Through our coverage at Faunalytics, we know that measuring dog stress is serious business: Whether it is in our homes, at shelters, or at the vet’s office, researchers are not only interested in finding quick and accurate ways of measuring the stress of dogs, they want to figure out ways to do so in the most non-invasive way possible.

One such method, infrared thermography or IRT, is a method that measures surface temperature of the body, and provides a pictorial representation of body temperature, which can detect inflammatory conditions and infections. It’s well known that physical and psychological stress can increase heart rate and body temperature in many animals, which means that IRT has the potential to be a quick and effective way to measure stress in dogs. Though much non-invasive stress measures with dogs are done with heart rate measurement and cortisol sampling, IRT could potentially be more quickly. In this study researchers set out to evaluate the potential of IRT, specifically in a vet exam context.

To do so, researchers gathered 20 dogs (12 male and 8 female) for the experiment, all of whom were companion dogs living with people. They all had experiences with vet visits and none had a history of aggression. The vet clinic was one that none of the dogs had visited before, and all other variables were controlled as much as possible. The researchers found in their pre-test that rectal temperature (taken with a thermometer) did correlate to eye temperature (taken with an IRT), making IRT a good indicator for core temperature overall.

The thermographic data they obtained showed a peak in dogs’ eye temperature during the clinical examination. This is of interest because it shows the dogs were stressed during this phase, even if their behavior and body postures became less dynamic and harder to read. The researchers feel confident enough to say that IRT is a useful tool in detecting psychological stress in dogs; however, they note that dogs showed avoidance to the machine, looking away or even turning their heads. This could indicate the machine itself is a mild stressor.

For vets, shelter workers, and others who may have access to an IRT machine through some channel, the study shows another promising non-invasive procedure for measuring stress in dogs. However, advocates may want to wait for further work to be done to make sure the machines themselves aren’t the source of dogs’ stress.