Gfrerer, Nastassja; Taborsky, Michael; Würbel, Hanno (2018). Benefits of intraspecific social exposure in adult Swiss military dogs. Applied animal behaviour science, 201, pp. 54-60. Elsevier 10.1016/j.applanim.2017.12.016
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Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) are social animals and, therefore, social interactions with conspecifics are
crucial for their welfare. However, in kennelled dogs, the ability to interact with conspecifics may be limited.
Swiss military dogs, for instance, are kept individually without direct contact to conspecifics. Here we asked
whether short-term exposure to conspecifics may be beneficial for dogs kept in isolation. The treatment lasted for
eight weeks and consisted of one session weekly of three hours of social exposure. During social exposure, focal
dogs were allowed direct contact with conspecifics but were supervised by the experimenter who intervened
when necessary to prevent dogs from attacking one another. Immediately before and after the treatment phase,
the dogs’ reactions towards unfamiliar objects (including a dog model) and an unfamiliar male dog (stimulus
dog) were assessed both in experimental dogs (with social exposure, n=29) and control dogs (without social
exposure, n=27). We predicted a positive effect of the social exposure, i.e. less offensive and defensive behaviours
shown towards both the unfamiliar dog model and stimulus dog. In accordance with our predictions,
experimental dogs showed a greater decrease in offensive and defensive behaviours compared to control dogs.
Although none of these dogs had been socialised conventionally like family dogs are, we found a clear positive
effect of social exposure in adult dogs on their social behaviour. Thus, working dogs, which are otherwise kept
singly, may benefit from temporary social exposure in terms of both their working ability and their wellbeing
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