Howell Tiffani J, Mai Dac L, Draganovic Pam, Binfet John-Tyler, Bennett Pauleen C
School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora VIC 3086 and Bendigo VIC 3552, Australia.
Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Aug 23;14(17):2454. doi: 10.3390/ani14172454.
Brief interactions with a well-behaved dog can enhance wellbeing, but most campus-based dog visitation programs employ adult, trained dogs. There is little research about the impact of puppies on wellbeing or stress in this context. The aim of this study was to examine changes in perceived stress and vitality after interacting with a puppy. Staff and students ( = 32) at an Australian university attended the campus on two occasions, one week apart, as part of a crossover design. Participants were pseudo-randomly allocated to a group whereby they spent 20 min interacting with a handler alone at Visit 1 and interacted with a puppy and handler at Visit 2, or another group which reversed the interaction order. Perceived stress and subjective vitality were measured before and after each interaction. The increase in vitality was greater in the group experiencing the puppy and handler interaction first (significant main effect, (1,49) = 646.89, = 0.024, η = 1.00), regardless of the visit, possibly due to a social lubricating effect by the puppy, which carried over to the 'handler alone' second visit. Reductions in perceived stress were greater after the interaction with the puppy, for both groups (significant interaction effect, (1,49) = 5.13, = 0.029, η = 0.11), indicating that the puppy's presence can reduce stress more than the handler alone. This extends the evidence for university-based dog-facilitated wellbeing programs, by showing that interactions with puppies can also be effective. This is important as it may mean that puppies already on campus as part of a socialization/training program can be incorporated into wellbeing programs for staff and students.
与行为良好的狗狗进行短暂互动可以提升幸福感，但大多数校园狗狗探访项目使用的是成年的、经过训练的狗狗。在这种背景下，关于幼犬对幸福感或压力的影响的研究很少。本研究的目的是考察与幼犬互动后感知压力和活力的变化。作为交叉设计的一部分，澳大利亚一所大学的教职员工和学生（(n = 32)）分两次来到校园，每次间隔一周。参与者被伪随机分配到一组，在第一次探访时他们单独与一名训练员互动20分钟，在第二次探访时与一只幼犬和训练员互动；或者分配到另一组，互动顺序相反。在每次互动前后测量感知压力和主观活力。先与幼犬和训练员互动的那组活力增加得更多（显著主效应，(F(1,49) = 646.89)，(p = 0.024)，(\eta^2 = 1.00)），无论在哪一次探访，这可能是由于幼犬的社交润滑作用，这种作用延续到了第二次“单独与训练员”的探访。两组在与幼犬互动后，感知压力的降低都更大（显著交互效应，(F(1,49) = 5.13)，(p = 0.029)，(\eta^2 = 0.11)），这表明幼犬的存在比单独与训练员在一起更能减轻压力。这扩展了基于大学的狗狗促进幸福感项目的证据，表明与幼犬的互动也可能是有效的。这很重要，因为这可能意味着作为社交化/训练项目一部分已经在校园里的幼犬可以纳入教职员工和学生的幸福感项目中。
