ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Behavior and Welfare
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1528357
This article is part of the Research TopicWelfare, Behavior, and Sensory Science of Working AnimalsView all 8 articles
A Scale to Measure Perceived Respiratory Effort in Dogs: The DeChant Scale
Provisionally accepted
- 1Texas Tech University, Lubbock, United States
- 2Royal Canin, Aimargues, France
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The perceived respiratory effort (PRE) scale is a categorical psychophysical scale originally developed by Gunnar Borg and modified for numerous applications. We here propose a modification of the PRE scale with a 0 to 10 categorical scale for dogs, called the DeChant scale. A total of seventy-nine Labrador Retrievers were scored by video using the developed scale pre and post one of two different sprint exercise paradigms. The first exercise paradigm was 200 meters in length and the second exercise paradigm was 1,200 meters in length. PRE was reliably scored with an interclass correlation exceeding 0.8 for both exercise paradigms. The scale was further validated with moderate (r > 0.5) to strong correlations (r > 0.7) with core body temperature, rectal temperature, heart rate and respiration rate. The results suggest this PRE scale may be a useful, rapid and reliable visual measure of canine effort under exercise. Future research is needed for validation to other dog breeds and for use as a measure to predict detection performance or heat injury risk.
Keywords: Perceived Respiratory Effort, Labrador Retriever, Exercise Paradigm, Exercise induced hyperthermia, Categorical psychophysical scale
Received: 14 Nov 2024; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 DeChant, Moesta and Hall. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mallory Tatum DeChant, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, United States
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