Can I touch you? The importance of choice during human-dog touch interactions

Choice and consent are critical welfare elements, especially in interactions between humans and animals. Dogs in therapeutic settings often encounter human touch interactions where they have limited control over their circumstances. The present study examined how forced and free-choice touch treatments during interaction with humans influenced the behaviour of therapy dogs. The study involved 18 certified therapy dogs with 44 human participants. Each human interacted individually with up to four therapy dogs in forced and free-choice touch treatments for 3 min. During forced touch treatments, dogs were held on a leash by their owners while participants continuously touched the dog but during free-choice touch treatments, dogs roamed freely in a pen and participants were directed to touch them only if they approached within arm’s reach. Treatments were videoed for retrospective behavioural coding. A GLIMMIX for repeated measures tested the effect of treatment on dog behaviours. During forced touch, there was a higher frequency of ear back behaviour (p = .0115) compared to free-choice touch treatment. Sniffing behaviour (p < .0001) and avoidance of the participants (p < .0001) occurred more frequently during free-choice touch compared to forced touch treatments. Male dogs demonstrated a higher frequency of avoidance of participants (p = .0031) and interaction with owners (p = .0352) than female dogs, regardless of treatment. The findings revealed subtle behavioural differences in therapy dogs between forced and free-choice touch treatments with humans, highlighting the importance of incorporating choice and agency in human-dog interactions within therapy programs to enhance dog welfare.