van Houtert Emmy A E, Endenburg Nienke, Rodenburg T Bas, Vermetten Eric
Animals in Science and Society, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, 3584 CM Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Centre, 2311 EZ Leiden, The Netherlands.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Mar 1;11(3):650. doi: 10.3390/ani11030650.
Only a few studies have investigated the welfare of animals participating in animal-assisted interventions (AAIs). Most of these studies focus on dogs in therapeutic settings. There are, however, also dogs-service dogs-that are employed to continuously support a single human. Because the welfare of these service dogs is important for the sustainability of their role, the aim of this study was to investigate their stress response to service dog training sessions. To do this, we took repeated salivary cortisol samples from dogs who participated in a training session ( = 19). Samples were taken just after arrival at the training ground, before training, after training, and after a period of free play. Our results showed that mean cortisol levels in all samples were relatively low (between 1.55 ± 1.10 and 2.73 ± 1.47 nmol/L) compared to similar studies. Analysis further showed that samples taken before and after participation in the training's session did not differ from one another. Mean cortisol levels in both situations were additionally lower than those upon arrival at the training site and after a period of free play. This led to the conclusion that the dogs in our study did not seem to experience training as stressful.
仅有少数研究调查了参与动物辅助干预（AAIs）的动物的福利状况。这些研究大多聚焦于治疗环境中的犬类。然而，也有一些工作犬，它们被用于持续协助某一个人。由于这些工作犬的福利对于其履行职责的可持续性很重要，本研究的目的是调查它们在工作犬训练课程中的应激反应。为此，我们从参与训练课程的犬只（n = 19）身上多次采集唾液皮质醇样本。样本在刚抵达训练场时、训练前、训练后以及一段自由活动时间后采集。我们的结果显示，与类似研究相比，所有样本中的平均皮质醇水平相对较低（在1.55±1.10至2.73±1.47纳摩尔/升之间）。进一步分析表明，参与训练课程前后采集的样本之间没有差异。这两种情况下的平均皮质醇水平也低于刚抵达训练场地时以及一段自由活动时间后的水平。由此得出结论，我们研究中的犬只似乎并未将训练视为有压力的事情。
