To Explore The Behavior And Heart Rate Response Of Dogs Under Stress

Objective: In order to explore the behavior and heart rate changes of guide dogs with different temperament under stress state,the dog mentality assessment test(DMA)and complex environment test were combined to evaluate the behavioral performance and heart rate of guide dogs with different genders and different temperament in complex environment test,so as to screen the guide dogs with good adaptability to complex environment,to provide suggestions for candidate guide dogs participating in special environment training of Winter Paralympic Games.Methods: 1.Dog Mentality Assessment(DMA).The DMA test,consisting of 10 behavioral tests with 33 variables,assessed five temperament traits.In this study,four temperament traits,namely playfulness,sociality,exploration and courage,were selected and the dogs were divided into high,medium and low groups according to the score of each temperament trait.2.Complex environment behavior test.Taking the venue environment of Winter Paralympic Games as reference,the complex environment test is designed.There are 6 sub-tests,including unfamiliar environment test,stranger test,novel object test,lighting and sound test,moving object test and gunshot test.The behavioral performance of the guide dog wearing the guide saddle in the six sub-tests was evaluated and analyzed.3.Collection of heart rate data.Actiheart5 heart rate monitoring device was used to collect heart rate data during complex environment test.The collected data included Mean RR(ms),Mean HR(bpm),RMSSD(ms),LF(low frequency),HF(high frequency)and LF/HF.4.Statistical analysis methods.SPSS software was used to analyze the data obtained in this study.ANOVA test combined with post-mortem LSD test and Tamhane test were used to analyze the data for difference test.P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Spearman correlation analysis was selected for correlation test.Positive value means positive correlation,negative value means negative correlation,the absolute value of correlation coefficient greater than 0.8 means strong correlation,between 0.5 and 0.8means medium strong correlation,between 0.3 and 0.5 means weak correlation.Result:1.In the difference analysis of behavioral scores of dogs of different genders in complex environment,it was found that in test 3 and test 4,the scores of "influence on working state" of female dogs were significantly higher than those of male dogs(P <0.05).2.In the difference analysis of behavioral scores of dogs with different temperament in complex environment,it was found that:1)There is no significant difference in the behavioral scores of the three groups of dogs with different sociality in the complex environment test.Among females,three groups of dogs with different sociality have significant differences in the scores of "attention to external stimuli" in Test 4(P < 0.05),while among males,there is no significant difference in the behavioral scores of all variables.2)There was no significant difference in the behavioral scores of the three groups of dogs with different playfulness in the complex environment test.There were no significant differences in scores between the three groups of dogs,either male or female.3)There were significant differences in the total scores of "stress to external stimuli","influence on working state" and "stress to external stimuli" in test 3,and "stress to external stimuli" in test 5 among the three dog groups with difference exploration(P < 0.05).In three groups of female dogs with difference exploration,there were significant differences in the total scores of "stress to external stimuli","influence on working state" and "stress to external stimuli" in test3(P < 0.05).Three groups of female dogs with difference exploration showed no significant difference in all variable scores.4)There were significant differences in the total scores of "nervousness to external stimuli" and "nervousness to external stimuli" in Test 3 among three groups with different courage(P < 0.05).In three groups of female dogs with difference courage,there were significant differences in the total scores of "influence on working state" and "influence on working state" in test 1 and test 5(P < 0.05);Three groups of female dogs with difference courage showed no significant difference in all variable scores.3.In the correlation analysis between heart rate and behavioral score,it was found that there was a significant positive correlation between the average LF of dogs in the test and the score of the variable "stress to external stimuli"(P > 0.03),and there was a significant positive correlation between average HR and "attention to external stimuli"(P > 0.03).Conclusion: There is a certain correlation between the dog’s stress response in complex environment and the dog’s temperament characteristics,which can be used as a reference to provide suggestions for the working needs and matching needs of dogs in special environment.This study also provides a testing method and scoring system,which can be used to evaluate the stress response of dogs in complex environment.