Authors:Jessica Lee Oliva, Rachel Lau Pages: 1 - 15 Abstract: The majority of Australian dog and cat owners living alone during the first COVID-19 lockdown endorsed the idea that their pet made the isolation easier, reduced feelings of loneliness, and provided companionship. More companionship/attention was also the most highly endorsed way pet owners perceived that the lockdown affected their pets. With the advent of the removal of the first lockdown restrictions and an attempt to return to a ‘COVID normal’ lifestyle, the aim of the current study was to elucidate how pet ownership affected the experience of the easing of restrictions in Australia, and how returning to a state of ‘normalcy’ might have impacted pets. A total of 208 pet owners from Australian states and territories completed an online questionnaire. Participants included 101 dog owners and 107 cat owners. Results revealed that despite official easing of restrictions, ongoing concern of contracting COVID-19 played a role in participant tendency to continue a reduced level of socialising and going outside the house. As a result, there was minimal perceived behavioural and/or emotional impact on most pets. However, for those who were returning to work and/or a life more outside the home, there were reports that both owners and their pets experienced separation anxiety. Participants also reported that they benefited from interaction with pets while working from home, and therefore implementing more pet-friendly policies in workplaces should be considered. PubDate: 2022-07-04 DOI: 10.21071/pbs.vi13.13633
Authors:Katherine Aumer, Michael Erickson, Jack Krizizke, Marc Jaksuwijitkorn, Jennifer Åbb Pages: 16 - 31 Abstract: The preference for animal companionship over human companionship may be predicted by attitudes about pet ownership. We hypothesized that pet attitudes could predict preferences for relationships with pets over humans. We sampled 182 people who named a person and a pet they love and care about. Participants rated their feelings of love, time spent, enjoyment, and equity in both their human and pet relationships. We also presented seven hypothetical negative event scenarios that involve both the pet and human and asked participants to predict their feelings and reactions based on these events. The Pet Attitudes Scale (Templer et al., 1981) was used to assess attitudes towards pets. People had similar positive feelings about their pet-human and human-human relationships. However, people were more likely to react negatively towards a human compared to a pet. Positive pet attitudes predicted more positive and less negative reactions to pets. Positive pet attitudes can predict preference for pet relationships over human relationships and may help researchers identify what relationships work best depending on a personʻs pet attitudes. PubDate: 2022-09-14 DOI: 10.21071/pbs.vi13.13473
Authors:Graham Joseph Adams Pages: 16 - 35 Abstract: Companion dogs with no previous experience were trained in a drug detector dog adapted method to recognise the scents of ‘prey’ animals and allowed to sleep in their natural habitat, at home with their owners. After each of two consecutive nights sleep they were evaluated on the next days. We tested their declarative memory (knowing that) and also procedural memory (knowing how), by using chase-and-fetch training and testing routines, which involved walking and running around as well as sniffing. All dogs were able to remember what their trained-for scents were and most dogs were also able to remember where their trained-for scents were against distractors. There were indications that scent memory could be reinforced and can be further learned that day. After training, when dogs were denied their day time and evening sleeps and instead provided with stimulating activities, surprisingly they still showed no ‘first-night-effect’ (of disrupted sleep and subsequent memory reduction) and successfully found their trained-for scents, which was attributed either to their robust short sleep-wake cycles, them being highly motivated and being in their natural habitat. Our evidence showed that after training (using their dominant sense of smell) our dogs showed all the aspects of sleep including both NREM and REM and demonstrated their declarative and especially their procedural memories on subsequent days. There was no significant difference in the number of sleep sessions per hour, the time asleep, the sleep session length, the percentage of time in REM or REM latency between normal day and night sleep compared with denied day/evening and normal night sleep. These findings provide a further indication of dogs’ sense of self when applying the same criteria for humans. There was a sign that REM sleep in old dogs is not reduced when they are monitored at home. We believe that it is possible for companion dog owners whose dogs’ enthusiastically fetch, to readily train their own dogs by this method PubDate: 2022-08-02 DOI: 10.21071/pbs.vi13.13612
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