Institute of Animal Biochemistry and Genetics, Centre of Biosciences, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
J Therm Biol. 2023 Feb;112:103441. doi: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2022.103441. Epub 2022 Dec 26.
Military working dogs are exposed to high levels of physical load during their work, although this is not always evident from their behaviour. This workload causes various physiological changes, including variation in the temperature of the affected body parts. In this preliminary study, we investigated whether thermal changes following the daily work routine of military dogs are detectable by infrared thermography (IRT). The experiment was carried out on eight male German and Belgian shepherd patrol guard dogs performing two training activities, obedience and defence. The surface temperature (Ts) of 12 selected body parts on both body sides was measured with the IRT camera 5 min before, 5 min after and 30 min after training. As predicted, there was a greater increase in Ts (mean of all measured body parts) after defence than after obedience, 5 min (by 1.24 vs. 0.60 °C, P < 0.001) and 30 min after activity (by 0.90vs. 0.57 °C, P < 0.01) compared to pre-activity levels. These findings indicate that defence is more physically demanding than obedience activity. Considering the activities separately, obedience increased Ts 5 min after the activity only in the trunk (P < 0.001) but not in the limbs, whereas defence increased it in all measured body parts (P < 0.001). Ts 30 min after obedience decreased to the pre-activity level in parts at trunk, while in distal parts of the limbs Ts remained elevated. The prolonged elevation in Ts of the limbs after both activities indicates heat flow from the core to the periphery as a thermoregulatory mechanism. The current study suggests that IRT may be a useful tool for assessing physical workload in different body parts of dogs.
军犬在工作中会承受高强度的体力负荷，尽管这并不总是能从它们的行为中表现出来。这种工作量会导致各种生理变化，包括受影响身体部位的温度变化。在这项初步研究中，我们探讨了军犬日常工作后，其体温是否可以通过红外热成像（IRT）检测到。该实验在 8 只执行两项训练活动（服从性和防御性）的雄性德国牧羊犬和比利时牧羊犬巡逻护卫犬身上进行。使用 IRT 相机在训练前 5 分钟、训练后 5 分钟和 30 分钟测量了 12 个选定身体部位的表面温度（Ts）。如预测的那样，防御训练后 Ts（所有测量身体部位的平均值）的增加比服从性训练后更大，分别为 5 分钟（增加 1.24°C 比 0.60°C，P<0.001）和 30 分钟（增加 0.90°C 比 0.57°C，P<0.01）。这些发现表明防御性训练比服从性训练更具体力挑战性。考虑到活动的具体情况，服从性训练仅在活动后 5 分钟增加了躯干的 Ts（P<0.001），而四肢的 Ts 则没有增加；而防御性训练增加了所有测量身体部位的 Ts（P<0.001）。服从性训练后 30 分钟 Ts 在躯干的一些部位下降到活动前的水平，而在四肢的远端部位 Ts 仍保持升高。这两种活动后四肢 Ts 的延长升高表明热从核心流向外周是一种体温调节机制。本研究表明，IRT 可能是评估犬不同身体部位体力负荷的有用工具。
