Abstract
Although there have been a growing number of studies focusing on dog welfare, the research field concerning dog positive-emotion assessment remains mostly unexplored. This paper aims to provide a state-of-the-art review and summary of the scattered and disperse research on dog positive-emotion assessment. The review notably details the current advancement in dog positive-emotion research, what approaches, measures, methods, and techniques have been implemented so far in emotion perception, processing, and response assessment. Moreover, we propose possible future research directions for short-term emotion as well as longer-term emotional states assessment in dogs. The review ends by identifying and addressing some methodological limitations and by pointing out further methodological research needs.
Highlights
There has been a growing interest in animal emotion research in recent years
The results revealed that the cortical hemodynamic reaction measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) may be a useful indicator of the emotional valence, while measured behavioral responses were shown as useful indicators of arousal level in dogs
Prior research has focused on behavioral, cognitive, physiological, endocrine, and neurobiological approaches in dogs’ positive-emotion assessment
Summary
There has been a growing interest in animal emotion research in recent years. positiveemotion has received much less attention than negative emotion far. Understanding how an animal perceives, processes, and expresses positive-emotion is crucial from a theoretical point of view to improve our knowledge about animal emotion, and from a practical point of view to improve the animal’s life. Concepts such as satisfaction with life, well-being, and welfare refer to more than a mere absence of negative emotions linked to stress and suffering (Mench, 1998; Boissy et al, 2007; Mellor and Beausoleil, 2015; Lawrence et al, 2019); it is imperative to be able to objectively assess animals perception and processing of, and responses to, positiveemotions. The review ends by summarizing the main findings, identifying major methodological limitations, and suggesting possible solutions
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