Canine ergonomics : the science of working dogs / edited by William S. Helton.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Helton, William S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Working dogs--Environmental enrichment.

Working dogs.

Working dogs--Health.

Bioengineering.

Health.

Physical Description:

xviii, 348 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Boca Raton : CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, [2009]

Summary:

Since Canis lupus familiaris first shared a fire with man more than 15,000 years ago, dogs have been trusted and valued coworkers. Yet the relatively new field of canine ergonomics is just beginning to unravel the secrets of this collaboration. As with many new fields, the literature on working dogs is scattered across several nonoverlapping disciplines from forensics and the life sciences to medicine, security, and wildlife biology. Canine Ergonomics: The Science of Working Dogs draws together related research from different fields into an interdisciplinary resource of science-based information.

Providing a complete overview, from physiology to cognition, this is the first book to discuss working dogs from a scientific perspective. It covers a wide range of current and potential tasks, explores ergonomic and cognitive aspects of these tasks, and covers personality traits and behavioral assessments of working dogs. A quick look at the chapters, contributed by experts from across the globe and across the multidisciplinary spectrum, illustrates the breadth and depth of information available in this book.

Traditionally, information concerning working dogs is mostly hearsay, with the exchange of information informal at best and nonexistent at worst. Most books available are too general in coverage or conversely, too specific. They explain how to train a service dog or train a dog to track, based on training lore rather than empirical methods verified with rigorous scientific standards. This book, drawing on cutting edge research, unifies different perspectives into one global science: Canine Ergonomics.

Contents:

Canine ergonomics : introduction to the new science of working dogs / William S. Helton

Skill and expertise in working dogs : a cognitive science perspective / William S. Helton, Paul J. Feltovich, and Andrew J. Velkey

Social learning in dogs / Péter Pongrácz

Temperament and personality in working dogs / Lindsay T. Graham and Samuel D. Gosling

Overview of scent detection work : issues and opportunities / William S. Helton

Evaluating learning tasks commonly applied in detection dog training / Lisa Lit

Attention in dogs : sustained attention in mine detection as case study / William S. Helton

Olfaction and explosives detector dogs / Allen Goldblatt, Irit Gazit, and Joseph Terkel

Conservation dogs / Aimee Hurt and Deborah A. Smith

Working dogs : the last line of defense for preventing dispersal of brown treesnakes from Guam / Daniel S. Vice ... [et al.]

Canine augmentation technology for urban search and rescue / Alexander Ferworn

Physiological demands and adaptations of working dogs / Michael S. Davis

Physical and mental stress of SAR dogs during search work / Michaela Schneider and Leopold Slotta-Bachmayr

Signs of physiological stress in dogs performing AAA/T work / Dorit Haubenhofer

Benefits of animal contact and assistance dogs for individuals with disabilities / Natalie Sachs-Ericsson and Nancy Hansen Merbitz

Conclusion : Working dogs and the future / William S. Helton.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781420079913

1420079913

OCLC:

226357437