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HEALTH AND SOCIAL IMPACT OF HUMAN AND DOG CO-EXISTENCE
KARAFIÁTOVÁ, Iva
ABSTRACT The thesis called Health and Social Impacts of Human and Dog Co-existence is a paper describing the development of a human and a dog relationship since old times until present. It deals with the origin of a dog and describes the development of understanding between a human and a dog, which lasts up to the present day. The paper offers an integrated survey on the ways the dogs are used at present, especially in health and social areas. It informs the readers on the dog use possibilities, the care for dogs, and also the principles of communication, which enable quality and peaceful life of a human and a dog. The first objective was to find out what is the respondents´ knowledge on the dog use possibilities in the society. This objective was fulfilled and the hypothesis was proved. Respondents do not know even a half of possible dog use in co-existence with people. The second objective was to find out how respondents perceive the presence of dogs in their surroundings in relation to children. The objective was also fulfilled, however, the hypothesis that more than 75 per cent of respondents are careful during the contact of a child with a dog, was disproved. Quite a high percentage of people nderestimate the possible risk during the contact of a child with a dog. The third objective was focused on the awareness of respondents of the dog body signals. The hypothesis was proved in this case and out of the results it is evident that the people lack information on the signals sent by dogs. For finding out the needed data the questionnaire research was used. The questionnaire was composed of 24 questions and handed out to 350 respondents. The result of the research was the proving of three above mentioned hypotheses. One of them was disproved, the rest was proved. The awareness of respondents is not high. 44 per cent of owners are threatened by the risk of wound caused by their own dog. Everything is the result of insufficient education in the area. I see preventive programmes focused on the principles of proper co-existence of a human and a dog, which start in kindergarten, as a possibility to lower the risk of wounds or bites caused by dogs.
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