Influence of male and female petters on plasma cortisol and behaviour: canhuman interaction reduce the stress of dogs in a public animal shelter?

During their second or third day in public animal shelter, juvenile/adult d ogs were exposed to a venipuncture procedure. Then the dogs were either not petted or were petted in a prescribed manner by either a man or a woman; 2 0 min later, a second blood sample was collected. There was a clear increas e in cortisol levels 20 min after the first venipuncture in juvenile/adult dogs that were not petted, but not in dogs that were petted by either a man or a woman. Additional comparisons showed that the petting procedure also inhibited the cortisol response following venipuncture in puppies. However, petting did not reduce the cortisol response to housing in the shelter per se. During petting, dogs made few attempts to escape, frequently were obse rved in a relaxed posture, and panting was common in juvenile/adult dogs. W hen dogs were petted immediately following removal from the living cage, th ose petted by women yawned more often and spent more time in a relaxed, hea d-up posture. Together, these results indicate that a previously observed s ex difference in the effectiveness of petters in reducing the cortisol resp onse was not due to some difference in odor or other nonbehavioural stimulu s quality of men and women. Subtle aspects of petting technique appear to h ave pronounced effects on physiological and possibly behavioural responses of dogs confined in a shelter. Petting may be an effective means of reducin g the cortisol responses of dogs to other common aversive situations, such as routine medical examinations and vaccination procedures at veterinary cl inics as well as shelters. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserv ed.