Literature Review: Dogs' Stress Indicators Research (Essay Sample)

Literature Review: Dogs’ Stress Indicators
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Literature Review: Dogs’ Stress Indicators
This literature review analyses existing understandings regarding the various methods in use for studying the stressors affecting various animals in captive environments. The review highlights the various breakthroughs in the field as well as challenges facing both new and existing approaches. In the review, the researcher introduces the findings from various research attempts that analyze various aspects of animal behavior, environmental influences, and enrichment strategies as well as the measurement tools that current approaches find helpful for the purposes of their analyses. This will enable the study to develop a baseline for the subsequent research and enable the inclusion of updated and comprehensive understandings of dogs’ behavior and the associated methods of influencing alternative outcomes.
Environmental Influences and Enrichers
Regardless of the location of their interactions, humans and animals are subject to the environments in which they operate. Bowman et al. (2015) introduce the prospects of the influence that these environments have on animals’ behaviors, whereby making changes to these conditions also results in variations in behavior. The domestication factor is a primary contributor to the sharing of environments between human beings and animals, which introduces animals such as dogs and horses to living with people under controlled conditions. Here, the issue of control becomes imperative since Elmgreen (2010) notes that the domestic nature of these animals also means that any negative behaviors also have the potential to affect the people in the vicinity as well. To this effect, Douglas et al. (2012) posit that the emotional states of the animals in domestic environments are a vital component of their suitability for their individual roles, thereby necessitating a disciplined approach to understanding and guiding them for better outcomes. This also lends credence to analyses seeking to enhance the human-animal relationship to improve the latter group’s integration into the former’s lives while reducing the stressors that can result in conflict.
Mendl, Burman, and Paul (2010) posit that understanding animal emotions has ramifications for various scientific fields including animal welfare science, pharmacology, and neuroscience as well as pain research among others. However, the field also has various gaps in knowledge such as in understandings regarding short and long-term emotional states (Mendl, et al., 2010). In light of this, the study of behavior in dogs has the ability to benefit from additional research efforts since as Udell, Dorey, and Wynne (2010) discuss, the responsiveness of domestic dogs to actions by their human counterparts suggests the existence of social cognition capabilities that resemble ours. However, the research notes that the lack of empirical support from additional studies on the subject as well as the influence of experiential learning can influence the results of an analysis that does not consider these variables (Dantas-Divers, et al., 2011). Therefore, it is imperative for research on the behaviors of domesticated animals such as Canis Familiaris to account for the fact that human actions influence animal behaviors, thereby creating the foundation for evaluative environments with considerations for these human-animal interactions.
The environmental factor in analyzing animal behavior paves the way for research by Bowman et al. (2015) which debates the capacity for behavioral adjustment in animals by making changes to their environments. For instance, Dallaire et al. (2011) found that behavioral changes for maladaptive traits in farmed mink showed better results when they targeted abnormal behaviors through patterning. Although the research did find pronounced changes when they used perseveration strategies such as repeated and alternated task frequencies, the environmental variations had fewer benefits for these animals. However, the study also acknowledged that the captive environments have varying ramifications for various animals and their disinhibited nature in the presence of humans. Roberts, Taylor, and de Leaniz (2011) also add that other species such as fish also show maladaptive behaviors in the presence of human interventions, whereby the lack of predators in controlled environments can affect their affinity for risk negatively and reduce their chances of survival. This indicates that the human element in animals’ environments plays a vital role in determining their behavior due to the abstraction from the animals’ normative environments.
As companion animals, there is extensive research on the issues affecting dogs and their domestication. The need for better understandings of their behaviors led scientists to analyze the influence of kenneled environments, with Kogan, Schoenfeld-Tacher, and Simon (2012) pointing out that these confinements result in psychogenic stressors that negatively affect dogs’ behaviors. Bowman et al. (2015) add that for institutions such as public shelters, the inability to offer individualized treatment to these animals due to funding and practicality issues necessitates the use of rehabilitative strategies that do not place a strain on these resources. Morris, Gradrin, and Irlbeck (2011) also propose that the housing aspect can have a reduced impact on animals’ behaviors if they have the necessary training and enrichment programs in place to aid in their emotional development. In fact, these benefits are not restricted to the use of these strategies for dogs since as Poessel et al. (2011) note, the addition of environmental enrichments has positive effects on the behavior, reproductive function, and disease prevalence of other animals such as ferrets living outside of their natural habitats.
The increasing number of shelter animals leads to a need for better cage-based management strategies, such as the use of operant conditioning to influence positive behavior and allow the provision of adequate care to these animals in confined spaces (Herron, Kirby-Madden, & Lord, 2014). Even in non-shelter environments, the need to allow animals to conform to their normative behaviors remains just as crucial. As Herron and Buffington (2010; 2012) highlight in an earlier piece, environmental adjustments can result in positive behavioral modifications for various animals by meeting their needs, such as supplying cats with scratching posts and chew toys to allow them to conform to their natural behaviors. Even for wild dogs, enrichment programs that provide them with play toys, scents, hidden foods, and blood trails allow them to exercise their natural inclinations, which is essential in influencing active behavior (Price, 2010; Pullen, Merrill, & Bradshaw, 2010). The results recorded in these and other post-enrichment scenarios indicate that strategies that bring targeted changes to animals, including those in confined environments, have the potential to improve outcomes and reactions to stressors for these animals.
Anderson, Arun, and Jensen (2010) present the benefits of environmental enrichment programs that focus on habituating animals to continuous interactions with behavioral modification stimuli. As highlighted, the resource allocation directed towards animal rehabilitation strategies means a reduced capacity to develop targeted programs for individual animals. However, the need for long-term solutions requires strategies that can apply to a broad range of cases. Dingemanse et al. (2010) propose that animals’ individual responsiveness to changes in their environments also means that the positive results of behavioral reforms for one animal do not necessarily mean the applicability of these strategies in all normative scenarios. However, the research also indicates that the application of behavioral reaction criteria can apply across cases, thereby resulting in positive outcomes of different magnitudes depending on the personalities of the animals under review (Salvanes, et al., 2013). To this effect, Overall (2015a) points out that it is possible to influence positive outcomes in groups of animals by exposing them to similar environmental stimuli, thereby facilitating behavioral flexibility on a larger scale even while operating from a basis of minimal resources.
Environmental adjustments show positive results depending on the species in question, but Price (2010) notes that the simultaneous introduction of many adjustments has a negative impact on the activity levels of these animals. (Bowman et al (2015) introduce the aspect of behavioral modification through environmental influences that produce positive outcomes in humans, such as the use of music to combat stressors. In support of this approach, Kogan et al. (2012) analyze the influence of various music genres on the behavior of dogs in kenneled environments, whereby they posit that classical music has potential benefits for reducing body shaking in anxious animals compared to heavy metal. Claxton (2011) provides support for this approach by noting that sensory stimuli have a positive impact on the fear of humans that animals have, thereby positing that approaches that focus on enrichment through these avenues also improve the outcomes of future interactions. Moreover, research by Speisman et al. (2013) suggests that the creation of new neural pathways that is inherent to behavior modifications through environmental enrichment also has long-term benefits for the manipulation of animal psychology.
Fahnestock et al. (2012) conducted research on environmental stressors in dogs and found that they undergo pathological and behavioral changes that are similar to those displayed by human subjects. The research also indicated that fo...