Investigation of the effects of auditory, olfactory stimulation and human contact on stress levels in shelter dogs

Animal shelters are an extremely stressful environment for a dog, most specifically due to social isolation and novel surroundings. Stray dogs are kenneled, either short term or long term, for a variety of reasons. Stress in animals have effects on health and life span. Endocrinological stress markers are useful for objectively evaluating stress. Their presence in saliva samples can be assayed, and the collection of saliva is a noninvasive, relatively nonstressful, and therefore highly convenient sampling method. Stress can be determined with salivary cortisol concentration in dogs. It is thought that stress could be determined by measuring levels of these parametres in saliva. Environmental enrichment methods are used in shelters to reduce stress. Although there are data about auditory stimulants to reduce stress, studies are not adequate about comparation of olfactory and human interaction's effectiveness. The aim of this thesis was to determine the concentration of salivary cortisol of dogs which had been recently presented to the animal shelter and evaluation of the effect of auditory, olfactory and human interactions on stress in these dogs. For this aim, forty dogs, >one year-old, mix breeds and of both genders from Osmangazi Municipality Stray Animal Natural Life and Treatment Center, were included to the study. Dogs were observed daily for an hour and behavior analysis were done. Dogs were divided into four group as; auditory, olfactory, human interaction and control group, and concentration of cortisol determined on 0., 2., 4. and 9. days from each dogs' saliva from these groups. Significant decrease was observed when cortisol levels on day 0 and day 9 were compared, however but the difference among the groups was not significant on any day. As a conclusion cortisol was found as a useful marker of stress. Auditory and olfactory enrichment and human interaction decreased stress, however a similar effect was also observed in the conrol group. It was found that methods which used started to reduce the stress from day 2. Lack of any difference among the groups suggested that auditory, olfactory stimulations or human contact enrichment did not have superiority on any other.