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In shelters it is usual to conduct standardised behaviour assessments on admitted dogs. The information gathered from the assessment is used to identify dogs that are suitable for adoption and assist in matching the dog with suitable adopters. These assessments are also used to guide behaviour modification programs for dogs that display some unwanted behaviours. For some dogs, the results may indicate that they are unsuitable either for re-training or for adoption. In these circumstances the dogs may be euthanised. We investigated the predictive value of a standardised behaviour assessment protocol currently used in an Australian shelter for dog behaviour post-adoption. A total of 123 dogs, aged 1–10 years and housed in an animal care shelter, were assessed before they were adopted. The new owners of the dogs took part in a post-adoption survey conducted 1 month after adoption, which explored the behaviour of their dog after adoption. Ordinal regression analyses identified that friendly/social, fear and anxiousness identified in the shelter assessment significantly predicted corresponding behaviours post-adoption. However, behaviour problems, such as aggression, food guarding and separation-related behaviours, were not reliably predicted by the standardised behaviour assessment. The results suggest that further research is required to improve the predictability of behaviour assessment protocols for more specific behaviour problems, including different categories of aggression and separation-related problems. We recommend that dog behaviour assessments in shelters are used only in conjunction with other monitoring tools to assess behaviour over the whole shelter stay, thus facilitating increased safety/welfare standards for dogs, shelters and the wider community.

Two original studies explored relationships between visual attention of children with ASD (candidates for receiving a service dog) and their behaviors during their first interaction with a service dog. The first study consisted in video behavioural analyses of 16 children with ASD interacting with a service dog. During the interaction with a service dog, the time children with ASD spent looking towards social items vs objects was associated with how they interacted with the service dog. The second study was exploratory (i.e. 6 children), using the same behavioural approach but coupled with eye-tracking data. The more children with ASD looked at both their parent and the evaluator, as opposed to inanimate items, the more they interacted with the service dog.

The rationale of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Dog-assisted Therapy (DAT) in children and adolescents with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). We conducted a randomized controlled trial in a cohort of 71 children and adolescents with FASD. Participants were randomly assigned either to DAT group (n = 38) or Relaxation Group (control group) (n = 33). Results revealed that participants who were assigned to the DAT group experienced significantly reduced externalizing symptoms (CBCL Externalizing Inattention: t (69) = 2.81, p = .007; d = 0.7); CBCL Opposition: t (69) = 2.54, p = .013; d = 0.6), reduced internalizing symptoms (CBCL Social problems: t (69) = 3.21, p = .002; d = 0.8) as well as improvements on social skills (SSIS-P Problem behavior: t (68) = 2.55, p = .013; d = 0.6), and quality of life (KidScreen Autonomy and Parents: t (51) = − 2.03, p = .047; d = 0.5) compared to the relaxation control group. The relaxation control group obtained significant differences between the pre- and post-treatment evaluation, diminishing withdraw symptoms (t (32) = 3.03, p = .005; d = 0.2). Results suggest that DAT and relaxation may be promising adjunctive treatments for children and adolescents with FASD. Clinical trial registration information: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ ; NCT04038164.

Noise fears represent a highly prevalent welfare problem in dogs. An online survey was performed to explore severity and progression of firework fears in dogs, and relationships with demographics, health, behaviour problems and owners' training efforts to prevent or alleviate firework fears. Fifty-two percent of dogs in the sample (N = 1225) were at least partially affected by firework fears, and the majority developed a fear of fireworks in the first year of life, with a decreasing frequency of new occurrences up until seven years, and only few newly affected dogs beyond this age. While almost three-quarters of fearful dogs had recovered by the next morning following firework exposure, recovery took up to one day in 10%, up to one week in 12%, and several weeks or even months in >3%. Univariate analyses indicated a significant effect of breed group, age, sex, neuter status, origin and age at acquisition on severity of firework fears in dogs. However, binomial models including multiple predictors of presence/ absence of firework fears identified only age, breed group (mixed breeds being most affected), health problems, and an interaction between health problems and age as significant predictors. This discrepancy might be explained by collinearities of predictors and underlying differences between mixed-breed dogs and purebreds, such as mixed breeds being acquired from shelters more often and being neutered more often. Firework fears are highly correlated with fears of gunshots and thunder, and to a low extent with fears of other noises, but not with any other behavioural problems. Both improvement and deterioration of firework fears were frequently reported. While an early age of onset and breed differences point to a strong genetic contribution to firework fears, the data indicate that training puppies or non-fearful adults to associate the noise with positive stimuli is highly effective in preventing later development of firework fears.

Life experiences and living conditions can influence the problem-solving strategies and the communicative abilities of dogs with humans. The goals of this study were to determine any behavioural differences between Labrador Retrievers living in a kennel and those living in a house as pets and to assess whether kennel dogs show preferences in social behaviours for their caretaker relative to a stranger when they are faced with an unsolvable task. Nine Labrador Retrievers living in a kennel from birth and ten Labrador Retrievers living in a family as pets were tested. The experimental procedure consisted of three “solvable” tasks in which the dogs could easily retrieve food from a container followed by an “unsolvable” task in which the container was hermetically locked. Dogs of both groups spent the same amount of time interacting with the experimental apparatus. Kennel dogs gazed towards people for less time and with higher latency than pet dogs; however, there were no significant preferences in gazing towards the stranger versus the caretaker in both groups. These findings demonstrated that kennel dogs are less prone to use human-directed gazing behaviour when they are faced with an unsolvable problem, taking the humans into account to solve a task less than do the pet dogs.

The communicating skills of dogs are well documented and especially their contact-seeking behaviours towards humans. The aim of this study was to use the unsolvable problem paradigm to investigate differences between breed groups in their contact-seeking behaviours towards their owner and a stranger. Twenty-four dogs of ancient breeds, 58 herding dogs, and 17 solitary hunting dogs were included in the study, and their behaviour when presented with an unsolvable problem task (UPT) was recorded for 3 min. All breed groups interacted with the test apparatus the same amount of time, but the herding dogs showed a longer gaze duration towards their owner compared to the other groups and they also preferred to interact with their owner instead of a stranger. Interestingly, the solitary hunting dogs were more in stranger proximity than the other groups, and they also showed a preference to make contact with a stranger instead of their owner. Hence, we found differences in contact-seeking behaviours, reflecting the dog–human relationship, between breed groups that might not only be related to their genetic similarity to wolves, but also due to the specific breeding history of the dogs.

Background Companion dogs live in a mixed-species environment, where they can successfully learn from both humans and dogs. Breed type, the demonstrator’s behavior, and in multi-dog households, the dogs’ hierarchy are known influencing factors of the efficiency of dogs’ social learning. In previous studies, always an unfamiliar dog or experimenter was the demonstrator of the given task. Now we tested social learning in a setting more relevant to the everyday life of dogs, where the demonstrator was either the owner or a cohabiting dog. We used the validated dog-rank assessment questionnaire (DRA-Q) and the well-established detour paradigm. We hypothesized that beyond the previously found associations between social learning and rank, we would find stronger differences between high- and low-ranking cohabiting dogs due to the subjects’ everyday experience and different relationships with the demonstrators. Results We found that dominant dogs learn more effectively from the owner than from their subordinate dog companion. Subordinate dogs increased their success rate only when their dominant counterpart demonstrated the task, but did not improve when the owner was the demonstrator. Dogs with higher agonistic rank could improve their detour speed more often than the lower-ranked individuals in the Owner demonstration group, but we found no effect of the subranks in the Dog demonstration group. Conclusions These results warrant the intricate effect of within-group hierarchy of dogs even in non-competitive contexts. The strong difference between the subordinate and dominant dogs’ learning performance in the Owner-demonstration group aligns with the “owner as the main resource for dogs” hypothesis.

Street dogs are common in southern and eastern parts of Europe. They are often adopted by people living in North European countries, including Denmark. However, these dogs may experience difficulties adjusting to their new life as companion animals, and this may in turn lead to behavioural problems and complications for owners. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate whether former street (FS) dogs display a higher degree of behavioural problems than dogs reared in Denmark (RD). Two questionnaires were developed. One was distributed to Danish dog owners and resulted in 3020 useful answers. FS dogs were found to display 9 of the 45 listed behaviours more often than RD dogs. All of these behaviours were related to fear, aggression and stress. The second questionnaire was distributed to Danish veterinarians working in small animal practices and resulted in 173 useful answers. The most commonly reported behavioural problems were fear of humans, stress and problems when the dog was left at home alone. The extent of the behavioural problems reported by the veterinarians was much greater than that reported by the dog owners which, at least partly, may be due to fear-induced reactions of the dogs when handled at the veterinary clinic.

Interspecific communication between dogs and humans enables dogs to occupy significant roles in human society, both in companion and working roles. Dogs excel at using human communicative signals in problem-solving tasks, and solicit human contact when unable to solve a problem. Dogs’ sociocognitive behavior likely results from a selection for attention to humans during domestication, but is highly susceptible to environmental factors. Training for particular tasks appears to enhance dog–human communication, but effects may depend on the nature of the relationship determined by their role. Our aim was to examine two types of social cognition (responsiveness to human gestures, and human-directed communicative behavior in an unsolvable task) in pet dogs ( n = 29) and detection dogs ( n = 35). The groups did not differ in their ability to follow human signals, but pets were less responsive to signals given by a stranger than by their owner. Pets also exhibited more human-directed gazing in the unsolvable task, showing a bias for gazing at their owner compared with the stranger, whereas detection dogs showed greater persistence in attempting to solve the task compared with pets. Thus, different aspects of dogs’ sociocognitive behavior may differentially vary as a function of selection or training for particular roles.

The inclusion of animals in therapeutic activities, known as animal-assisted intervention (AAI), has been suggested as a treatment practice for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This paper presents a systematic review of the empirical research on AAI for ASD. Fourteen studies published in peer-reviewed journals qualified for inclusion. The presentation of AAI was highly variable across the studies. Reported outcomes included improvements for multiple areas of functioning known to be impaired in ASD, namely increased social interaction and communication as well as decreased problem behaviors, autistic severity, and stress. Yet despite unanimously positive outcomes, most studies were limited by many methodological weaknesses. This review demonstrates that there is preliminary “proof of concept” of AAI for ASD and highlights the need for further, more rigorous research.