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For The Love Of Dog: The Human-Dog Bond In Rural And Remote Australian Indigenous Communities, Sophie Constable, Roselyn Dixon, Robert Dixon

Rose Dixon

The nature of the human-animal bond in contemporary Australian Indigenous communities is little researched, but it is essential to understand this bond in order to develop much needed appropriate animal health and management practices. A semi-structured interview format was used to elicit information on attitudes to dogs in seven Australian Indigenous communities. This explored the importance of dogs to the community and to the individual, and the balance between the positives and negatives of having dogs in the communities, with particular reference to improving dog and community health and welfare. Theme analysis of the semi-structured interview responses (n=137) revealed a …