和12周参与了标准化电话访谈，期间他们回答了关于犬在日常情况下行为的问题。在观察测试中，犬对人和其他犬大多表现得很友好，在主人操作时很宽容，在散步时很放松，即使在有交通的情况下也是如此。80%（n = 71）的犬在 leash上表现良好，不拉扯。根据访谈，大多数犬表现出理想、友好和放松的行为，调查结果反映了犬与主人之间的亲密关系。使用混合回归模型对各种因素（年龄、性别、来源等）可能产生的影响进行分析，证实了之前两项行为测试和访谈的结果。具体而言，在研究机构繁育的犬得分显著高于研究机构从商业实验用犬繁殖者那里购买的犬（p = 0.0113）。这项研究的结果表明重新安置的比格犬成功适应了它们的新生活状况。 （注：原文中“on the leash”这里翻译为“在 leash上”，原文可能有拼写错误，推测可能是“on the leash”，意为“ leash上”即“ leash上”）
