Animal - assisted activities with consideration for self-initiative of participant dogs

Abstract

This research is to explore a more suitable structure of animal-assisted activity (AAA) for both animals and humans. In this research, AAA were conducted by domestic dogs and university student volunteers in ‘Student Salon’, a free access room with student counselling service of Iwaki Meisei University. The AAA were carried out four times with two dogs participating per activity, and no activity exceeded 30 minutes in duration. For participant students, each session was conducted in semi-closed style (pre-registration recommended). As a whole programme, a total number of students was 40 (10.0 on average), which contained around 30-40% repeaters in each session. 31 out of 40 students were regular visitors to our counselling service. The AAA were conducted in that the students remained seated on the floor to limit their movement while the dogs could move freely around the room, allowing them to choose to stay near the students or wander around. Whole activities were video-taped. For the students, 3 to 4 staffs of the student counselling service, who meet and care for them daily at the Student Salon, conducted a participant observation. It was found that the AAA significantly increased the frequency of prosocial behaviour and emotional interaction among the students, which were assisted by the dog activity. For participant dogs, the duration of time (%) of each dog to interact with the students was evaluated, and the temperaments of the dogs were assigned through interviews with the owners and behavioral assessment. The duration of time that each dog interacted with the students varied according to its temperament, dogs with high sociality spending longer with the students than those with low sociality. Measurement of the concentrations of oxytocin and cortisol in the saliva of the students and the dogs pre- and post-activity using enzyme immunoassay showed that oxytocin concentrations were highly variable among both groups of participants. However, the cortisol concentrations in the saliva significantly decreased in both groups after the AAA, with low sociality dogs having a lower post-/pre-activity ratio of cortisol concentration than those with high sociality. These findings suggest that the students enjoyed the AAA even though the dogs took an initiative of interacting all the time, and that this approach reduced the burden on participant dogs as evidenced by the fact that the activities relieved tension in participant dogs.