Therese Rehn

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences | SLU · Department of Animal Environment and Health

The study investigated equine responses to novelty and handling, aiming to reveal whether horse–human relationships reflect criteria of an attachment bond. Twelve adult Standardbreds were subjected to a fear-eliciting test (novel objects presented close to two humans) and a handling test (being led passing novel objects) to study attachment-related...

This study investigates the dynamics of play behaviour within groups of four juvenile pigs and uses a novel clustering and statistical modelling approach to describe new details in how individuals play with a familiar object (toy rope). We examined complex state sequence data collected during a 30 min home pen play test, using the package TraMineR,...

The aim of this study was to investigate if an owner’s adult attachment style (AAS) influences how their dog interacts and obtains support from them during challenging events. A person’s AAS describes how they perceive their relationship to other people, but it may also reflect their caregiving behavior, and so their behavior toward the dog. We mea...

Little is known about the cat’s (Felis silvestris catus) need for human contact, although it is generally believed that cats are more independent pets than e.g. dogs. In this study, we investigated the effect of time left alone at home on cat behaviour (e.g. social and distress-related) before, during and after separation from their owner. Fourteen...

Ethogram. List of the behaviours recorded before (cat and owner), during (cat) and after separation (cat and owner), their definitions as well as recording method. (DOCX)

Previous research suggests that dogs (Canis familiaris) form attachment bonds to their owners and that the strengths of the attachment can vary. However, it does not seem reasonable to believe that all dogs share the same attachment style, considering their differences in genetic background, their previous experiences and the many different caregiv...

We aimed to evaluate cow's body posture and heart rate (HR) as an indicator of their emotional state. Our 4 treatments were based on 2 different biological systems; feeding and tactile stimulation. During Feed given (FG) cows were given a portion of concentrate and during Feed missing (FM) they saw their neighbour receive feed, but missed to receiv...

It is known that tactile stimulation (TS) during ontogeny modifies brain plasticity and enhances the motor and cognitive skills. Our hypothesis was that early handling including TS would increase play and exploratory behaviour in commercial pigs under standardized test conditions. Piglets from 13 litters were subjected to three handling treatments...

Early handling of animals including tactile stimulation (TS) has been shown to have beneficial effects on the physical and psychological development of species where considerable maternal interaction, e.g. in the form of licking, already occurs. But little is known about the magnitude of these effects, if any, in species without this natural mechan...

It has been shown in several species that stressful experiences increase the expression of grooming behaviour. In cattle, the use of brushes has been shown to increase around the time of calving. The aim of this study was to address the use of mechanical swinging brushes in relation to agonistic interactions between cows as a potential indicator of...

For dogs, humans are likely to be the most important feature in their environment influencing their welfare. To investigate a commonly occurring human-dog interaction, behavioural and endocrine responses of 12 female beagle dogs were measured before, upon and after the return of a familiar person. Each dog was left by the person in a test arena to...

Subtle behaviour, as indicated by body postures, can be an indicator of an animal's emotional state. Previous studies carried out with different species have shown that changes in ear and tail postures, licking and showing the white of the eyes are related to animals emotions, and are expressed differently according to the animal´s experience. This...

Animals may experience positive affective states in response to their own achievements. We investigated emotional responses to problem-solving in dogs, separating these from reactions to rewards per se using a yoked control design. We also questioned whether the intensity of reaction would vary with reward type. We examined the response (behavior a...

The Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) is increasingly being used to study attachment between dogs and humans. It has been developed from the Ainsworth Strange Situation Procedure, which is used extensively to investigate attachment between children and their parents. In this experiment, 12 female beagle dogs were tested in two treatments to identif...

In this study, the possibility of there being an association between how an owner perceives his/her relationship to their dog and the way the dog experiences the relationship to its owner was investigated using two well-established methods within the anthrozoology literature. Twenty dog–owner dyads participated in the Strange Situation Procedure (S...

It is known that tactile stimulation (TS) during ontogeny modifies the brain plasticity and enhances motor and cognitive skills of animals, but there is no documentation on how this type of handling correlates with play behaviour in pigs later in life. Piglets from 13 litters were subjected to gentle stroking (from 5-35 days of age) according to on...

The aim of this experiment was to study the role of early tactile stimulation of piglets on their reaction towards humans and growth rate. A total of 66 piglets (females and castrated males) from nine litters (Hampshire x Yorkshire) were subjected to 16 tactile stimulation sessions, starting at five days old. The tactile stimulation consisted of da...

The aim of this study was to evaluate welfare status and the implementation of Regulation (EC) 1/2005 during the gathering and loading of deer (Cervus elaphus) bred for meat in Northern Italy. Four journeys overland along with related operations of 45 deer, destined for game farms, were observed over a period of four months. Planning, animal-manage...

Interest in the induction and measurement of positive affective states in non-human animals is increasing. Here, we used a test of cognitive (judgement) bias, based on the finding that individuals experiencing different affective states judge ambiguous stimuli differently, to measure whether a positive low arousal affective state (e.g. ‘satisfactio...

Simple Summary We surveyed university students in 11 Eurasian countries for their attitudes to animals, using an internet-based questionnaire to which 1,902 female and 1,530 male student responded from 102 universities. Across countries female students had greater concern for animal welfare and rights than males, but especially so in more gender em...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of time left alone on dog behaviour and cardiac activity. Twelve privately owned dogs, with no history of separation related behaviour problems, were video-recorded on three different occasions when left alone in their home environment. The treatments lasted for 0.5h (T0.5); 2h (T2) and 4h (T4). V...

Interest in the induction and measurement of positive affective states in non-human animals is increasing. Here, we used a test of cognitive (judgement) bias, based on the finding that individuals experiencing different affective states judge ambiguous stimuli differently, to measure whether a positive low arousal affective state (e.g. 'satisfactio...

The risk of injuries is of major concern when keeping horses in groups and there is a need for a system to record external injuries in a standardised and simple way. The objective of this study, therefore, was to develop and validate a system for injury recording in horses and to test its reliability and feasibility under field conditions. Injuries...