@article{ref1,
title="Veterinary students' proximity to and interpretation of a simulated "aggressive" dog before and after training",
journal="Scientific reports",
year="2024",
author="Oxley, James A. and Meyer, Georg and Butcher, Matthew and Bellantuono, Giuseppe and Levers, Andrew and Westgarth, Carri",
volume="14",
number="1",
pages="e3209-e3209",
abstract="Dog &quot;aggression&quot; in the veterinary practice is commonplace. Therefore, student knowledge and education about dog behaviour and the ability to interpret &quot;aggressive&quot; behaviour is important from a human injury prevention and dog welfare perspective. The study aimed to compare first-year veterinary students' perceived safest proximity to both an &quot;aggressive&quot; and non-reactive simulated dog, both before and after a teaching intervention about canine behaviour and a handling practical. It also examined student confidence and their ability to identify &quot;aggressive&quot; behaviours. Forty first year veterinary students took part in two surveys. Each survey included two videos: one of a simulated dog displaying &quot;aggressive&quot; behaviour, based on the 'Canine Ladder of Aggression'; and another displaying non-reactive (passive behaviours without reaction to the participants) behaviours. Each video depicted the slow and consistent approach towards the virtual dog within a virtual indoor environment, and participants were asked to press stop if or when they would stop approaching the dog. In the &quot;aggressive&quot; scenario, there was a reduction in the approach-stop time from survey 1 (median = 17.8 s) to survey 2 (median = 15.2 s) in the intervention group (p = 0.018) but not in the control group (p = 0.147). Regarding confidence, there was a significant increase in the self-reported confidence rating relating to a participant's ability to interpret canine behaviour in both the control (p = 0.011) and intervention (p = 0.003). In conclusion, these results indicate that students using approach-stop videos stayed further away from an &quot;aggressive&quot; virtual dog model if they had undertaken a canine behaviour educational intervention. This novel approach has the potential for further use in teaching and assessment of student knowledge and behaviour which may otherwise be difficult to demonstrate.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2045-2322",
doi="10.1038/s41598-024-53551-w",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-53551-w"
}