Abstract
BackgroundThe ability to make objective measurements of physical activity in dogs has both clinical and research applications. Accelerometers offer a non-intrusive and convenient solution. Of the commercialy available sensors, measurements are commonly given in manufacturer bespoke units and calculated with closed source approaches. Furthermore, the validation studies that exist for such devices are mounting location dependant, not transferable between brands or not suitable for handling modern raw accelerometry type data.MethodsThis paper describes a validation study of n = 5 where 4 sensors were placed on each dog; 2 on a harness and 2 on a collar. Each position held two sensors from different manufacturers; Actigraph (which has previously been validated for use on the collar) and VetSens (which provides un-filtered accelerometry data). The aims of the study was to firstly evaluate the performance of an open-design method of converting raw accelerometry data into units that have previously been validated. Secondly, comparison was made between sensors mounted at each location for determining physical activity state.ResultsOnce the raw actigraphy data had been processed with the open-design method, results from a 7 day measurement revealed no significant difference in physical activity estimates via a cutpoint approach between the sensor manufacturers. A second finding was a low inter-site variability between the ventral collar and dorsal harness locations (Pearsons r2 = 0.96).ConclusionsUsing the open-design methodology, raw, un-filtered data from the VetSens sensors can be compared or pooled with data gathered from Actigraph sensors. The results also provide strong evidence that ventral collar and dorsal harness sites may be used interchangeably. This enables studies to be designed with a larger inclusion criteria (encompassing dogs that are not well suited for wearing an instrumented collar) and ensures high levels of welfare while maintaining measurement validity.
Highlights
The ability to make objective measurements of physical activity in dogs has both clinical and research applications
The proportion of time spent in Sedentary, Light-Moderate and Vigorous were in line with previous findings for adult dogs [2]
An open-design methodology for gathering canine physical activity data was evaluated for replication of closed source epoch measurements in manufacturer-specific units
Summary
The ability to make objective measurements of physical activity in dogs has both clinical and research applications. Accelerometers have gained popularity as tools for measuring dogs’ physical activity. They offer low cost, objective measurements and the size of modern sensors does little to hinder everyday movements and behaviour of the subject; they can be worn continuously as concluded in [1]. The majority of commercially available physical activity sensors contain an accelerometer chip. Accelerometers measure movement, or more exactly, they afford a sensitive platform to capture any force exerted on them. This makes them good at detecting both cyclic motions (e.g walking) as well as orientation changes, such as posture transitions. In its raw form, the output of any accelerometer contains a timestamped stream of data containing
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