Behavioural responses to separation from human companion in the domestic cat: A survey-based study.

The domestic cat is known to react to social separation, though the conceptual relationship between separation-related behaviours outside of a clinical context has not been described in detail. We did an online survey on participants who had cats in their households (Nparticipants=114; Ncats=133) and asked them to evaluate the frequency of 12 behavioural elements associated with social separation from human companions on a 5- point Likert Scale. We performed two dimensionality reduction techniques (component and factor analyses) to assess whether the specified behaviours related to social separation belonged to the same axis. We found four distinct dimensions instead of one: (a) reactivity towards companion departure cues, (b) protest behaviour towards inaccessibility, (c) unusual elimination behaviour, and (d) negative responses following social separation. Our findings suggest a manifestation of different motivational states rather than a single, separation-related construct. Future studies would benefit from a careful evaluation of the separation-related behaviours in a multi-measure context to improve the accuracy of ethological classifications.

Acute and chronic stress alter behavioral laterality in dogs.

Dogs are one of the key animal species in investigating the biological mechanisms of behavioral laterality. Cerebral asymmetries are assumed to be influenced by stress, but this subject has not yet been studied in dogs. This study aims to investigate the effect of stress on laterality in dogs by using two different motor laterality tests: the Kong™ Test and a Food-Reaching Test (FRT). Motor laterality of chronically stressed (n = 28) and emotionally/physically healthy dogs (n = 32) were determined in two different environments, i.e., a home environment and a stressful open field test (OFT) environment. Physiological parameters including salivary cortisol, respiratory rate, and heart rate were measured for each dog, under both conditions. Cortisol results showed that acute stress induction by OFT was successful. A shift towards ambilaterality was detected in dogs after acute stress. Results also showed a significantly lower absolute laterality index in the chronically stressed dogs. Moreover, the direction of the first paw used in FRT was a good predictor of the general paw preference of an animal. Overall, these results provide evidence that both acute and chronic stress exposure can change behavioral asymmetries in dogs.

Development of a safety protocol for training and using SARS-CoV-2 detection dogs: A pilot study.

Medical detection dogs have potential to be used to screen asymptomatic patients in crowded areas at risk of epidemics such as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. However, the fact that SARS-CoV-2 detection dogs are in direct contact with infected people or materials raises important concerns due to the zoonotic potential of the virus. No study has yet recommended a safety protocol to ensure the health of SARS- CoV-2 detection dogs during training and working in public areas. This study sought to identify suitable decontamination methods to obtain nonpathogenic face mask samples while working with SARS-CoV-2 detection dogs and to investigate whether dogs were able to adapt themselves to other decontamination procedures once they were trained for a specific odor. The present study was designed as a four-phase study: (a) Method development, (b) Testing of decon- tamination methods, (c) Testing of training methodology, and (d) Real life scenario. Surgical face masks were used as scent samples. In total, 3 dogs were trained. The practical use of 3 different decontam- ination procedures (storage, heating, and UV-C light) while training SARS-CoV-2 detection dogs were tested. The dog trained for the task alerted to the samples inactivated by the storage method with a sensitivity of100 % and specificity of 98.28 %. In the last phase of this study, one dog of 2 dogs trained, alerted to the samples inactivated by the UV-C light with a sensitivity of 91.30% and specificity of 97.16% while the other dog detected the sample with a sensitivity of 96.00% and specificity of 97.65 %.