Behavioural indicators of candidate enrichments for kennel housed dogs

The welfare of kennelled dogs is often considered to be suboptimal and therefore to require "enrichment". This thesis examines the short-term reactions of dogs to a variety of potential enrichments. Where possible, comparisons were also made between two contrasting kennel environments, to indicate to what degree interest in enrichments is influenced by environment, as well as fulfilling species requirements. Interaction with toys was investigated as an example of inanimate enrichment. Toys that made a noise and/or could be chewed easily were found to be preferred to more robust toys, suggesting that the latter may provide little enrichment. Interactions with humans and conspecifics were investigated as examples of animate enrichment. Dogs in long-stay enriched (LSE) kennels preferred unfamiliar humans to familiar, while those in rehoming (RH) kennels showed no overall preference: therefore, the welfare benefit of different forms of human contact is likely to differ between facilities. LSE dogs also behaved differently depending upon the familiarity of conspecifics, with the greeting period at the beginning of the interaction more important for unfamiliar dogs, suggesting that familiarity is also an important factor when considering the effectiveness of conspecific contact as enrichment. Comparing animate and inanimate enrichments, LSE dogs chose social contact (human or dog) over toys. However, their greatest interest was in the goings-on outside the pen. The rapid habituation that occurs towards individual objects during play was shown, by measuring dishabituation, to be due to the overall stimulus properties of the toy rather than those within any single sensory modality. The time interval between presentations did not appear to be critical to habituation or dishabituation. Behaviour indicating a switch from anticipation to frustration as enrichment is delayed was investigated but not determined. However, positive reinforcement training may have inhibited expression of frustration behaviour.