Dogs' responses to remote interactions with humans: An Exploratory Analysis

Pet owners are increasingly using devices to monitor and communicate with their pet dogs remotely. These technologies are developed in an effort to address separation anxiety, boredom, and safety concerns of dogs left alone in the home. However, it is unclear how dogs respond to each of the interaction modalities featured in these devices, and also whether dogs perceive such interactions as an interaction with their owner. This work provides an initial exploration of dogs' experiences when exposed to the individual stimuli frequently used in such devices. Preliminary results, focusing on five common distress behaviours, demonstrated an increase in distress behaviours in all trials containing a stimulus when compared to a control with no stimuli. These results offer an initial insight into dogs' responses to remote-interaction devices and provide potential implications for the design and advised usage of any remote pet-monitoring devices that incorporate these functionalities.