Meints Kerstin, Brelsford Victoria, De Keuster Tiny
School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom.
Department Nutrition, Genetics and Ethology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Front Vet Sci. 2018 Nov 20;5:257. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2018.00257. eCollection 2018.
Safe human-dog relationships require understanding of dogs' signaling. As children are at particularly high risk of dog bites, we investigated longitudinally how children from 3 to 5 years and parents perceive and interpret dogs' distress signaling gestures. All participants were then taught how to link their perception of the dog with the correct interpretation of dogs' behavioral signals and tested again. Results show a significant increase in learning for children and adults, with them showing greater understanding of dogs' signaling after intervention. Better learning effects were found with increasing age and depended on the type of distress signaling of the dogs. Effects endured over time and it can be concluded that children and adults can be taught to interpret dogs' distress signaling more correctly. Awareness and recognition of dogs' stress signaling can be seen as an important first step in understanding the dog's perspective and are vital to enable safe interactions.
安全的人犬关系需要理解狗狗的信号。由于儿童面临特别高的被狗咬伤风险，我们纵向调查了3至5岁的儿童及其父母如何感知和解读狗狗的痛苦信号手势。然后，我们向所有参与者传授如何将他们对狗狗的感知与对狗狗行为信号的正确解读联系起来，并再次进行测试。结果显示，儿童和成年人的学习有显著提高，他们在干预后对狗狗信号有了更深入的理解。随着年龄增长，学习效果更好，并且这取决于狗狗痛苦信号的类型。效果随着时间持续存在，可以得出结论，儿童和成年人可以被教导更正确地解读狗狗发出的痛苦信号。意识到并识别狗狗的压力信号可被视为理解狗狗视角的重要第一步，对于实现安全互动至关重要。
