zum Inhalt springen

Fachbereich Veterinärmedizin


Service-Navigation

    Publikationsdatenbank

    Training dogs on a scent platform for oestrus detection in cows (2011)

    Art
    Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag
    Autoren
    Fischer-Tenhagen, C.
    Wetterholm, L.
    Tenhagen, B.-A.
    Heuwieser, W.
    Quelle
    Applied animal behaviour science
    Bandzählung: 131
    Heftzählung: 1/2
    Seiten: 63 – 70
    ISSN: 0168-1591
    Sprache
    Englisch
    Verweise
    DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2011.01.006
    Kontakt
    Tierklinik für Fortpflanzung

    Königsweg 65
    Haus 27
    14163 Berlin
    +49 30 838 62618
    fortpflanzungsklinik@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

    Abstract / Zusammenfassung

    Dogs can be trained for various odour detection tasks, and have been used to search for explosives, drugs or cancer biomarkers. However, there are only a few studies that have attempted to train dogs for oestrus detection using vaginal fluid, milk or urine of cows. In this study, seven dogs were trained utilizing special training equipment to discriminate oestrus against dioestrus scent in vaginal fluid, urine and milk of dairy cows. We set out (1) to determine the length of the learning phase of dogs using vaginal discharge to identify cows in oestrus, (2) to prove that dogs can generalize oestrus specific odour of cows and are not limited to an individual cow scent in oestrus, and (3) to study if dogs can identify oestrus specific odour in urine and milk, after they have been trained with vaginal fluid. Our results demonstrate that dogs can be trained for oestrus detection with vaginal swabs or urine of cows using special laboratory equipment within 52 positive reinforced contacts to the target scent. The dogs were correctly identifying the oestrus sample with a maximum accuracy of 80.3%. They could verify this accuracy in a blinded test situation testing novel samples. The dogs in this study were able to detect oestrus in urine and milk samples spontaneously, after being trained with vaginal fluid samples.