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In the light of the recent rapid growth in the ownership of ‘status dogs’ in the UK, and drawing upon research conducted in Britain and North America, this article considers the motivation of the dogs' owners, the relationship between the ownership of ‘status dogs’ and urban street gangs, and the social impact of these dogs.

To show how Bateson's difference which makes a difference can be interpreted from a cybernetic view, i.e. in terms of control theory.

Depending on the observer's choice of the system boundaries, communication or structural coupling may be recognized. With the help of Bateson's example he uses to explain his term of information the paper demonstrates how the two perspectives can be related to each other and in which way his metalogical “hypothesis non fingo” reflects this refraction of perspectives.

Hypotheses describing structural coupling in the perspective of communication become explanations which then in circularity are verified by structural coupling. In his example Bateson describes a structural coupling between a dog owner and his dog in order to explain how he informs dogs.

Provides information on Bateson's theory of explaining

This chapter of exploratory nature aims to provide an account of the reviewed literature and presents some empirical cases to come to conceptualize dogs as social actors with different legitimate roles in the working, social, private, economic, and family life of human beings.

This chapter is the product of a research inspired by the great interest of the authors on rising awareness of the importance of dogs in human working lives. For this, a purposive literature review took place; we consulted scientific studies databases, and also gathered information from market research agencies, and other general media resources. To have a more comprehensive view, and to respond to a specific question on dogs at the workplace, a selection of cases is used to illustrate. For the case studies, secondary data research was used, and individual, structured interviews were conducted and analyzed.

This chapter reviews the relationship between humans and animals. It identifies attitudes and perception toward animals, highlighting the evolution of the intimate bond and the deep relationship between dogs and humans. It describes some cases of dogs as working beings at the service of human functions and dimensions of the pet care markets. Finally, it presents some cases of pet-friendly work environments.

The novel contribution of this chapter is putting dogs in the management of diversity academic literature. In this study, we find that the role, meaning, and purpose of dogs in people’s lives (and in many cases in organizations) are being underestimated. Including and making visible the presence of dogs in the personal, work, and well-being of people represents challenges to be addressed by managers. Additionally, it represents challenges to think about and investigate the welfare of dogs that interact with human beings in productive environments.

This chapter aims to review evidence of the relationships between dog ownership, dog walking and overall walking and the factors associated with dog walking. It reviews the evidence using a social ecological framework. The chapter finds that dog ownership and dog walking are associated with higher levels of walking. A number of social ecological factors are associated with dog walking. Motivation and social support provided by the dog to walk and a sense of responsibility to walk the dog are associated with higher levels of dog walking. Positive social pressure from family, friends, dog owners and veterinarians is also associated with higher levels of dog walking. Built and policy environmental characteristics influence dog walking, including dog-specific factors such as access to local attractive public open space with dog-supportive features (off-leash, dog waste bags, trash cans, signage), pet-friendly destinations (cafes, transit, workplaces, accommodation) and local laws that support dog walking. Large-scale intervention studies are required to determine the effect of increased dog walking on overall walking levels. Experimental study designs, such as natural and quasi-experiments, are needed to provide stronger evidence for causal associations between the built and policy environments and dog walking. Given the potential of dog walking to increase population-levels of walking, urban, park and recreational planners need to design neighbourhood environments that are supportive of dog walking and other physical activity. Advocacy for dog walking policy-relevant initiatives are needed to support dog walking friendly environments. Health promotion practitioners should make dog walking a key strategy in social marketing campaigns.

This is the third in a series of papers aimed at providing models effective in predicting the degree of pain and discomfort in canines. The first two papers provided benchmarking and examination of dogs suffering from osteoarthritis (OA). In this chapter, we extend the study to include dogs suffering from OA, sarcoma, and oral mucositis (a side effect of chemotherapy and radiation treatments). The R programming language and SAS JMP are used to clean data, generate ANOVA, LSR regression, decision tree, and nominal logistic regression models to predict changes in activity levels associated with the progression of arthritis. The predictive models provide a diagnostic basis for determining the degree of disease in a dog (based on demographics and activity levels) and provide forecasts that assist in establishing appropriate medication dosages for suffering dogs.

Whilst a growing body of support exists for the use of prison animal programmes (PAPs), research within UK prisons is sparse. Opportunity to add to this body of literature is also limited due to the practical barriers around safely embedding animals within forensic settings. This study aims to capitalise on an opportunity to explore a visitation model of a prison-based dog programme (PBDP), recently implemented within a UK prison. The intervention requires staff members to volunteer to bring their pets into the prison on a weekly basis and to accompany them as they complete their normal day-to-day prison roles.

Data was collected within a Category B adult prison for males convicted of a sexual offence. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six prisoners who had spent time with the visitation dogs and six staff members who had been part of those interactions. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, and three themes were developed that focused specifically on the value of this model of PBDP (staff members bringing their pets into the prison).

Three themes (reconnecting men to their outside lives; legitimising pro-social narrative; and “a safe space for them to open up”) were developed from participants’ lived experience of the intervention and its perceived value.

The potential for a low-level PAP to contribute to a rehabilitative prison culture was supported.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to explore the value of this particular model of PBDP within a UK prison.

This study aims to assess the nature and scope of dog-based programmes in prisons, assessing critically the potential opportunities, benefits, challenges and risks of developing innovative dog-based programmes for older prisoners in England and Wales. This paper outlines the potential benefits and challenges of developing dog-based programmes for older prisoners and sets out next steps for future research and practice.

This study is based on a scoping review of published research literature on prison dog programmes (PDPs) in the USA, the UK and other countries, with particular reference to older people in prison, followed by semi-structured interviews with six members of an expert advisory group. The literature review and data from the qualitative interviews were analysed thematically.

There is a substantial body of published research literature which supports PDPs as having identifiable positive impacts for people and also dogs, and also published research which highlights the benefits to older people of dog ownership or participation in dog-based activities. However, much of this research is small-scale and qualitative, and it has been argued that there is a lack of a quantitative evidence base. This research concludes that findings from the literature review and the semi-structured interviews support further research and the creation of pilot projects to develop dog-based projects for older people in prison.

This study was small-scale, and the findings need to be approached with caution. The literature review searched a small number of databases and filtered out articles published in languages other than English, and the review of the grey literature focused on reports from the UK. The number of experts interviewed was small and there was no direct consultation with older people in prison nor with older people with recent personal lived experience of imprisonment and community resettlement. A more extensive future study would benefit from a more extensive literature review, a larger group of participants and the inclusion of service users, prison managers and government policymakers, subject to the appropriate ethical and security approvals. At the time the research took place, ongoing COVID-19 restrictions on prison research meant that research with current prisoners and prison managers would not have been approved by the HMPPS NRC.

This research provides a research-based justification for future dog projects for older prisoners, leading potentially to improved well-being for older people in prison.

This study brings together the published research literature on PDPs with the research literature on the needs and experiences of older people in prison for the first time, and identifies potential directions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to perform an analysis of how pets in general and dogs in particular condition the planning and realisation of people’s trips. Similarly, the motivations that lead families to travel with their pets in Spain are analysed.

The methodology used in this research consisted of carrying out fieldwork based on surveys of 1,696 dog owners in Spain. The data analysis was carried out using a Partial Least Squares methodology (PLS-SEM) to test the relationship of the families with their pets, the motivations they have for travelling with their pets and the assessment of the destination by both the family and the pet itself.

The main results of this research focus on analysing how and when a family plans a trip with their pet, except for their second home, there are several motivations for both families themselves and their pets, which condition this trip and that must be considered by tourist destinations. Similarly, it is also concluded that the motivations are closely related to the attachment that the family has to the pet.

The originality of this research focuses on including the relationship of the family with their dog and the adequacy of the destination to the needs of their pet as motivation to make a certain trip or choose a certain destination.

This paper aims to describe a case that has worked with community aiming to prevent koala deaths and injuries across known causes including dogs.

Over a 6½-year period, a project team has applied the Co-create–Build–Engage (CBE^TM) process initially delivering a proof-of-concept pilot programme for one threat faced by koalas, which was later scaled to citywide delivery. This approach is now being extended across 12 local government areas, and the author’s team is now working across all preventable threats faced by koalas’ regionwide. Leave It is now nested as one behaviour change project in a wider project delivered across Southeast Queensland, in partnership with Queensland Government, 12 local government areas, community groups and other organisations.

Underpinned by the pathway to impact and CBE^TM processes, this paper describes how the 3½-year Leave It project reduced koala deaths from dog attacks by 40% in the Redland City Council area. A reduction in koala deaths will contribute to a measurable increase in the local koala population across successive generations delivering lasting impact.

This paper provides an overview of links between inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes to impact. Robust koala population data is needed to precisely measure impact over time.

One female koala joey saved equates to seven new koalas in the next generation and prevention of koala deaths can be achieved when people can be motivated to take action.

This paper reflects on 6½ years of experience applying marketing to deliver changes in people’s behaviour that protect koalas. A high-level overview of the strategic and operational marketing efforts that have been and continue to be applied is described.

Julie Smith, brand manager for dog food manufacturer Pedigree, has to determine how best to jump-start growth in the slumping business. The (A) case centers on the debate over which type of strategy to pursue, brand building versus in-store activity, while the (B) case focuses on the concept of cause marketing as a growth strategy.

The case examines the common challenge of building a very well-established business, and can be used to teach established business growth strategy, advertising, and cause marketing.