Early behavior of service dogs in training in their new homes: Predictive ability of early testing and the effect of puppy raiser experience
Open Access
- Author:
- Heckman, Katrina
- Area of Honors:
- Animal Sciences
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Nancy Ann Dreschel, Thesis Supervisor
William Burton Staniar, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Behavior testing
Working dogs
Survey
Raiser experience - Abstract:
- Service dogs are critically important to their partners. They are specially trained from birth to assist with a variety of tasks. At eight weeks of age, puppies are tested with a standardized behavior checklist then given to volunteer puppy raisers that teach the puppy basic cues and manners. These puppy raisers are generally volunteers from the community with varying levels of experience training dogs. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of raiser experience on puppy behavior during the first week with the raiser. Each participant was sent a series of 15 surveys during the month asking questions about the puppy’s behavior, health, and environment. They also completed demographic questions about themselves indicating how much experience with service dogs and personal pets. The behavior checklist results were also gathered for the puppies. The data from these surveys were compiled and analyzed for relevant trends and significant findings. It was found that raiser experience had no significant effect on the behavior of the puppies during this time. Increased training time was shown to significantly increase reported behavior issues while increased training time with a more experienced raiser showed a significant decrease. While evaluating behavior checklist information, it was found that fear scores were significantly correlated to higher incidence of fear and higher incidence of biting in these puppies. It was concluded that while there is no significant correlation between raiser experience and puppy behavior, increased experience could decrease behavior issues when more time is spent training. In addition, the behavior testing information indicated that there could be some ability for the test to predict the incidence of fear and biting, in addition to suggesting that there could be some connection between biting and fear in young puppies.