Short communications: a methodological pilot comparing facial, endocrine, and observer-based welfare measures in service dogs (Canis lupus familiaris)
5 affiliations
- 1Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction (ReCHAI), University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
- 2Department of Psychology, Lyon College, Batesville, AR, USA.
- 3Department of Information Systems, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
- 4Department of Computing, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden.
- 5Lyon College School of Veterinary Medicine, Cabot, AR, USA.
Abstract
Service dogs perform complex tasks in cognitively demanding environments, yet their welfare during training is often inferred from performance rather than measured directly. Several behavioral and physiological measures characterize how dogs respond to training, but researchers rarely apply them concurrently to the same animals. For this reason, we compared three such measures in seven purpose-bred Labrador Retrievers from a single litter during standardized early-stage training: facial behaviors associated with negative affective contexts (coded using DogFACS), urinary cortisol, and observer-based behavioral assessments by experienced trainers and non-expert observers. For each measure, dogs were ranked within the cohort according to that measure's directional convention, and all pairings were compared using Kendall's tau (τ). Rankings varied substantially across measures. Expert assessments agreed most strongly with urinary cortisol (τ = 0.67), non-expert assessments agreed with cortisol at a similar level (τ = 0.60), and expert and non-expert assessments agreed strongly with one another (τ = 0.65). By contrast, facial-behavior rankings showed no agreement with cortisol (τ = 0.00) and weak to very weak agreement with the observer measures (τ = 0.25 and 0.14). Because this was a small, closely related cohort assessed without a non-training control condition, these results cannot establish the validity of any measure. They instead show that measures can characterize the same dogs differently, highlighting the methodological challenges of welfare assessment in working dogs and the need for larger, adequately designed studies.
Related
- Same stimuli, different spaces: how task, observer and amount of data influence geometry and reliability of mental representations
- Protocol for monitoring cytoplasmic Ca2+ dynamics using Fura Red-AM on a Zeiss Axio Observer microscope
- Adaptation reduces perceptual effects of inter-observer metamerism with narrow-band primaries
- Incorporating public values into public health communications: Effects of value affirmations on intentions to vaccinate and trust in the U.S.
- Trajectory tracking control of unmanned aerial vehicle with disturbance observer and robust adaptive neural dynamic surface
BibTeX
@article{cherry2026short,
title = {{Short communications: a methodological pilot comparing facial, endocrine, and observer-based welfare measures in service dogs (Canis lupus familiaris)}},
author = {Don Cherry and Brittany Florkiewicz and Teddy Lazebnik and Carolyn J Henry},
journal = {Veterinary and Animal Science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.vas.2026.100903},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vas.2026.100903},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Short communications: a methodological pilot comparing facial, endocrine, and observer-based welfare measures in service dogs (Canis lupus familiaris)
AU - Don Cherry
AU - Brittany Florkiewicz
AU - Teddy Lazebnik
AU - Carolyn J Henry
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
JO - Veterinary and Animal Science
DO - 10.1016/j.vas.2026.100903
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vas.2026.100903
AB - Service dogs perform complex tasks in cognitively demanding environments, yet their welfare during training is often inferred from performance rather than measured directly. Several behavioral and physiological measures characterize how dogs respond to training, but researchers rarely apply them concurrently to the same animals. For this reason, we compared three such measures in seven purpose-bred Labrador Retrievers from a single litter during standardized early-stage training: facial behaviors associated with negative affective contexts (coded using DogFACS), urinary cortisol, and observer-based behavioral assessments by experienced trainers and non-expert observers. For each measure, dogs were ranked within the cohort according to that measure's directional convention, and all pairings were compared using Kendall's tau (τ). Rankings varied substantially across measures. Expert assessments agreed most strongly with urinary cortisol (τ = 0.67), non-expert assessments agreed with cortisol at a similar level (τ = 0.60), and expert and non-expert assessments agreed strongly with one another (τ = 0.65). By contrast, facial-behavior rankings showed no agreement with cortisol (τ = 0.00) and weak to very weak agreement with the observer measures (τ = 0.25 and 0.14). Because this was a small, closely related cohort assessed without a non-training control condition, these results cannot establish the validity of any measure. They instead show that measures can characterize the same dogs differently, highlighting the methodological challenges of welfare assessment in working dogs and the need for larger, adequately designed studies.
SN - 2451-943X
ER -