Lateralised behaviour as a predictor of welfare risk in the domestic dog, Canis familiaris

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The ability to predict an animal's susceptibility to suffer from poor welfare would enable interventions to be undertaken before the individual's well-being is compromised. Many studies have focused on the detection of poor animal welfare and then undertaken ameliorative action. Far fewer studies, however, have attempted to design measures that can detect welfare risk, i.e., how the animal may respond in particular circumstances or situations. It is the aim of this research to evaluate whether it is possible to predict the welfare risk of an animal through the use of the novel measure of motor laterality or bias, often termed 'handedness' in humans. Handedness, the predominant use of one hand, has been studied as an observable measure of brain functioning for numerous years. Until recently, it was assumed that handedness was unique to humans. It is now known, however, that many animals show a significant preference to use one side of their body more than the other. Indeed, behavioural asymmetries in the form of paw preferences, swimming direction and breaching, have been recorded in a wide variety of species. Recently, it has been suggested that there may be association between motor bias and animal welfare, with left-limb preferent animals being more vulnerable to stress and reduced well-being than animals showing a right-sided motor preference. If this association were to be proven, then it would enable behavioural asymmetry to be used as a simple, inexpensive and, importantly, non-invasive, measure of welfare risk. This project will examine, for the first time, the relationship between behavioural lateralisation and welfare risk, focusing specifically on the domestic dog. Thousands of dogs around the globe are exposed on a regular basis to stressful situations (e.g. kennel housing, obedience training, transportation), in many cases resulting in compromised welfare. Finding a reliable, harmless and consistent measure that can predict which animals are likely to cope poorly with such stressors would be immensely valuable, enabling preventive measures to be put into practice that allow the animal to cope better with its surroundings at a very early stage, or not to be placed in situations that may compromise its welfare. The dog has been shown to display behavioural asymmetry in the form of paw preferences. However, the association between this motor bias and susceptibility to stress has been virtually overlooked. This project will evaluate the potential of motor asymmetry in the form of paw preferences, to assess welfare risk, investigating the association between motor bias and measures of physical and psychological well-being and tests that measure emotional vulnerability. We will examine the relationship between paw preferences and measures of canine welfare during exposure to a known stressor (in this case kennel housing) and examine the correlation between 'pawedness' and the exhibition of behaviour problems. The research will determine whether behavioural lateralisation in the form of paw preferences can be used as a reliable, harmless and independent predictor of welfare risk in animals, offering a viable tool for the early targeting of vulnerable individuals. The fact that motor biases are seen in virtually all vertebrates means that we will be able to develop guidelines for the use of motor bias as an examination of welfare risk for many different animal species.