TY - JOUR
T1 - Physiological stress reactivity and recovery related to behavioral traits in dogs (Canis familiaris)
AU - Lensen, Rian C.M.M.
AU - Moons, Christel P.H.
AU - Diederich, Claire
N1 - Funding Information:
This study (author Rian Lensen) was supported by the Federal Public Service of Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment (https://www. health.belgium.be/en), and the Public Service of Wallonia (https://spw.wallonie.be/); contract RT 10/ 12 CONDOG. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors thank all dog owners who voluntarily participated to this study. The assistance and insights of IVRU staff members (Veterinary Department, University of Namur), in particular Laetitia Wiggers, Prof. Nathalie Kirschvink, Prof. Benoît Muylkens, and Dr. Damien Coupeau were much appreciated. Daniela Späder (Master in Ethology, Paris 13, France) and Alice Depiereux (Bachelor in Animal Technics, HELHA, Belgium) helped with filming saliva sampling instruction videos. The authors also thank Prof. James Serpell (University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine) for providing translated versions of the C-BARQ and valuable insights for its interpretation. Finally, the statistical advice from Dr. Etienne Hanon was much appreciated.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Lensen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - This study investigated whether stress responsiveness (in one context) can be used to predict dog behavior in daily life. On two occasions (NT1 = 32 puppies; NT2 = 16 young adults), dogs’ physiological stress response after a behavioral test at home was measured in terms of reactivity (10 min post-test) and recovery (40 min post-test) for three salivary markers: cortisol, chromogranin A (CgA) and secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA). For each marker, it was determined whether dogs with a strong physiological response displayed different behavior in daily life compared to dogs with a weaker physiological response. The results revealed three main findings: first, for CgA and cortisol, different patterns were identified according to sample time. High reactivity related to desirable traits, whereas slow recovery after the behavioral test related to undesirable traits. The findings suggest that increased levels of CgA and cortisol 10 minutes after the behavioral test reflected an adaptive stress response, whereas elevated levels 40 minutes after the test reflected unsuccessful coping. Second, patterns for sIgA differed from CgA and cortisol: significant associations were only found with behavioral traits at T2, mostly considered desirable and related to Trainability. Possibly, the delayed reaction pattern of sIgA caused this difference between markers, as sIgA reflects the (secondary) immune response to stress, due to immunosuppressive effects of cortisol. Third, predictive capacity of puppies’ physiological stress response (T1) was inconclusive, and contrary relations were found with behavioral traits at T2, suggesting that developmental factors play an important role. This study provides new insights about the relation between stress physiology and behavioral traits, and methodological advice is given to study these patterns further. In conclusion, physiological markers could provide additional insights in dogs’ tendencies to display certain behaviors, especially at the young adult stage. Further studies are needed to confirm these patterns.
AB - This study investigated whether stress responsiveness (in one context) can be used to predict dog behavior in daily life. On two occasions (NT1 = 32 puppies; NT2 = 16 young adults), dogs’ physiological stress response after a behavioral test at home was measured in terms of reactivity (10 min post-test) and recovery (40 min post-test) for three salivary markers: cortisol, chromogranin A (CgA) and secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA). For each marker, it was determined whether dogs with a strong physiological response displayed different behavior in daily life compared to dogs with a weaker physiological response. The results revealed three main findings: first, for CgA and cortisol, different patterns were identified according to sample time. High reactivity related to desirable traits, whereas slow recovery after the behavioral test related to undesirable traits. The findings suggest that increased levels of CgA and cortisol 10 minutes after the behavioral test reflected an adaptive stress response, whereas elevated levels 40 minutes after the test reflected unsuccessful coping. Second, patterns for sIgA differed from CgA and cortisol: significant associations were only found with behavioral traits at T2, mostly considered desirable and related to Trainability. Possibly, the delayed reaction pattern of sIgA caused this difference between markers, as sIgA reflects the (secondary) immune response to stress, due to immunosuppressive effects of cortisol. Third, predictive capacity of puppies’ physiological stress response (T1) was inconclusive, and contrary relations were found with behavioral traits at T2, suggesting that developmental factors play an important role. This study provides new insights about the relation between stress physiology and behavioral traits, and methodological advice is given to study these patterns further. In conclusion, physiological markers could provide additional insights in dogs’ tendencies to display certain behaviors, especially at the young adult stage. Further studies are needed to confirm these patterns.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072278004&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0222581
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0222581
M3 - Article
C2 - 31527914
AN - SCOPUS:85072278004
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 14
SP - e0222581
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 9
M1 - e0222581
ER -