Representations of Human Directed Aggressive Behaviour of Dogs in Western Countries Versus Japan
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Representations of human directed aggressive behaviour of dogs in Western countries versus Japan Mie Kikuchi Doctor of Philosophy 2019 Acknowledgments I would like to dedicate this thesis to my husband, Norihiro Kikuchi, who has supported me for a long time in Japan and my parents, sister for their constant support from far away. I would like to thank my supervisors Prof Daniel Mills and Prof Todd Hogue for all the guidance, constructive advice and suggestions over nearly 9 years. I could not have got here without your constant support and encouragement. Thank you. I would like to thank my friend, Elizabeth Walsh who have supported me for a long period of time since we were in Companion animal behaviour counselling course at the University of Southampton, and my friend Fernanda Ruiz Fadel, Lucian Assis and Catia Caeiro and from the School of Life Sciences helped me enormously and kept me on my feet and encour- aged me especially over the last few months. A special thanks to my friend, Annette Scally who supported revising my writing in English all the time and also encouraged me when I was having a difficult time. I would like to thank my special friend, John Reilly who studied with me in the course at the University of Southampton and has advised me precisely every time what is important for achieving PhD from his professional career. And finally, a special thank you to my dog Kotaro, who spent a lovely time together in the UK and taught me how wonderful life with a dog is. Thank you for my present dog June, who has been keeping company with me even when I was studying and encouraged me to keep going. 1 Statement of originality I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no material previously published or written by another person. This submission contains no material accepted for an award of any other degree at any educational institution, except due to acknowledgment made in this thesis. A modified version of Chapter 2 has been accepted for publication as a book chapter for the book “Dog Bites: a multidisciplinary perspective” edited by Daniel Mills and Carri West- garth. The content of Chapter 2 has been published the abstract in the Journal Scientific Reports under the following citation: Kikuchi, M., Hogue, T., & Mills, D. S. (2014). Definition and management of human di- rected aggressive behavior of dogs in the UK and Japan. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 9(6), e9. Kikuchi, M., Oxley, J., Hogue, T., & Mills, D. S. (2014). The representation of aggressive behavior of dogs in the popular media in the UK and Japan. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 9(6), e9. _______________________________________ Mie Kikuchi Student ID 09155533 Date: March 7 / 2019 2 Abstract Human-directed aggressive behaviour is considered to be the most serious behaviour prob- lem of dogs worldwide as people are seriously hurt and the dog is often euthanized or aban- doned. One important fundamental problem is that people may not perceive aggressive behaviour in dogs appropriately (based on scientific evidence). Therefore, it is argued that a motivation and emotion based consistent assessment for human-directed aggressive behaviour in dogs (HDAB) needs to be established. If there is no clear terminology for the description of ag- gressive behaviour in dogs, people may label a dog’s behaviour according to their own eval- uation, which may be affected by cultural difference such as belief, personality, and knowledge. No previous research has attempted to investigate which cultural differences influence peo- ple’s perception of HDAB. Therefore, the aim of this thesis explored the representation of people’s perception of HDAB in Western countries versus Japan in order to try to establish a consistent HDAB assessment frame work. In the initial review of the scientific literature and the popular media, there were inconsistent or limited descriptions for motivation and emotion of dogs, e.g., describing emotion as mostly fear and anxiety. In the study of the popular media, differences in the styles of presentation were found between English and Japanese language respondents. The UK me- dia presented information more as text rather than as photos or illustrations (low-context cul- ture), while the Japanese media used more photos or illustrations than text (high-context cul- ture). The style of presentation may affect people’s understanding and perception of HDAB differently. The Internet survey and video assessment study were developed to identify people’s percep- tion of HDAB and which cultural factors influence people’s perception of HDAB. Both studies showed the respondents (particularly Japanese respondents) were less likely to recog- nise mild or subtle signs of dog’s behaviour and recognised limited dog’s emotions. As cul- tural factors, “nationality” and “level of handling experience with dogs” predicted strong ef- fect on people’s perception of HDAB. In order to develop a consistent systematic framework to assess HDAB, power point inter- vention material which described the assessment based on dog’s motivation and emotion was presented to the respondents. However, it did not have a significant effect on the partici- pants’ assessment of the dog’s emotion, which may be affected by the way of presentation without adjusting the level of people’s understanding or cultural factors, e.g., the role and value of dogs, handling experience. 3 This thesis demonstrates evidence that the lack of consensus for description of HDAB may influence people’s perception of HDAB and cultural differences affects people’s perception of HDAB. Therefore it is necessary to develop the consistent systematic framework for the assessment of HDAB based on dog’s motivation and emotion and convey to experts and dog owners through both scientific literature and popular media. It will enhance appropriate communication between owners and dogs. 4 List of contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................. 1 Statement of originality ......................................................................................................... 2 Abstract ................................................................................................................................... 3 List of contents ....................................................................................................................... 5 List of Abbreviations .............................................................................................................. 9 List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... 10 List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 1: ............................................................................................................................. 17 A definition of human-directed aggressive behaviour in dogs, key elements of assessing it and cultural Factors ......................................................................................................... 17 1.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 17 1.2. Defining “aggression” and “aggressive behaviour” ........................................................ 19 1.2.1. Concepts of aggression and aggressive behaviour ............................................... 19 1.3. Three elements of aggressive behaviour ......................................................................... 21 1.3.1. Context ................................................................................................................. 21 1.3.2. Motivation ............................................................................................................ 22 1.3.3. Emotion ................................................................................................................ 24 1.4. The diagnosis of human-directed aggressive dog behaviour in the veterinary behaviour literature – an update ................................................................................................... 28 1.4.1. Description of “aggression” and “aggressive behaviour” .................................... 28 1.4.2. Classifications of HDAB ...................................................................................... 29 1.4.3. The importance of body signals ........................................................................... 30 1.5. Cultural factors which may influence the perception of aggressive behaviour in dogs .. 31 1.5.1. Attitudes ............................................................................................................... 32 1.5.2. Belief, knowledge and expectations concerning dogs .......................................... 36 1.5.3. Background experience of owners with dogs ....................................................... 42 1.6. Concluding comments .................................................................................................... 43 1.7. Overall aims and objectives ............................................................................................ 44 Chapter 2: ............................................................................................................................