The Influence Of Guide Dog Training On The Sociality And Nerve Of Dogs

Objective: Because that guide dog training is facing the problem of high cost and low success rate,the number of guide dog is cannot satisfy the needs of visually impaired people.Through effective screening in the early stage of the guide dog training and identifying which is not suitable for becoming a guide dog before training,will be able to improve the guide dog training success rate and reduce the training costs.So,in order to explore the related variables which can be used to select dogs and improve the guide dog training early screening method,we joint heart rate by temperament test analysis guide dog training effects on dog sociality and nerve related variables.Methods:Animals in this study were 45 dogs from China Dalian guide dog training base,42 of them were Labrador retriever including 18 females and 24 males and 3 of them were Golden retriever including 1 female and 2 male.The dogs were 8~12 month old before guide dog training and were 24~32 month old after training.Use dog mentality assessment(DMA)to test these dogs.DMA is including 10 separate subtests,and there is a total of 33 variables associated with different stages in the tests.Our design chose the variables related with the sociality and nerve of dogs in the DMA,including “Greetings” “Cooperation” ”Handling” in social contact test,“Exploration” “Tug-of-war” “Play invitation” in distance-play,“Aggression” “Exploration”in ghosts and “Startle” “Exploration” “Remaining avoidance” in sudden appearance,“Startle” “Exploration” “Remaining avoidance” in metallic noise.There are totally 14 variables.Collect the heart rate during the tests.After the tests,score the dogs according to the evaluation standard,then do a compare of behavior scores and heart rate between before and after the guide dog training.Results: 1.Influence of guide dog training about dogs' sociality:(1)“Greetings”,“Cooperation”,“Handling” in social contact test were not significantly different in scores before and after the training(P>0.05).Further analysis of variables in the test score distribution found that the scores of three related variables in social contact test are both focused on point 3 before the training,they are 19,32 and 26,and the number of dogs who scored 3 has increased in these three tests after training,they are 31,37 and 35.When contact with strangers,most of the dogsperformed more moderate,neither too rejected nor too enthusiasm.(2)“Exploration” and “Play invitation”in distance-play were not significantly different in scores before and after the training(P>0.05),while “Tug-of-war” significantly changed(P=0.014).Further analysis of variables in the test score distribution found that most “Tug-of-war” variables scored 1 before training(14)and more focused on 4 after training(14);“Exploration” variables were focused on 3 before and after the training(before: 19,after: 24);“Play invitation” variables both focused on 1 before and after the training(before: 31,after: 27),and the number of dogs who scored 3 was increased.About“Exploration”,“Play invitation”,“Tug-of-war” in distance-play,score from 1~5 dogs embodied in dogs that not interested in strangers,do not play tug of war,do not invite strangers to play to the dogs showed enthusiasm to strangers,play rags positively and actively invite strangers to play.(3)“Aggression” in “Ghosts” was not significantly different in scores before and after the training(P>0.05).Further analysis of variables in the test score distribution found that most dogs scored 2 before the training(19)and most scored 4 after(17).About “Aggression” in “Ghosts” score 2 means the dogs mainly be worry about the strangers,score 4 means the dogs are more natural,and will go to smell the strangers.2.Influence of guide dog training about dogs' nerve:(1)In addition to “Remaining avoidance”,“Startle” and “Exploration”(P=0.009 and P=0.047)were significantly different in the score before and after training.Further analysis of variables in the test score distribution found that the scores of “Startle” were both focused on 4 before and after the training(before: 15,after: 20),the scores of “Exploration” were focuses on 3 before training(16)while most of the dogs scored4 after training(15),“Remaining avoidance” were both focused on 5 before and after the training(before: 20,after: 21).After training when most of the dogs seeing the suddenly appeared dummy,they will immediately go close to smell,to exploration surrounding,and perform relax when through the dummy again.(2)“Startle” “Exploration” and “Remaining avoidance” in metallic noise were not significantly different in scores before and after the training(P>0.05).Further analysis of variables in the test score distribution found that dogs that scored 3 in “Startle” were reduced(before: 15,after: 11)and those who scored 5 were increased(before: 7,after: 13).“Exploration” variables were both focused on 4 before and after the training(before: 20,after: 19)and “Remaining avoidance” variables were both focused on 5(before: 26,after: 27).About“Startle” “Exploration” and “Remaining avoidance” in metallic noise,score 1 means when dogs hear the noise of the metal,they will be scared and escape,and score 5 means they will immediately go to the metal to smell after heard the noise.(3)“Exploration” in ghostswas significantly different in the score before and after training(P=0.014).Analysis of variables in the test score distribution found that more dog scored 1or 2 before training(9 and 9)while after training most dogs scored 5(11).After training most dogs go to explore the strangers immediately.3.Heart rate in tests: Five tests were all have no significant difference before and after training(P>0.05).Conclusions: The stimulation level of tests before and after the training is relatively stable.“Greetings” “Cooperation” and “Handling” in social contact test,“Exploration” and “Play invitation” in distance-play,“Remaining avoidance” in the sudden appearance,“Startle” “Exploration” “Remaining avoidance” in metallic noise,“Aggression” in the “Ghosts” can be used as effective variables for.“Tug-of-war” in distance-play,“Startle” and “Exploration” in the sudden appearance and “Exploration” in the ghosts are more suitable for Eligibility check of dogs after training.This study can provide a method for early screening of the guide dogs.