If you are looking for examples of just how special dogs are, you will find thirteen wonderful examples in this book. These dogs have a knack for calming people down and picking up on tension—sometimes even better than we do! Each story highlights the incredible bond between dogs and humans, showcasing their unique talents. But there's more to it than just heartwarming tales.When dogs get involved in caregiving, it opens up a lot of questions and challenges. Some of these are more straightforward, like what health benefits come from having a dog around or how effective other methods are without using a dog. At the same time, the mix of caregiver, dog, and client brings up important questions about how to do the right thing, treat both people and animals well and evaluate various options available. That’s where ethics come into play—the core theme of this collection of stories. We’re not here to tell you what’s right or wrong; instead, we want to spark conversations about these topics. Ethics can be quite personal, but that doesn’t mean you have to tackle these decisions alone. By sharing experiences and discussing challenges, we can support each other and make better choices together.This collection of stories is part of a bigger two-year project that looks at how animal-assisted interventions affect the well-being of dogs. The research comes from the Human-Animal Interactions research group at Aeres University of Applied Sciences in Dronten, working alongside partners in the field, and was co-funded by the Regieorgaan SIA (Taskforce for Applied Research SIA), which is part of the Dutch Research Council (NWO). If you want to learn more about this research, check out the Human-Animal Interactions research group’s website.
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As part of an 8-week intervention study in Dutch nursing homes, we used video-analysis to observe the interaction of psychogeriatric participants with either the handler, the stimulus (dog or robot) or other clients during weekly dog, robot (RAI, robot assisted interventions) and control (human facilitator only) group sessions. Additionally, we measured the initiative of the handler to engage participants. Several baseline characteristics, including dementia severity, neuropsychiatric symptoms and medication usage, were recorded as possible confounders.Participant-handler interaction is increased in all three groups compared to a baseline of no interaction, while inter-client interaction is not. In the dog group participant-handler interaction scores are similar to participant-dog interaction scores, while in the robot group participant-handler interaction scores are significantly lower than participant-robot interaction scores. Handler initiative does not differ between the three groups.Our results suggest that a handler effect of AAI on social interaction in dementia care does exist and we hypothesize this effect is linked to the required fully embodied, mutual attunement between dog and handler and between dog-handler team and participants. This embodied interaction distinguishes AAI from RAI and when the required attunement is met, AAI can significantly increase the social interaction of people with dementia.
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Dogs have for long been humans’ best friend, but the human–dog relationship can be problematic. A mismatch between dogs and their keepers can lead to welfare problems for both; for example: breeding for a specific look can result in health and welfare problems and importing dogs from other countries can lead to zoonoses. In our view, many of these problems could be avoided if wannabe dog keepers reflected better before deciding to obtain a specific dog. Attempting to influence this decision, however, assumes that we know what the right choice is. In this chapter, we discuss three cases: pups with pedigrees, pups without pedigrees, and adult dogs from (foreign) shelters. We show that, in each case, certain moral assumptions are made whose legitimacy can be problematised. We conclude that the decision about what dog to obtain is not a straightforward one and that it is often difficult to establish what is actually the right choice. However, we also pinpoint certain improvements that can be made to the current system and make a number of suggestions that make the right choice the easier choice. As Anthropocene conditions may lead to the domestication of an increasing number of wild species in the future, this analysis may support reflection on the ethical implications of domestication. Terms like keeper and owner of animals are controversial with respect to the autonomy of animals. We deem keeper to be more neutral than owner. As we discuss the role of people in their desire to keep a dog in their life, we choose to use this term in this chapter. Owner is used only in the term ownership for lack of a suitable replacement. Although human companion might be a better term, it might give rise to confusion as we are focusing on the moment at which a human decides to obtain a certain dog.
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Zoonoses, biting incidents, hereditary problems, and other issues can threaten the welfare of both humans and dogs. The Dutch government and animal welfare organizations seem to have little effect in their campaigns to influence the behavior of (potential) dog keepers, who can experience dissonance when faced with these campaigns and use coping strategies to relieve the dissonance instead of changing their behavior. In this study, in focus group discussions, dog keepers with pedigree dogs, high-risk dogs, foreign shelter dogs, and dogs purchased at puppy farms shared their experiences with opinions on dogs and were confronted with negative opinions on their dogs. The data were analyzed using a coping strategies framework. Most coping strategies were found in all groups, but were used in response to different dilemmas, with different manifestations. These differences should be kept in mind when behavior change in dog keepers is opportune. Special attention should be given to differentiating target groups, as use of the detachment coping strategy suggests that boundaries might be set differently than expected. Broad attention on problems with and for dogs can address perceived dissonance and prompt behavior change. In dialogue with dog keepers, in influential campaigns and in policy formulation, the chances of success are greater if initiators are aware of the strategies that they may encounter.
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Dogs are considered humans’ best friend, but this relationship is not all puppies and sunshine. Zoonoses, biting incidents, hereditary problems, and other welfare issues can threaten the relationship, especially when humans are not aware of them. Public opinion on dogs in the densely populated Netherlands was therefore examined. Dutch newspapers and Facebook were analyzed with frame analysis. A positive view of dogs seems predominant, followed by one that sees dogs as normal, while problems with dogs are less common. That dogs are considered close to humans is exemplified by the found norms that the needs of dogs must be met, that severe penalties must be applied when humans do not respect the welfare of dogs, and that dog keepers and conditions are responsible for problems with dogs. The image of the dog as ordinary may hinder public awareness, despite the norms that emphasize the importance of dog welfare.
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1 alinea column: De BCG-matrix is na zesendertig jaar eindelijk aan revisie toe. De question mark, star, cash cow en dog hebben er een vriendje bij: de strainer. ‘Het vergiet’ doet zich aan de marketingstrateeg misleidend voor als een van de usual suspects, waardoor hij denkt te moeten handelen volgens de oude handleiding van de Boston Consulting Group. Maar dankzij voortrazende technologie behoeft dit BCG groeimodel aanvulling.
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CHI PLAY '20, November 2–4, 2020, Virtual Event, Canada We have built and implemented a set of metaphors for breathing games by involving children and experts. These games are made to facilitate prevention of asthma exacerbation via regular monitoring of children with asthma through spirometry at home. To instruct and trigger children to execute the (unsupervised) spirometry correctly, we have created interactive metaphors that respond in real-time to the child’s inhalation and exhalation. Eleven metaphors have been developed in detail. Three metaphors have been fully implemented based on current guidelines for spirometry and were tested with 30 asthmatic children. Each includes multi-target incentives, responding to three different target values (inhalation, peak expiration, and complete exhalation). We postulate that the metaphors should use separate goals for these targets, have independent responses, and allow to also go beyond expected values for each of these targets. From the selected metaphors, most children preferred a dragon breathing fire and a soccer player kicking a ball into a goal as a metaphor; least liked were blowing seeds of a dandelion and applying lotion to a dog to grow its hair. Based on this project we discuss the potential and benefits of a suite-of-games approach: multiple games that each can be selected and adapted depending on personal capabilities and interests.
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Recente incidenten met ransomware tonen aan dot veel organisaties hun informatiebeveiliging nog niet op orde hebben. Informatiebeveiliging op orde brengen vraagt naast technische middelen ook om beleid en informatiebeveiligingsbewustzijn bij medewerkers. Deze combinatie betekent dot het een illusie is te denken dot organisaties van de ene op de andere dog hun informatiebeveiliging op orde kunnen hebben. Er is behoefte aan een model waarlangs organisaties stappen kunnen zetten om hun informatiebeveiliging op orde te brengen. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/herman-de-bruine-b0aa9b4/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabio-lucero-garau-04836080/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelspruit/
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De behoefte om informatie te ordenen zodat ze 'beheersbaar' wordt, resulteert vaak in een top-down aanpak zoals bibliotheeksystemen die kennen. Betrekkelijk nieuw is de bottom-up aanpak, metadatering gebaseerd op het sociale aspect van consensus. Sybilla Poortman en Gerard Bierens zoomen in op de achtergronden van folksonomy en nemen de nieuwe 'sociale' tools onder de loep met aandacht voor toepassingsmogelijkheden in de bibliotheekomgeving. En ook: folksonomy versus taxonomie, samen door één deur of ieder een eigen ingang?
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