<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>With a growing number of dogs abandoned, living in shelters, and being rehomed, it is important to distinguish behavioural responses due to stress in our domestic companions. Cortisol is involved in the stress responses in animals which generally enters the individual’s body into a “state of emergency”. Prolonged stress can lead to exhaustion, disease, and death. Chronic stress can be detected by evaluating cortisol concentration in hair. Most domesticated dogs respond well to hair collection, thus avoiding further stressors. The method is simple, relatively inexpensive, and non-invasive. Our experiment focused on assessing multiple parameters using a modified Canine Behavioural Assessment and Research Questionnaire to evaluate their significance with cortisol in hair samples from a diverse range of dogs. Each stress parameter was tested against cortisol concentration using a t-Test, i. e., the Paired Two Sample for Means. The effect of weight on cortisol levels was statistically significant (P = 0.03). This fact revealed that an increase in body weight correlated with an increase in cortisol levels.</p>
</abstract>

With a growing number of dogs abandoned, living in shelters, and being rehomed, it is important to distinguish behavioural responses due to stress in our domestic companions. Cortisol is involved in the stress responses in animals which generally enters the individual’s body into a “state of emergency”. Prolonged stress can lead to exhaustion, disease, and death. Chronic stress can be detected by evaluating cortisol concentration in hair. Most domesticated dogs respond well to hair collection, thus avoiding further stressors. The method is simple, relatively inexpensive, and non-invasive. Our experiment focused on assessing multiple parameters using a modified Canine Behavioural Assessment and Research Questionnaire to evaluate their significance with cortisol in hair samples from a diverse range of dogs. Each stress parameter was tested against cortisol concentration using a t-Test, i. e., the Paired Two Sample for Means. The effect of weight on cortisol levels was statistically significant (P = 0.03). This fact revealed that an increase in body weight correlated with an increase in cortisol levels.

Chronic Stress Indicators in Canines

Department of Public Veterinary Medicine and Animal Welfare

University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice

Folia Veterinaria

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Chronic Stress Indicators in Canines"}

With a growing number of dogs abandoned, living in shelters, and being rehomed, it is important to distinguish behavioural responses due to stress in our...

Chronic Stress Indicators in Canines

Published Online: Mar 31, 2022

Page range: 75 - 82

Received: Feb 08, 2022

Accepted: Mar 07, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fv-2022-0009

Keywords
canines, cortisol, hair, stress, welfare

© 2022 N. S. Dolan et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Chronic Stress Indicators in Canines

Published Online: Mar 31, 2022

Page range: 75 - 82

Received: Feb 08, 2022

Accepted: Mar 07, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fv-2022-0009

Keywordscanines, cortisol, hair, stress, welfare

© 2022 N. S. Dolan et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
canines, cortisol, hair, stress, welfare