This work was aimed at identifying the effectiveness of two interventions applied to a group of eight kennelled police dogs. Interventions consisted of access to a lawn area (350 m²) and “toy” (a 30 cm jute rag roll, hanging from the kennel ceiling), both available for 15 min a day, for four days in a row. We collected behavioural data and faecal samples for cortisol metabolites evaluation before, during and after interventions. Faecal cortisol metabolites levels were significantly reduced (Friedman, X2(3) =12.450; p = 0.006) during the second round of intervention, regardless of the type of intervention, indicating that the interventions can have a beneficial cumulative effect. Regarding the frequency of stereotyped behaviour, cluster analysis identified two groups of individuals: (1) high-stereotyping individuals (n = 3) that had a tendency to reduce stereotyping behaviours in the lawn intervention when compared to toy intervention (Friedman, X2(3) = 2.530; p = 0.068), and (2) low-stereotyping animals (n = 5) that did not present significant behavioural changes during the experiment. The variety of behavioural and endocrine parameters evaluated highlights the need to account for the individual in behaviour and welfare research. Overall, our results suggest that even simple environmental enrichment can be an effective method to mitigate behaviour and physiological signs of stress.

中文翻译：

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给他们一个玩具或增加他们在草坪区域的狗舍时间：这些干预措施对警犬的福利有什么影响？

这项工作旨在确定应用于一组八只犬舍警犬的两种干预措施的有效性。干预措施包括进入草坪区域 (350 m ² ) 和“玩具”（30 cm 黄麻布卷，挂在狗舍天花板上），两者都可以连续使用四天，每天 15 分钟。我们收集了行为数据和粪便样本，用于在干预之前、期间和之后评估皮质醇代谢物。粪便皮质醇代谢物水平显着降低（Friedman，X2(3) =12.450；p= 0.006) 在第二轮干预期间，无论干预类型如何，表明干预可以产生有益的累积效应。关于刻板行为的频率，聚类分析确定了两组个体：(1) 与玩具干预相比，在草坪干预中倾向于减少刻板行为的高刻板个人 (n = 3) (Friedman, X2(3) ) = 2.530; p= 0.068)，和 (2) 在实验过程中没有出现显着行为变化的低定型动物 (n = 5)。评估的各种行为和内分泌参数突出了在行为和福利研究中考虑个人的必要性。总的来说，我们的结果表明，即使是简单的环境丰富也可以成为减轻压力的行为和生理迹象的有效方法。