Therese Rehn

I am a researcher at SLU in Skara. I have, for as long as I can remember, been highly interested in animals and their behaviour. I mainly work with human-animal interactions, especially in dogs and cats. Within my PhD project, I investigated the effect of human interaction on dog behaviour and welfare. My focus is on positive interactions (e.g. the reunion between a dog and its owner), which links to other research performed within the group where we are trying to develop methods to measure positive emotional states in animals by e.g. behaviour observations, cognitive tests and physiology. In previous studies we have seen that reunion behaviour in dogs is influenced by the duration of separation from the owner, the type of contact initiated by the person upon reunion and the familiarity of the person.

I am responsible for one distance course (Dog and cat ethology), one course within the Etology and animal welfare program (Ethology and anthrozoology) and one course within the Veterinary nursing program (Nutritional physiology and feed science). In addition, I often lecture in other courses at SLU, focusing mainly on dog behaviour and welfare and their interactions with people. 

In an ongoing project, we are trying to develop methods to assess different relationship styles between companion animals and their owners. These methods are based on theories in human psychology (attachment and social support). Also, we are running a project investigating the effect of owner caregiving style on emotional bonding in dogs. Moreover, an international survey about how we relate to our pets will be evaluated shortly.

I am the project manager of a large, longitudinal study which will start later this year. In that project, we will follow dogs and their owners over a longer period of time to study the effect of different life style choices on the welfare and behaviour of the dog.

• From the horse’s perspective: investigating attachment behaviour and the effect of training method on fear reactions and ease of handling - a pilot study
• Individual play patterns stimulated by a familiar object are group-driven
• Links between an owner’s adult attachment style and the support-seeking behavior of their dog
• Cats and owners interact more with each other after a longer duration of separation
• Measuring dog-owner relationships: Crossing boundaries between animal behaviour and human psychology
• The effect of time left alone at home on dog welfare
• Dogs' endocrine and behavioural responses at reunion are affected by how the human initiates contact
• I like my dog, does my dog like me?
• Evaluating the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) to assess the bond between dogs and humans
• PhD thesis: Best of friends? Investigating the dog-human relationship
• Positive affect and learning: exploring the "Eureka effect" in dogs
• Using judgement bias to measure positive affective state in dogs
• Promoting positive states: the effect of early human handling on play and exploratory behaviour in pigs
• Early human handling in non-weaned piglets: Effects on behaviour and body weight
• Students' attitudes to animal welfare and rights in Europe and Asia
• Reliability of an injury scoring system for horses
• An international comparison of female and male students' attitudes to the use of animals
• Licentiate thesis: The role of the emotional relationship with humans on dog welfare