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Hair cortisol varies with season and lifestyle and relates to human interactions in German shepherd dogs

Overview of attention for article published in Scientific Reports, January 2016
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (94th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (89th percentile)

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2 news outlets
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12 X users
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3 Facebook pages
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2 Redditors

Citations

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39 Dimensions

Readers on

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150 Mendeley
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1 CiteULike
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Title
Hair cortisol varies with season and lifestyle and relates to human interactions in German shepherd dogs
Published in
Scientific Reports, January 2016
DOI 10.1038/srep19631
Pubmed ID
Authors

Lina S. V. Roth, Åshild Faresjö, Elvar Theodorsson, Per Jensen

Abstract

It is challenging to measure long-term endocrine stress responses in animals. We investigated whether cortisol extracted from dog hair reflected the levels of activity and stress long-term, during weeks and months. Hair samples from in total 59 German shepherds were analysed. Samples for measuring cortisol concentrations were collected at three occasions and we complemented the data with individual scores from the Canine Behavioural Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ). Generalised linear mixed model (GLMM) results showed that hair cortisol varied with season and lifestyle: competition dogs had higher levels than companion, and professional working dogs, and levels were higher in January than in May and September. In addition, a positive correlation was found between the cortisol levels and the C-BARQ score for stranger-directed aggression (r = 0.31, P = 0.036). Interestingly, the factor "playing often with the dog" (r = -0.34, P = 0.019) and "reward with a treat/toy when the dog behaves correctly" (r = -0.37, P = 0.010) correlated negatively with cortisol levels, suggesting that positive human interactions reduce stress. In conclusion, hair cortisol is a promising method for revealing the activity of the HPA-axis over a longer period of time, and human interactions influence the cortisol level in dogs.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 12 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 150 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Hungary 2 1%
Austria 2 1%
Unknown 146 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 31 21%
Student > Bachelor 24 16%
Student > Master 19 13%
Researcher 18 12%
Other 16 11%
Other 23 15%
Unknown 19 13%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 51 34%
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine 39 26%
Psychology 7 5%
Medicine and Dentistry 7 5%
Social Sciences 5 3%
Other 16 11%
Unknown 25 17%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 28. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 April 2022.
All research outputs
#1,246,503
of 23,575,346 outputs
Outputs from Scientific Reports
#12,245
of 127,372 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#23,448
of 397,691 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Scientific Reports
#355
of 3,246 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,575,346 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 94th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 127,372 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 18.4. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 90% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 397,691 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 3,246 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.