Behavioral characterization of therapists dogs from breed Labrador Retriever in activities for animal assisted therapy

• Grant number: 14/07103-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2014
• End date: December 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Animal Behavior
• Principal Investigator: Valéria Nobre Leal de Souza Oliva
• Grantee: Letícia Vinhas Rampim
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária (FMVA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araçatuba. Araçatuba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Since ancient Greece, the humane society believes that dogs have an innate healing power. In the seventeenth century, this "power" was used in a new class of treatment for patients with mental diseases, is called Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT). Despite the AAT also being performed with other animals - by being in contact with humans for 10,000 years - dogs show extreme sociability with our species, being the most used animal. In the scientific literature, there are a large number of studies showing the benefits that dogs bring to institutionalized patients during AAT. However, the literature is sparse when it comes to the behavior of therapists dogs. Some of these studies have concluded that the AAT does not cause stress to the dog. To complement these studies, it is necessary to characterize the behavior of these dogs during activities of AAT. This work aims to characterize this behavior, looking for significant changes, comparing the behavior of therapists dogs from breed labrador retrievers during activities with autistic people and during public tours with interaction with other animals and people. Through ethograms proposed by De Palma in 2005, the behavior of three therapists dogs from Projeto Cão-Cidadão of the Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária UNESP will be counted and statistically analyzed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Spearman's test. (AU)