IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0218339.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rejections in an non-purpose bred assistance dog population: Reasons, consequences and methods for screening

Author

Listed:
  • Evelien Bogaerts
  • Christel P H Moons
  • Filip Van Nieuwerburgh
  • Luc Peelman
  • Jimmy H Saunders
  • Bart J G Broeckx

Abstract

Assistance dogs aid people with various impairments on a daily basis. To become an assistance dog, a strict selection procedure and intensive training period must be successfully completed. Consequently, not every dog acquired for this purpose, becomes an assistance dog. The purpose of this study was to investigate reasons for failure and the financial consequences thereof for assistance dog associations that do not have a dedicated breeding program for their dogs. Data were collected for a total of 537 dogs enlisted between 2001 and 2015 and purchased out of the general dog population by five Belgian assistance dog associations. Only 60 percent of the dogs actually became an assistance dog and the main reasons for failure were related to undesirable behavioural characteristics and orthopaedic disorders. The estimated average financial loss per rejected dog was found to be 10524 euro. A detailed comparison of the two most popular breeds (Golden Retriever and Labrador Retriever) within the guide dogs and mobility assistance dogs revealed no significant difference in probability of successfully completing the training. However, a comparison of orthopaedic screening methods revealed a higher rejection with computed tomography for elbow dysplasia and laxity-based radiographical techniques for hip dysplasia compared to radiography and the standard ventrodorsal hip extend radiograph alone, respectively. Based on these results, we provide several suggestions to increase the probability of success.

Suggested Citation

  • Evelien Bogaerts & Christel P H Moons & Filip Van Nieuwerburgh & Luc Peelman & Jimmy H Saunders & Bart J G Broeckx, 2019. "Rejections in an non-purpose bred assistance dog population: Reasons, consequences and methods for screening," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(6), pages 1-13, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0218339
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218339
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218339
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218339&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0218339?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Naomi D Harvey & Peter J Craigon & Simon A Blythe & Gary C W England & Lucy Asher, 2017. "An evidence-based decision assistance model for predicting training outcome in juvenile guide dogs," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-26, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      More about this item

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0218339. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.