People in Sweden have more and more dogs in their care, and several of these dogs are kept in kennels in back yards for various reasons. According to Swedish animal welfare legislations the need for social contact for dogs has to be met. However, there are few details presented on how to meet the need and when it can be considered satisfied. Does the dog need human contact to fulfill the need, or is the company of other dogs enough? This study aims to specify what can be acceptable when it comes to fulfilling dogs? social needs in accordance with the Swedish animal welfare legislation.

AstraZeneca in Mölndal (AZRDM) uses beagles bred at Rååhöjdens kennel in Örkelljunga for their research purposes. The staff wishes to have mentally stable dogs to work with, sine stress can effect the research results. The purpose of this study was to put together the testresults from dogs delivered 2003 and 2004, to see if there is a connection between delivery age and testresult. We have also worked out a method to test if early planned handling of the dogs makes a difference on how the dogs later respond in a testsituation, and tried this method in a pilotstudy. The data that we have based our calculations on is 172 dogs, divided into 108 males and 64 females. We found a significant connection between the age at delivery and the testresult in contactability for female dogs delivered in 2003, where increasing age led to decreasing grades in the test at AZRDM. When looking at the difference in testresults between test number two at the kennel and the test at AZRDM we found a significant connection for female dogs delivered during 2003, ie the difference takes on a more negative value with increasing age at delivery. We found a difference between the two sexes in our calculations.

It is well known that dogs often have Helicobacter spp in their stomach. The importance of these bacteria in the development of gastrointestinal disease in dogs is still unknown. In humans, Helicobacter pylori is a causative agent of chronic gastritis and gastric ulcers. In contrast to humans, dogs seldom harbour naturally acquired H. pylori.

This essay is about dogs that visit is used, whitin care of elderly. The dogs found caretakers once a week and one hour at a time. The focus has been placed on the dogs that go to the municipality's special accommodation and the research was done in a medium-sized municipality in Sweden. The focus of the narrowing of the work was done to the work situation for care staff to assess the impact of the visits the dogs presence. It was distributed questionnaires answered by care staff in which it concluded their visit to the dog's presence felt and how it impacted the situation.

A group of diseases that affect the dog?s sight is progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) a disease that means that the photoreceptors in the retina of the eye either not develop normally or undergo degeneration and thereby causes vision loss and blindness. The disease affects many different breeds and is inherited. What have been shown is that it is different genes that had become mutated in the different breeds, this conclude that despite similar clinical symptoms, the underlying reason could be different. Also the genes that are mutated in dogs and give rise to diseases also exists in humans.

Due to progresses constantly being made in veterinary medicine combined with increasing knowledge in pet owners, the dogs of today gets older than before. The population of geriatric dogs is there for constantly growing, which makes them an important group of patients on small animal clinics and hospitals. As dogs age, so do their interior organs. Geriatric dogs are prone to several diseases and in this text the author has decided to focus on three of the most common: Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome (CDS), cancer and osteoarthritis (AO). All of these illnesses are incurable in dogs, but it is important to remember that they are still treatable.

The concerning issue of declining number of hunters in North America is also apparent in Europe and Sweden. When the bulk of research found on human dimensions and hunting participation has almost exclusively been done in the United States, this report seeks to add to the needed knowledge on a national level focusing on the causes of hunter declines related to social factors within Sweden. Using hunter data reaching from commune, county to National level, this report describes the correlation between a number of variables and the hunting participation in Sweden.The typical Swedish hunter lives in an area with low population density, the person usually has higher education, the living situation is stable with no recent moving and there is relatively good access to forest land. Persons with weaker connection to the Swedish culture such as foreign citizens, people with foreign background and people born outside ?the Nordic countries? are less likely to start hunt or participate in hunting.A strong relationship was found between the favorite game, moose (Alces alces), and the amount of hunters participating in the hunting.

The voltage level in the power grid varies due to variations in load and production. Normally these variations are manageable, but they may be excessively large during a disturbance. If the voltage is too high it may damage the equipment in the grid and too low voltages may cause problems like voltage instability. The magnitude of the voltage variation depends on the short circuit power capacity of the point of interest.This problem may become lore prominent due to automatic voltage regulation that acts on shunt reactors and shunt capacitors. When the shunt reactor is connected or disconnected to the grid it may cause such large changes in the voltage that the shunt reactor starts hunting.

Steroid-responsive meningitis-arteritis (SRMA) is a common form of meningitis in dogs. The condition is immunopathological, but the etiology is not yet fully understood. The aim of this study was to compile facts about the disease from records of Swedish dogs. The owners were interviewed by telephone for follow up where it was possible. 15 dogs were included in the study. All of them were neurologically examined in the Small Animal Clinic at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

?Tollarsjuka? is a disease with a suspected immunopathological background seen in Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers. Pyrexia, lameness, stiffness and joint- or musclepain are typical clinical signs. The purpose of this study is to describe case histories from dogs with a possible evidence of ?tollarsjuka?. 18 private dogs were included in this report. Generalised stiffness, lameness and fatigue were the most frequent manifestations of the disease.

The invasive species raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) is currently under establishment Sweden and it is vital to discover invading individuals to prevent colonization. The use of wildlife cameras to discover dispersing raccoon dogs have been implemented in the north-European raccoon dog management program. In this study, I test the ability of four commercially available scent lures to attract raccoon dogs to camera stations. The study was conducted in the Åland Islands where raccoon dogs are abundant and the results could improve the effectiveness of the camera stations used in the program. I used 12 sites with five camera stations in each and tested the four lures and one control with no lure in each site.

Immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia (IMHA) is an immune-mediated destruction of erythrocytes and is one of the most common haematological diseases diagnosed in dogs. The haemolysis is a type II immunoreaction and is initiated by IgG or IgM antibodies or complements. This retrospective study includes 63 dogs suffering from primary IMHA. The study was based on information from records from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences in Uppsala and from the Animal Hospital in Strömsholm. The aim of the study was to evaluate the progress of the disease, treatment and the prognostic factors in different breeds, gender and age. Following criteria were used for the dogs to be allowed in the study: the dogs were diagnosed with anaemia, the anaemia was regenerative and autoagglutination and/or spherocytes were seen in the blood. About 50 % of the dogs in the study were diagnosed with IMHA within 2-6 years of age. Wire-haired dachshund was remarkably one of the most common breeds in this study together with Cocker and Springer spaniel.

Today's research on animal assisted interventions (AAI) has focused on the positive effects on humans. Dogs used for AAI are an expanding market, but the research on this area hasn't followed the increasing use. The few studies on dogs in this field mostly observed their cortisol-levels and are very ambiguous. I have observed the behaviour of dogs working with AAI compared to when they are off-duty to see how they are affected by their work. Their handlers where also told to make an assessment of the dog's emotions during the session.

This study shows how two different schools use dogs as a method of education. The purpose was to find out what kind of pedagogical thoughts my informants have about children' slearning in their connection with dogs, and in which way the interaction between the children and the dogs could affect the learning ability. I also wanted to find out what kind of possibilities and restrictions the dogs could give to the education according to my informants but also to find out how the projects were financed. To be able to answer these questions I put together a qualitative study, I had four interviews with people that were involved in the projects in one way or the other. To analyse the empirical material I looked up different theories about teaching, communication, interaction and motivation.My results showed that both schools have applied the method of ?teaching dogs? as a form of resource for students with special needs.

This literature study summarizes the signals dogs use in intraspecific communication. The purpose is to clarify the way dogs communicate so that situations where their intentions are misjudged can be avoided. The signals are divided into olfactory, visual, auditory and tactile and every section starts with a short anatomic and physiologic description of the sense organ that is used to register the current signal type. The interspecific communication between dog and human regarding its development and function is brought up. To end with suggestions are given of how veterinary technicians in clinics can make use of knowledge about the way dogs communicate.