Characterisation and management of frustration in the dog (Canis familiaris)
Creators: name: McPeake, Kevin
Publisher: name: University of Lincoln
Year: 2023
Subjects: D300 - Animal science

description: Frustration is a negative emotional state, arising when an individual is thwarted from achieving a goal. In the human literature, frustration has been linked with anger and aggression and a variety of psychometric scales have been developed to scale this affective tendency at the trait level. The potential role of frustration within canine behaviour problems has been highlighted within the veterinary behavioural medicine literature, however the assessment of such frustration has historically been based on individual personal evaluation. At the start of this thesis, existing published research was limited to frustration-related behaviours reported in dogs in specific experimental settings. The aim of this thesis was to develop a reliable and valid psychometric tool – the Canine Frustration Questionnaire (CFQ) - for the quantification of trait level frustration tendencies in dogs and explore the application of this tool in a clinical setting. A series of three surveys was undertaken to gather expert opinion on canine frustration from clinicians, ethologists and owners. The results of these informed the generation of items capturing the trait of frustration which were formulated into a questionnaire for dog owners. The questionnaire was disseminated electronically and was completed by 2346 owners. Reliability was established within the scale, with a high level of internal consistency. Reliability was also established over repeated completion of the scale: intra-rater reliability over short (6 weeks) and long (1 year) time points; inter-rater reliability assessed using two owners of the same dog. Following the removal of non-reliable items, principal component analysis was used to generate a 21 item, five component solution which could be interpreted biologically and demonstrated concurrent validity with expected associations between the CFQ and a range of owner reported measures. Principal components (PC) were labelled: PC1 ‘General frustration’; PC2 ‘Barrier frustration/perseverance’; PC3 ‘Unmet expectations’; PC4 ‘Autonomous control’; and PC5 ‘Frustration coping’. In order to further assess the validity of the CFQ beyond owner reported measures, a battery of behaviour tests was designed to elicit frustration, mapping on to the CFQ PCs and items. A group of 44 dogs underwent the test battery and a range of behavioural and physiological measures were collected, selected for their expected relationship with frustration. Vocalising measures from the full test battery were associated with CFQ scores providing evidence of convergent validity. Change in salivary cortisol levels pre- to post?test and absolute post-test levels were associated with CFQ PC5 providing evidence of convergent validity with this physiological measure of arousal. Heart rate variability and urinary neurotransmitters/metabolites were also tested revealing a range of associations warranting further investigation in future studies. Finally, the CFQ was piloted in a clinical setting where clinical predictions were supported, establishing the CFQ as an aid to the diagnostic process and in monitoring the response to treatment of frustration-related problems. This important achievement completes the original aims of the thesis and allows the CFQ to be used in a clinical setting and applied in future clinical research.