Study title: The effects of child education on short-to-medium term dog welfare in the home environment
Researcher: Anna Baatz, PhD student
Invitation
If you do not have a pet dog, please disregard. You and your child are being invited to take part in a research project on the effects of child education on dog welfare. Before you decide on whether to take part, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please take time to read the following information carefully before you decide whether or not you wish to take part. You are welcome to discuss this project with others if you wish before you make your decision. Please ask us, a.barrett4@edu.salford.ac.uk, if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information.
What is the purpose of the study?
The purpose of this study is to understand whether education programmes for children, run by the Dogs Trust or Kids Around Dogs, affect how children interact with the family dog, and whether this has any impact on dog welfare.
Why have I been chosen?
You have been invited to take part in this project because you have a child aged 7-11 whose school has asked either Dogs Trust or Kids Around Dogs to run their educational dog bite prevention workshop for its pupils. You should also have at least one pet dog at home to take part in the project. A total of 150-225 children and their families will take part in this research project.
Do I have to take part?
It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you do decide to take part you will be given this information sheet to keep. Both you and your child will be asked to sign a consent form. You can still withdraw at any time without it affecting your child’s education or any benefits that you are entitled to in any way. You do not have to give a reason. If you do withdraw you should, however, note that the University will continue to process the information you have already provided. It will only do this for research purposes and in an anonymised way so that you cannot not be identified.
What will happen to me if I take part?
The study will take place over a two-year period. After you have given your consent, your participation will involve the following:
- At the beginning of the project, you will be asked to complete some questionnaires at home (online or on paper) about your family and your dog, including about how your child interacts with your dog.
- Some of the children in the study will then receive training from Dogs Trust or Kids Around Dogs at their school straight away. Other children will receive this training, but at the end of the project. These children are in the ‘control group’ and are just as important to the project as the children who get the training straight away, as this means we can see whether or not the training changes the way the children behave with their dogs, or whether they would have changed as they got older in any case. When your child receives this training, we will ask them to complete a questionnaire about what they’ve learnt about dog behaviour.
- We will ask you to complete the same questionnaires as you did at the start of the project on two other occasions: one month later, and finally 6 months to a year after you first completed the questionnaires. We will also take swabs from your dog again on these occasions.
- You will receive a £5 payment for each of these three occasions of filling in the surveys (one parent survey, one child survey). You will be provided with a claim form from Anna for this each time.
An optional additional part of the study will involve video recording your child and dog interacting at home. We will also take a swap of your dog’s saliva, and we will test this in the laboratory for a ‘biomarker’ – ‘telomere’ which tells us about your dog’s general welfare and likely stress levels. If you are happy with this, we will lend you a video camera and ask you to set it up to record in a room where your child and dog are together, and provide you a DNA saliva swab and instructions for gathering this. We will ask you to take a saliva swab of your dog and record for 1 hour; 3 times over the course of the study: at the start, one month later and approximately one year later. We will analyse the video footage for how your child and dog interact with each other, including whether your dog shows any signs of distress, e.g. growling.
You can still take part in the questionnaire element of the study if you do wish to take part in the swabs and videos.
If you would like to volunteer for this additional part of the study, you can indicate this on the consent form. Please note that, if many people volunteer for this part of the study, it may not be possible to include them all.
If you take part in the swabs and video observation element of the study too, you will receive an additional £5 for each of the three data gathering stages (maximum of £30 including £15 for the surveys).
Will I be recorded, and how will the recorded media be used?
If you choose to take part in the optional parts of the project, as described above, you may be video-recorded. The audio and/or video recordings of your activities made during this research will be used only for analysis and for illustration in conference presentations and lectures. No other use will be made of them without your written permission, and no one outside the project will be allowed access to the original recordings.
Expenses and payments?
As the research will take place in your home, you should incur no expenses as part of this project. You will, however receive a goodie bag and small payment as a token of gratitude for taking part. This will be £5 for each time you complete the two surveys (child survey and adult survey) and send the saliva swab (maximum £15) OR £10 for each time you complete the two surveys, send the saliva swab and complete a video observation (maximum £30).
What are the possible disadvantages and risks of taking part?
There are no specific risks associated with this study, as you are not being asked to take part in any unusual activities. Although the swab test of your dog will likely be unfamiliar, it is non-invasive and it will not hurt your dog. The researcher taking the swab is an experienced dog handler.
If you choose to take part in the video recordings, there is a small risk that the camera may capture something you do not wish for us to see; if this happens, you can delete the recording or request that we do so. In the unlikely event that we do see something on the recording that causes concern, such as child or animal abuse, you should be aware that we are obliged to report this to the relevant authorities.
If you choose to take part in the interview, it is possible that you might find some of the questions about your child’s behaviour with your dog uncomfortable. You do not have to answer any questions you do not wish to, and you can ask to pause or stop the interview at any time. You do not have to explain why, and doing so would have no negative effects for you. You would still be able to take part in the other parts of the study if you wished.
What are the possible benefits of taking part?
We cannot promise the study will help you, but the information we get from the study will help to increase our understanding of the effects of education programmes on child-dog interactions. This can help us to improve these programmes, and therefore the welfare of dogs, in the future. The researcher will also provide you with a summary of the findings for your information. We are a university and so it is part of our reason for being that we advance knowledge through research, as well as through teaching. Your participation in this research helps us to do that.
What if there is a problem?
If you have a concern about any aspect of this study, you should ask to speak to the researcher by email (a.barrett4@edu.salford.ac.uk) who will do their best to answer your questions. Following this, if you have any issues or complaints, you may contact the research supervisor, Robert Young, by email
(r.j.young@salford.ac.uk) or by telephone (0161 295 2058).
Will my taking part in the study be kept confidential?
All information that is collected about you during the course of the research will be kept strictly confidential. You will be allocated a research code, known only to you and the researcher. This will be used instead of your name on all data we collect, including questionnaires, your dog’s saliva samples and home videos, so that you cannot be identified. A master list including your name and contact details will be held on a password-protected computer and will only be accessible to the research team. Electronic data will be stored on a password-protected computer and secure University drive, also accessible only by the research team. Any paper data, such as questionnaires and consent forms, will be kept in a locked filing cabinet, also accessible only to the research team. If the data are shared with third parties, such as the Dogs Trust, this will only ever be in an anonymised way so that you cannot be identified. Data that can identify an individual will not be used for publication or presentation unless prior consent has been obtained from the individual involved.
Here is the link to the University’s Research Privacy Notice that sets out details about the University’s processing of personal information for research purposes: https://www.salford.ac.uk/privacy/introduction/research-privacy-notice.
What it I want to stop being part of the study?
If you withdraw from the study, all the information and data collected from you, to date, will be continue to be used, however your name will be removed from all the study files. If you wish to withdraw from the study, you should contact the researcher by email, using the contact details below. You do not need to give a reason for withdrawal.
What will happen to the results of the research study?
The results of the study will be written up as part of the researcher’s PhD thesis. They will also be published in scientific journals and presented at conferences. The researcher will also provide all participants with a summary of the findings. The report will be non-judgmental and will be written so that parents and children can understand it. We will provide this for information only, so that everyone can see what we have found, and you will not be expected to take any actions as a result of the report. No publications or presentations will allow you to be identified, unless you have given us specific consent to do so. The University may keep the data and use it in future studies. If we do this, it will only be in a completely anonymised fashion.
Who is sponsoring the research?
The research is funded by Dogs Trust.
Further information and contact details
If you would like further information about the research project, please contact the researcher, Anna Baatz, by email (a.barrett4@edu.salford.ac.uk).
For more information about the Dogs Trust and its education programmes, you can visit their website: https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/.
Thank you for taking the time to read this information sheet.
