Obstacles to commonly used behavior assessment methodology – Insights from a research study

Veterinary care for dogs can be delayed due to owner concerns that their dog will have a bad experience when visiting a veterinary hospital. Fear and anxiety are the most common causes for dogs to exhibit fear and anxiety behaviors, such as avoidance of examination or aggression. A placebo-controlled study was developed to test the efficacy of the calming nutraceutical Zylkene® (α-casozepine) against placebo. A study was designed but only small participant numbers were recruited, so a preliminary investigation was carried out using the study design. For measuring fear and anxiety, a 6-point qualitative behavior scale was developed, which was supported by behavioral descriptors. The behaviors of the small sample of individuals from the preliminary assessment were analyzed for the initial development of the study’s behavior scale, and the reliability of the scale was then tested. With four raters of different levels of expertise using the scale, interrater reliability of the scale was fair to moderate, indicating that refinement of the scale was needed. Better definitions and descriptors are required for clarity and therefore reliability between observers. These findings support existing work suggesting that qualitative scales with behavioral descriptors can lack reliability for identifying animals with mild to moderate fear and anxiety. Qualitative scales that do not clearly and precisely define the behavioral parameters for each emotional score could indicate that different human raters are reliable across their individual assumptions but may not be valid indicators of the animal’s experience. Our findings highlighted the potential risks of using qualitative scales for measuring fear and anxiety in dogs, as well as the need for further investigation into recruitment strategies so that larger sample sizes can be enrolled into animal behavior studies.