Applied Animal Behaviour Science最新文献

{"title":"Prediction of successful training outcomes for drug detection dogs using subjective ratings and behavioral test measures: A case study in Japan customs","authors":"Akitsugu Konno ,&nbsp;Miho Inoue-Murayama ,&nbsp;Kazutaka Mogi ,&nbsp;Sayaka Kuze-Arata ,&nbsp;Shinji Yabuta","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106501","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106501","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Drug detection dogs, primarily employed by customs and police forces, play a crucial role in preventing the spread of illegal drugs worldwide. To minimize training costs, accurately predicting which dogs will succeed in scent detection training is essential. Local training organizations seek validated behavioral assessment methods for this purpose, but the wide range of methods used and the lack of scientific verification pose challenges. Previous research on detection dogs in Japan focused on genetics, but behavioral assessment methods for training have been understudied. To bridge the gap, the current study aimed to outline and evaluate the predictive validity of behavioral assessment systems used for drug detection dogs at Japan Customs. We compared the relative effectiveness of two different behavioral assessment methods: subjective ratings by chief trainers and behavioral measures in a novel test situation. For subjective ratings, we used subscales of Training Focus (i.e., interest in play, independence, concentration, activity, and boldness) and Tolerance (i.e., friendliness to humans and tolerance to dogs) to characterize a dog’s personality. For behavioral tests, a simple behavioral test measured a dog’s approach behavior and reactivity to an unfamiliar person. Data from 196 dogs (159 Labrador Retrievers and 37 German Shepherds) showed high inter-rater agreement for both methods. A GLMM model revealed that Training Focus subscale scores significantly predicted training success of candidate dogs. On the other hand, Tolerance scores and behavioral test measures were poor predictors for scent detection work. Dog breed and sex did not significantly influence final training outcomes. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves indicated that Training Focus scales' classification performance for training success is comparable to or better than previous reports for assistance and detection dogs. These findings demonstrate the predictive validity of subjective Training Focus ratings, aiding in the selection of drug detection dogs at Japan Customs. While generalizability to other detection dog populations and identification of alternative behavioral predictors remains uncertain, this study provides valuable insights into the predictive accuracy of trainer ratings in a dog behavior assessment system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"283 ","pages":"Article 106501"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The impact of enriched housing on the behaviour and welfare of captive leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius)","authors":"Erin L. Rickman ,&nbsp;Anna Wilkinson ,&nbsp;Thomas W. Pike ,&nbsp;Oliver H.P. Burman","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106487","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106487","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Substantial evidence demonstrates the benefits of environmental enrichment in mammals and birds. However, far less is known about this topic in reptiles—an increasingly popular group of pets. This study compared the effects of housing conditions (Standard vs. Enriched) on the behaviour and welfare of captive leopard geckos (<em>Eublepharis macularius</em>). Within the Enriched housing condition, two different enrichment conditions were assessed: Naturalistic and Non-Naturalistic. Geckos (N = 6) individually experienced each of the three housing conditions for four weeks. Welfare was assessed by observing the behaviour of the geckos within their enclosure, followed by behavioural tests of anxiety (e.g., novel environment and object tests) at the end of the four weeks. The animals were then switched to the next housing condition, with order counterbalanced across individuals. This was repeated for all housing conditions, after which the geckos were given a preference test. Results revealed that when geckos were housed in Enriched enclosures, they exhibited a range of behaviours indicative of improved welfare (e.g., spent more time lying in the water bowl and less time interacting with barriers) compared to when housed in Standard conditions. However, we observed no differences in behavioural expression between the Naturalistic and Non-Naturalistic enriched enclosures. Although we observed no differences between Enriched and Standard housing conditions in the behavioural tests of anxiety, in the preference test, when given a choice between the three housing conditions, the geckos displayed a strong preference for the Naturalistic enriched enclosure. Overall, our findings suggest that enriched housing conditions improved the welfare of leopard geckos. Therefore, we recommend that geckos should be housed in enriched enclosures with, where possible, the inclusion of naturalistic features.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"283 ","pages":"Article 106487"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163270","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Do lambs differentiate the odor of their mother from that of an alien ewe? Focus on inguinal wax","authors":"Justine Alary ,&nbsp;Bruno Patris ,&nbsp;Catherine Husson ,&nbsp;Benoist Schaal ,&nbsp;Alexandra Destrez","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106496","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106496","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ewes bear scent glands located near the udder which smelly secretion is interesting to newly-born lambs searching a teat to suck on. This glands’ secretion – inguinal wax (IW) – was found to be reactogenic to lambs before they initiate suckling from the dam. The present study aimed to further assess whether IW odor affects two vital aspects of newborn lambs’ behaviour: orienting and engaging suckling. First, forty-six lambs were tested in two-choice odor tests contrasting i) own mother's Inguinal Wax (IW-M) vs. unfamiliar mother's Inguinal Wax (IW-nM), ii) IW-M vs. control and iii) IW-nM vs. control, to measure their differential orientation to maternal IW odor presented against either IW from another dam or a control. Second, a bottle-feeding test (n = 41 lambs) assessed lambs’ elicitation of suckling from IW-odorized vs. control bottles. Relative to the control, IW odor enhanced lambs' orientation during the two-choice odor test, but without differentiation of maternal IW from non-maternal IW. Otherwise, lambs did not engage more suckling on a bottle when odorized with maternal IW relative to a control bottle. Some aspects of lambs’ responses were differentiated by sex, but this effect was independent on odor condition. In sum, this preliminary study indicates that ovine IW is somehow inherently attractive to lambs before they associate it with suckling.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"283 ","pages":"Article 106496"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Behavioral or nutritional drive: which motivation affects rates of food grinding in CD1 mice?","authors":"B.N. Gaskill ,&nbsp;H. Davis ,&nbsp;R.P. Gosselin ,&nbsp;J.P. Garner ,&nbsp;J.S. Radcliffe ,&nbsp;L.A. Robbins ,&nbsp;K.R. Pritchett-Corning","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106533","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106533","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Wire mouse feeders used in laboratory mouse cages typically hold enough food to feed 5 mice for two weeks. However, some mice gnaw the food provided into powder, which they do not ingest. The ground-up food fills the cage, resulting in miscalculations of food consumption, welfare issues with blocked water valves and frequent cage handling, more frequent cage changes, and economic issues of food wastage. There is a dearth of studies attempting to understand the causes behind food grinding behavior. This study, following on from previous work, sought to determine if the motivations behind food grinding were related to a mouse’s innate behavioral drive to gnaw or rather a nutritional drive to seek out macronutrient components in the feed. We replicated previous results where high fat treatments (either shell-on sunflower seeds or a diet with macronutrient equivalence to a sunflower kernel), but not the method of delivery of the higher-fat treatments, decreased the amount of ground food produced per cage. Further, the composition of the gnawed food changed over the course of the study, generally with protein increasing and fat decreasing in the gnawed feed, especially after treatments were removed. We also replicated previous results which found differences in the composition of the gnawed feed in comparison to the original diet. These results support the hypothesis that food grinding behavior is driven by a nutritional motivation, not a behavioral one.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"284 ","pages":"Article 106533"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143387948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Temporal-spatial associations of large groups of laying hens in a quasi-commercial barn","authors":"Elisa Perinot ,&nbsp;Matthew B. Petelle ,&nbsp;Yamenah Gómez ,&nbsp;Michael J. Toscano","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106516","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106516","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social behaviour is established in animal systems with clear benefits, including improved welfare, where conspecifics can attenuate the effects of stress. Previous work from our group demonstrated that laying hens moved in a coordinated manner through the external areas of a barn. The current work sought to expand on this initial finding by focusing on movements within a barn. For this purpose, from 17 weeks of age the location of 1125 hens within five pens (225 hens/pen) were tracked. We used radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders in a commercially-relevant barn consisting of thirty-two antennae placed throughout a multi-tier aviary with access to an external wintergarden. After processing transponder registrations, our final dataset comprised location data for 1122 individuals along 214 days and was used to determine spatio-temporal associations with the Gaussian Mixture Model method. We explored associations among individuals within different areas, whether weekly social networks changed over time, and if multiple community structures were present within pens. Social networks were more structured than by chance (mean p-value across weeks &lt; 0.001, range: 0–0.0006), though associations were generally weak with hens affiliated with all other hens. Association indices decreased with age (t = -120.20, <em>df</em> = 877894, <em>p</em> &lt; 0.001), though approximately 10.3 % of hens had at least one relatively strong and durable tie that appeared to last for the entire 36-weeks observation period. Node strength was generally low (12.44 ± 2.24, range: 1.57–19.28), though strength values among hens within the same week varied greatly. Social networks were dynamic across time but also showed a temporal correlation such that association matrices were more correlated closer in time (range R: 0.12–0.90, mean: 0.55, corrected p-values &lt; 0.01). We found no evidence of community structure using any algorithm. Our study indicated that hens within a relatively large group did not seem to manifest strong movement associations. Yet, a proportion of individuals maintained ties for the entire observation period, which could be associated with social motivations. We believe our work establishes a foundation to consider benefits of social connections on hen welfare within commercial laying hen systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"283 ","pages":"Article 106516"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143377049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Factors influencing a hand-touch learning task outcome in the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris)","authors":"Amin Azadian,&nbsp;Alexandra Protopopova","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106522","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106522","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Dog cognition research often requires dogs to meet initial screening and preliminary behavioural criteria to proceed with subsequent experimental task phases. Reasons for the excluded dogs’ inability to meet the criteria, especially in the absence of major stressors or procedural errors, remain uncertain, whether stemming from variations in cognitive capacities, reward motivation, or lack of specific experiences in dogs’ learning history. Our objective was to identify predictors of failure in an owner-administered hand-touch learning task, with the aim of highlighting the characteristics of dogs more likely to succeed in this specific task and the potential sampling bias this success may introduce to the final study populations in similar cognitive studies. A total of 150 pure-bred dogs performed a hand-touch learning task with their owners, using food rewards as a reinforcer. The task consisted of different phases, each necessitating the dog to fulfill specific criteria before progressing to the subsequent phase. Failure was defined as the inability to meet the specified task criteria after three days of attempting the task. Binomial logistic regression was used to evaluate the probability of failure, incorporating dogs’ demographic characteristics, training history, reward responsiveness, and impulsivity scores, along with factors specifying owners’ previous experiences with dogs as independent variables.</div><div>Results indicated a higher likelihood of task failure associated with advancing age, lower food responsiveness scores, being a non-sporting dog, receiving non-food rewards in previous trainings, lack of familiarity with the hand-touch behaviour, along with a lack of dog training knowledge and a history of owning fewer dogs by the owner. While findings are specific to the hand-touch training and may not generalize to other types of canine cognitive tasks or broader contexts, they highlight potential selection biases in similar cognitive research, where certain groups of dogs may demonstrate a higher likelihood of success, and thus, be disproportionately represented. This possibility warrants further exploration across a broader range of cognitive tasks and contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"283 ","pages":"Article 106522"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143162382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The effects of varying stocking densities on Guinea fowls (Numida meleagris) reared in a closed-barn system. I. On-farm behavioral profile and fearfulness","authors":"Kadir Erensoy","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106530","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106530","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, the potential effects of different stocking densities (low-SD: 6.6 birds/m², medium-SD: 9.3 birds/m², high-SD: 12 birds/m²) on the behavioral profile and fear status of Guinea fowls reared in a closed-barn system were investigated. A total of 252-day-old mixed-sex chicks were randomly assigned to three different SD groups, each consisting of three replicates. Weekly behaviors (aggregation, foraging, running, feather pecking, feeding and/or drinking, resting and/or standing, wing flapping and/or feather shaking and preening) of Guinea fowls from 1 to 13 weeks of age were recorded at pen level. Six birds from each pen were subjected to fear status assessments via tonic immobility (TI) at 25 and 90 days, and novel object (NOT) and stationary person (SPT) tests at 90 days. Active behavior (foraging, running, feeding and drinking) and comfort behavior (wing flapping, feather shaking and preening) were higher in low-SD pens, while feather pecking was higher in high-SD pens, and the SD x age interaction was significant for these behaviors (P &lt; 0.05). Aggregation did not differ among SD treatments, while resting and standing behavior was higher in high-SD birds. The TI duration at 90 d was highest in high-SD birds (P &lt; 0.05), whereas responses to SPT and NOT were similar among the varying SD groups. The TI duration at 90 d was significantly correlated with foraging (<em>r</em> = -0.65), feather pecking (<em>r</em> = -0.76), feeding and drinking (<em>r</em> = -0.77), wing flapping and feather shaking (<em>r</em> = -0.91) and preening (<em>r</em> = -0.81) behaviors (P &lt; 0.05). The profile of active and comfort behaviors on the farm and fear status improved in response to low SD (6.6 birds/m²). Consequently, reducing the SD in Guinea fowls reared in closed-barn systems would lead to better welfare standards through the life of the birds by improving the natural behavioral repertoire and reducing fearfulness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"283 ","pages":"Article 106530"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Validation of qualitative behaviour assessment for dairy cows at pasture","authors":"L. Aubé ,&nbsp;M.M. Mialon ,&nbsp;I. Veissier ,&nbsp;A. de Boyer des Roches","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106489","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106489","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (<strong>QBA</strong>) has been validated as a measure of emotional state in dairy cows kept indoors. We investigated the validity of QBA as a measure of emotional state of cows at pasture. We focused on intra- and inter-observer reliability and the selectivity of QBA. First, 5 observers watched 20 videos of dairy cows at pasture 4 times (resulting in 400 observations). The observers performed QBA using the fixed list of 20 terms proposed in Welfare Quality. The first axis of the principal component analysis performed on these observations represented emotional valence (<strong>PC1</strong>, from irritable to content) and a second axis represented arousal (<strong>PC2</strong>, from calm to active). Kendall's concordance coefficients (<strong>W</strong>) and intraclass correlation coefficients (<strong>ICC</strong>) within and between observers were calculated for PC1 and PC2. Intra-observer reliability was mainly high (KW &gt; 0.75 and ICC &gt; 0.75), except for 3 observers during the first session for PC1, for whom reliability was moderate. Inter-observer reliability was low to moderate for PC1 and moderate to high for PC2. Second, two observers performed live QBA on a herd of cows at pasture during 3 contexts designed to induce different emotional valences and arousal levels: <strong>AM</strong>, in the morning after milking (when cows are active); <strong>PM</strong>, in the afternoon before milking (when cows are mainly resting); and during handling to collect cows at pasture for afternoon milking (when cows may be stressed). The effect of context on PC1 and PC2 was investigated using linear mixed effects models. AM and PM contexts had higher scores on PC1 than handling context, indicating a more positive emotional state during AM and PM than during handling. PM context had lower scores on PC2 than AM and handling contexts. Thus, QBA at pasture was able to discriminate between contexts that should differ in emotional valence and arousal. Thirdly, an observer assessed the behavioural responses of cows to handling by direct observations followed by QBA. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between the number of behavioural responses and the coordinates on PC1 and PC2. The more cows were observed trotting, the more the cow's mood was perceived as negative (r = -0.71) and the more cows were observed galloping and turning, the more the cow was perceived as excited (r = 0.77 and 0.60). In conclusion, the QBA appears to be a valid measure of the emotional and arousal state of dairy cows at pasture, but inter-observer reliability could be improved.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"283 ","pages":"Article 106489"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143162379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigating the motivations of repetitive barrier interactions in Pogona vitticeps","authors":"Melanie Denommé,&nbsp;Glenn J. Tattersall","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106484","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106484","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Considerable research has demonstrated that the effective management of repetitive behaviours such as bar-biting and pacing relies upon understanding their motivations; however, this same research has revealed that repetitive behaviours can have a diverse array of motivations. In reptiles, repetitive behaviours commonly manifest as persistent interactions with the barriers of the enclosure (hereafter IWB). It is typically assumed that IWB indicates a motivation to escape the enclosure, but this has not been investigated; consequently, this assumption is the hypothesis of this article. Two predictions followed from this: IWB should be biased towards known and visible escape routes and should be associated with other factors that may increase a lizards’ motivation to escape. We found that within their enclosures, lizards performed IWB for longer on the only known escape route. Furthermore, when this area was made partially opaque, IWB was biased towards the remaining transparent portion. However, the association of IWB with other factors was less clear. IWB was strongly associated with defecation, but the cause-and-effect of this relationship was unclear. In addition, IWB was not associated with feeding, although this may be related to the generally sedentary life histories of <em>P. vitticeps</em>. Finally, female lizards performed more IWB than males during the breeding season, but the opposite was predicted based on the movement patterns of wild <em>P. vitticeps</em>; this may reflect that IWB is related to the motivation to gain certain resources, but not necessarily to be active. In conclusion, there was evidence that IWB was related to a motivation to escape the enclosure, but as with other research, we found that IWB had diverse motivations that are linked to the animal’s life history.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"283 ","pages":"Article 106484"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143162378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of the presence of a human on frustration in domestic dogs: Is there a social buffering phenomenon?","authors":"Marina Victoria Dzik ,&nbsp;Magdalena Jousset ,&nbsp;Juan Vietti ,&nbsp;Mariana Bentosela","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106503","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106503","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Dogs and humans form close bonds, and the interaction between them produces numerous benefits. Among these, it has been observed in various situations that humans can reduce dogs' stress behaviors, generating a social buffering effect. Frustration induced by the omission of an expected reward has characteristics similar to stress. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the presence of the owner or a stranger attenuated the frustration response during the extinction of a previously reinforced behavior, comparing both groups with a third group where the dog remained alone. To this end, a task was used where dogs had to gaze at the experimenter’s face to obtain food that was visible but out of their reach. The results indicate that dogs showed more frustration responses when they did not receive food compared to the reinforced phases. Additionally, the presence of the owner reduced these frustration responses during the non-reinforced phases. In this group a greater persistence in gazing at the experimenter was also observed, showing a lower frustration response. These data suggest that the presence of the owner had a mitigating effect on frustration in response to the omission of reinforcement. Furthermore, the dogs gazed more at the experimenter in the presence of the owner than in the presence of a stranger, even during the reinforced phases, which could suggest a performance-facilitating effect during the task caused by the owner. These findings are relevant considering that the omission of an expected reward frequently occurs both in dog training and in their daily life.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"283 ","pages":"Article 106503"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}