Animal Behaviour Group, Division of Animals in Science and Society, Department Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80166, 3584 CM, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Sci Rep. 2023 Nov 3;13(1):19014. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-46438-9.
Dogs in shelters are faced with the challenge of adapting to a kennel after relinquishment and to a novel home after adoption. To measure adaptability of dogs, more feasible behavioural and physiological parameters need to be validated in different contexts. To evaluate nocturnal activity as an indicator of adaptability, we compared nocturnal activity, urinary cortisol:creatinine ratio (UCCR), and body weight changes of sheltered dogs the first period after intake in the shelter and after adoption. Nocturnal activity and UCCRs were significantly lower the first days after adoption than in the shelter. After adoption, nocturnal activity was significantly lower on night 2 than night 1, but not on night 3 and 4, suggesting a form of 'rebound of resting' during night 2 in the new home. UCCRs significantly decreased 7 days after adoption. Body weight decreased in the shelter but increased again after adoption. These findings suggest that overall, dogs rest better in a novel home than in a novel shelter but, in both contexts, some form of adaptation takes place. Nocturnal activity measured by an accelerometer differentiated well between shelter and home environments, and corresponded to UCCR responses, which supports usefulness of the method to monitor canine adaptability to novel environments.
收容所中的狗在被放弃后需要适应犬舍的环境，在被收养后需要适应新的家庭。为了衡量狗的适应能力，需要在不同的环境中验证更可行的行为和生理参数。为了评估夜间活动作为适应性的指标，我们比较了收容所中被收养的狗在进入收容所后的第一阶段和收养后的夜间活动、尿皮质醇/肌酐比（UCCR）和体重变化。收养后的头几天，夜间活动和 UCCR 明显低于收容所。收养后，夜间活动在第 2 天明显低于第 1 天，但在第 3 天和第 4 天没有，这表明在新家中的第 2 天晚上存在一种“休息反弹”的形式。UCCR 在收养后 7 天显著下降。在收容所中体重下降，但收养后又增加。这些发现表明，总的来说，狗在新家中比在新的收容所休息得更好，但在这两种情况下，都需要进行某种形式的适应。通过加速度计测量的夜间活动可以很好地区分收容所和家庭环境，并且与 UCCR 反应相对应，这支持了该方法用于监测犬对新环境的适应性的有用性。
