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.选择与自主权是动物福利的核心要素，在人与动物的互动场景中尤为关键。治疗犬（therapy dogs）在治疗辅助场景中与人类进行肢体接触互动时，往往对自身处境缺乏掌控权。本研究旨在探究人与治疗犬互动时，强制接触（forced touch）与自主选择接触（free-choice touch）两种处理方式对治疗犬行为的影响。本研究共纳入18只经认证的治疗犬与44名人类受试者。每名人类受试者需分别与最多4只治疗犬进行时长3分钟的互动，涵盖强制接触与自主选择接触两种处理流程。在强制接触处理流程中，犬只由主人用牵引绳约束，受试者可持续触摸犬只；而在自主选择接触流程中，犬只可在围栏内自由活动，受试者仅可在犬只主动靠近至臂展范围内时进行触摸。所有互动流程均进行录像，用于后续的回溯行为编码分析。本研究采用重复测量广义线性混合模型（GLIMMIX）检验处理方式对犬只行为的影响。相较于自主选择接触流程，强制接触流程中犬只的耳朵后贴行为出现频率更高（p=0.0115）。而自主选择接触流程中，嗅探行为（p<0.0001）与回避受试者行为（p<0.0001）的出现频率显著高于强制接触流程。无论采用何种处理流程，公犬回避受试者的行为（p=0.0031）以及与主人互动的行为（p=0.0352）出现频率均显著高于母犬。本研究结果揭示了人与治疗犬互动时，强制接触与自主选择接触两种流程下治疗犬行为的细微差异，凸显了在治疗项目的人犬互动中纳入选择机制与自主权，以提升治疗犬福利的重要性。