Dennis C. Turner

I.E.A.P./I.E.T., Inst. for applied Ethology and Animal Psychology

The second edition of this book contains 32 chapters divided into 4 main sections that discuss the theoretical foundations of One Health; methods, skills and perspectives for the practice of One Health; the application of One Health in infectious and non-infectious diseases and governance and capacity building, all of which are related to the globa...

The current study investigates the associations between interpersonal and pet attachment (anxiety and avoidance dimensions), empathy toward animals, and anthropomor-phism in the Romanian cultural context, where problems regarding the effectiveness of pet management programs are still being reported. A sample of 244 adult respondents, with a mean ag...

Among other regions, Romania and Mexico (particularly Mexico City) are often cited as problematic areas in surveys and reports on the growing population of stray animals in urban areas. The aim of our study was to adapt for Romanian and Spanish languages usage of an instrument that includes significant psychological and social dimensions of the att...

Kapitel 19.3 Tiergestützte Interventionen bei AD(H)S Seiten 305-313 Zusammen mit Andrea Beetz

The aim of this current study is to present the Romanian version of a scientifically validated instrument that includes significant psychological and social dimensions of the attitudes towards animals (i.e. Attitudes toward Animals questionnaire, ATA; Turner, 2010; Fehlbaum, Waiblinger, Turner, 2010). Compared to other tools available in the field...

Deception, the use of false signals to modify the behaviour of the receiver, occurs in low frequencies even in stable signalling systems. For example, it can be advantageous for subordinate individuals to deceive in competitive situations. We investigated in a three-way choice task whether dogs are able to mislead a human competitor, i.e. if they a...

Background: Companion animals may reduce depression and loneliness in socially isolated homebound older adults. However, whether owning a cat or dog is more beneficial in this population remains unknown. Materials and Methods: Pet attachment and the levels of depressive symptoms and loneliness were examined in 39 homebound older adults who exclusiv...

This review article covers research conducted over the last three decades on cat-human and human-cat interactions and relationships, especially from an ethological point of view. It includes findings on cat-cat and cat-human communication, cat personalities and cat-owner personalities, the effects of cats on humans, and problems caused by cats.

Attending to the perception of others may help individuals gaining information from conspecifics, or help in competitive situations. Dogs (Canis familiaris) are attentive to humans' signals and their attentional state. We investigated whether dogs of different breed groups differ in their ability to pay attention to human's perception, first accord...

Both human and nonhuman primates use imperative pointing to request a desired object from another individual. Gaze alternation often accompanies such pointing gestures, and in species that have no hands this can in itself function as imperative pointing. Dogs have exceptional skills in communicating with humans. The early development of these skill...

There is widespread acceptance of animal assisted therapy among the public, researchers, and clinicians. In this commentary, I argue that despite hundreds of published studies, there is actually limited evidence for the efficacy of the incorporation of animals in the treatment of medical and mental disorders. As others have pointed out, AAT studies...

The mission of the CALLISTO (Companion Animals multisectoriaL interprofessionaL Interdisciplinary Strategic Think tank On zoonoses) project was to provide an overview of the current situation on the role of companion animals as a source of infectious diseases for people and food animals. It also aimed to identify knowledge and technology gaps for t...

Many practitioners report that the presence of an animal, or interaction with an animal, increases the attention and concentration of children, elderly persons or patients. Previous studies support this impression via indirect variables, but direct effects on children’s attention performance have not yet been measured. We therefore designed a study...

The benefits of human–animal interaction have been discussed extensively in the literature. In this paper we take a slightly different strategy in documenting that some humans acknowledge the importance of pets by actually referring to them in human obituaries. We begin with a brief overview of the human obituary, followed by the potential for pets...

Viele Meinungen und Vorurteile zirkulieren über die Haltung und das Verhalten von Muslimen gegenüber Tieren. Vor einigen Jahren, als ich (der Erstautor) bei der Welttierschutzgesellschaft (WSPA) als Trustee und Chef des wissenschaftlich beratenden Beirats tätig war, beschloss ich, eine breit angelegte, vergleichende Studie über die Haltung von erwa...

The most commonly kept domestic animal in the developed world, the cat has been a part of human life for thousands of years. Cats have been both worshipped and persecuted over this long period - either loved or hated for their enigmatic self-reliance and the subject of numerous myths and fables. Highlighting startling discoveries made over the last...

When a cat behaves socially towards a human, the person has been treated as though he or she were a cat, although very possibly a particular type of cat. Anybody who loves cats is irresistibly drawn to treat them as though they had some of the characteristics of humans. Cat owners project themselves into the heads of cats and, in so doing, empathis...

Given the worldwide distribution of cats, differences in attitudes and behaviour toward these animals in different cultures might be expected, especially given differences in levels of economic development and religious traditions in many countries. In 2006 the first author decided to examine those differences in a sample of countries across the gl...

This chapter reflects an amazing ‘success story’, the story of a predator species, the domestic cat, which has more or less conquered the world within a few thousand years - partly with the help of humans, but mostly because of its amazing flexibility. It is not a new story and therefore easy to summarise. The summary is based upon three chapters i...

The most commonly kept domestic animal in the developed world, the cat has been a part of human life for thousands of years. Cats have been both worshipped and persecuted over this long period - either loved or hated for their enigmatic self-reliance and the subject of numerous myths and fables. Highlighting startling discoveries made over the last...

Up to 90% of children with special education needs and about 40% of children in the general population show insecure or disorganized attachment patterns, which are linked to a diminished ability to use social support by others for the regulation of stress. The aim of the study was to investigate if children with insecure-avoidant/disorganized attac...

The regulation of stress by an attachment figure is a key feature of attachment relationships. Previous research suggests that in some cases animal companionship may be regarded as an attachment relationship. This may be particularly important for persons with an insecure or disorganized attachment pattern who may find it more difficult than secure...

Animal welfare laws in many countries require that animals be housed and treated in such a way that all of their species-specific needs can be satisfied and that they are not subjected to stress or pain. Advances in knowledge about the human/animal relationship and its therapeutic value can also be secured by combining the methods and results of ot...

A comparison of attitudes towards animals between German- and French-speaking Swiss adults is of particular interest, given the often invoked cultural barrier, the . We sent questionnaires to 3000 randomly chosen Swiss adults in both language regions. 319 German and 293 French questionnaires were returned. Participants had to express their opinion...

Social learning is an important process in the development of behaviour in many species. It is involved in information transfer concerning food that leads, in some species, to food preferences. In our experiment an adult dog (the observer) was allowed to observe another adult dog (the demonstrator) while the latter was disappearing behind one of fo...

A comparison of children’s behavior toward Sony’s robotic dog AIBO™ (ERS-210) and a similar sized live dog was made over time. Fourteen children between three and six years of age from a kindergarten and a pre-school play group in Zurich, Switzerland, were visited once a week for eleven weeks with the live dog and subsequently for eleven weeks with...

Domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) are often housed indoors both singly and in groups. However, there is a lack of studies dealing with cat-cat relationships, group composition and effects of environmental parameters on the well-being of privately-owned cats. One way to index the effects of stressful situations is to measure glucocorticoid leve...

Ethology can be defined as the observational, often comparative study of animal and human behavior. Animal welfare laws in many countries require that animals be housed and treated in such a way that all their species-specific needs can be satisfied and that they are not subjected to stress or pain. Therapy animals are no exception. With regard to...

Previous data indicated that cats influence the moods of singly living people only by decreasing negative moods, while not affecting positive moods. In this study, we asked if such an effect can be 1) replicated, 2) is comparable to the effect of a human partner, and 3) related to the owner’s attachment towards the cat. Two hundred and twelve coupl...

Verschiedene Gründe für die Domestikation der Vorfahren der Haushunde und der Hauskatzen wurden schon postuliert. Jene Vorfahren zeig(t)en auch gewisse Präadaptationen, welche sie besonders attraktiv für die Domestikationsversuche gemacht haben. Nach einem zusammenfassenden Überblick werden die Ergebnisse der gezielten Zucht (Rassenbildung), v. a....

We sought to examine how cat owners’ moods correlated with subsequent interactions with their cats. Such a relationship has not been previously documented. Data from 47 women and 49 men living alone with their cats were collected. Participants were visited at their homes for one two-hour session each. Approximately five minutes before and after the...

Unlike ethologists and veterinarians, lay people supposedly use their own unstructured observations to interpret their companion animals' behavior, often in anthropomorphic terms. Recently, anthropomorphism has evoked new interest amongst scientists as a result of provocative publications concerning "animal mind," that have prompted investigations...

This study investigated how depressive feelings affect the behavior of singly living persons toward their cats. Data from 47 women and 49 men, who were visited at home for one two-hour observation session, were used for the analyses. Just prior to and after the observations, participants filled out a standard questionnaire used to assess momentary...

The goal of this study was to assess whether the widespread popularity of cats can best be explained using either attachment theory or social support theory. To assess the degree of attachment to the cat, and the size of the human social support network, we used five different questionnaires: In a first mailing we sent the LAPS (Lexington Attachmen...

This study investigated the influence of density and floor area on stress and the adaptation process of cats in animal shelters and boarding catteries. Sixty-three rescued cats were observed on 113 days in a shelter at group densities of 0.3-0.9 animals m ⁻² . In addition, 49 rescued cats were observed during their first week after being admitted t...

Single- and group-housing conditions for cats in animal shelters represent spatially and socially very different housing types. This study investigated whether the socialization of the cat towards conspecifics and people influences adaptation to these two housing types. Socialization towards conspecifics and people was determined in 169 rescued cat...

For cats, appropriate housing conditions and a quick adjustment to new surroundings should be promoted during temporary stays in animal shelters and boarding catteries. In this study the development of stress in 140 boarding cats during a two-week stay under single-, pairand group-housing conditions in a boarding cattery was investigated and compar...

In this introductory paper, the young and growing field of pet behaviour counselling and therapy is considered. A case is made for cooperation between veterinarians and trained pet behaviour advisors and for qualification of professionals working in the field. The general causes of behaviour problems, as well as general principles of treatment, are...

Ethological observations of the introduction of new charges into a large mixed-sex group in a dog shelter, and the later behaviour of the dogs in the run, were used to investigate a method of early assessment of the dogs' reactions to the new situation. Subjects were divided qualitatively into four categories according to their interactional behavi...

Ethology, or the comparative study of behaviour and its biological roots, has made significant contributions to our understanding of companion animal behaviour and thereby, the welfare of these animals. Ethological questions, concepts and methods can be readily applied to companion animal studies and the interpretation of results. In particular, co...

Comparative behavioural observations were made in the home setting in order to analyze the ethology of the human-cat relationship. Factors postulated, and indeed, found to influence that relationship included marital status of the human (women living alone, with a partner or with a partner and children), housing conditions of the cat (indoor vs. ou...

The goal of our study was to describe tween a human and a cat and to determine the social behavior during the first encounter beinfluence of the sex of the cat, individuality of the cat, activity state of the person, and person type on the cat's behavior; and the influence of the age and sex of the human partner (person type) on his/her behavior. N...

Discusses methods of hunting, and strategies that may be adopted by Felis catus. Success rate is examined in terms of prey size and predator defence mechanisms; prey availability; individual and sex-class differences; and the significance of supplemental feeding. Activity patterns and time budgets are reviewed; cats are generally more active in spr...

The 14 contributions, 9 abstracted separately, which explore the behaviour and ecology of Felis catus (= Felis silvestris catus) are arranged in 4 major sections (development of young cats, social life, predatory behaviour, cats and people), together with an introduction and a postscript. -P.J.Jarvis

Used ratings of friendliness toward and by familiar persons to differentiate adult female cats and their 3–4 mo old offspring at 2 separate cat colonies. Results show that male cats exerted some influence over the behavioral trait of friendliness toward humans among their offspring, without ever coming into social contact with them. (PsycINFO Datab...

Home range size, overlap and exploitation in domestic farm cats is examined. Data were collected on the 11 adult cats (5 O'O'; 6 ♀♀) living on 3 Swiss farms throughout 1984; 8 of the cats were fitted with radio transmitters. Census-point and focal animal methods of data collection were employed. From area-observation curves we concluded that our ho...

Conducted a field study of 72 cats encountered on 356 different occasions to investigate 3 questions: (1) how house cats react to a stranger (person) encountered outside of the primary home, (2) whether their reactions to that person change over repeated encounters, and (3) whether cats can be placed on a continuum between extremely shy and extreme...

Roe deer spent c.55% of the day lying (and ruminating) during winter. Differences between age/sex-classes over the year were related to differential behavior towards protective cover, rather than differential energy requirements. Therefore, age/sex-differences in time-budgeting were sought within the active period. About 90% of the time spent on fo...

The paternal-maternal-infant interactions of contact and nursing are reported from extensive longitudinal observations on two successive Callimico births in one family. For the first two weeks, the maternal period, the infant clings exclusively to the female. In the third week the infant shifts abruptly to the male. Subsequently, during the paterna...