Abstract
Physiological changes (pulse rate, respiratory rate and rectal temperature) induced by exercise are usually studied as physical fitness indices. The aim of this study was to investigate how these physiological parameters could be modified in a group of trained working dogs during three different field trials (rubble, search on field, obedience), in order to assess which parameter would be more useful to detect the dog response to exercise. Nine dogs were included in this study. The animals were monitored at rest, immediately before and after the working session. Pulse rate values increased significantly in all the phases compared to rest status. Respiratory rate values increased significantly after the competition, while rectal temperature was significantly increased only after search on rubbles and obedience activities. Reference values for specific competitions need to be stablished in order to promptly identify poor performance or exercise intolerance.
Highlights
Search and rescue dogs have a great social impact due to the valuable help in finding survivors during catastrophic events, such as earthquakes [1]
PR showed a mean value of 54.8 ± 9.31 beats per minute, mean respiratory rate (RR) of 26 ± 7.21 breaths per minutes and mean RT of 38.3 ◦ C ± 0.08
Recorded data related to environmental temperature and humidity, respectively, reported: 8 ◦ C
Summary
Search and rescue dogs have a great social impact due to the valuable help in finding survivors during catastrophic events, such as earthquakes [1]. Competitions dedicated to working dogs have greatly expanded in order to select the best canine individuals for Search-and-Rescue (SAR) activity. Skills such as obedience, bonding with the handler and detecting human smell are important in this category [2,3], these athlete dogs need adequate physical fitness to cover wide areas of land when searching, even in adverse conditions [4]. Physiological possible to the state of rest during physical exertion and to promptly restore altered balance after changes induced by exercise can be studied as physical “fitness indices”. The physiological parameters used forare: thispulse type of investigation are: pulse temperature [7,8]
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