Philippine E-Journals

Weight Prediction in Medium to Large Sized Adult Philippine Native Dogs Using External Body Measurement

Conrado A. Valdez | Joy Paula L. Valencia

Discipline: Animal Science

 

Abstract:

To develop a method of predicting live weight of Philippine native dogs using external body measurements, 54 female and 46 male apparently healthy medium to large sized adult Philippine native dogs 1.5-8 years of age were used in this study. The animals' live weights were measured using a weighing scale. The external body measurements (thoracic girth, midriff girth, flank girth, body length, height at point of the shoulder and height at withers were obtained using a tailor's tape measure. The correlation and regression analyses showed that regardless of sex, all body measurements had positive linear relationships with body weights. The thoracic girth had the highest correlation with weight (0.684). With sex as a factor, all except the body length (P>.05) for the female showed positive linear relationships with body weight. The single best weight determinant for all animal groups was the thoracic girth, with a coefficient of determination (r²) of 0.468. The thoracic girth was consistently the best single weight determinant in males (r²=0.445). In females, the flank girth and thoracic girth had the same coefficient of determination (r²=0.440). With combined sex data, the best parameters were thoracic girth and height at withers, with r²=0.532. For females, the best parameters were thoracic girth and flank girth. In males, multiple parameters for weight estimation were not possible. All body measurements except for the thoracic girth had a P value>0.01. The preferred prediction equation for the whole sample population in this study is the multiple parameter equation using thoracic girth and height at withers, with r²=0.532 and a low standard error of 4.45. However, the paired t-test results did not show significant difference between estimated weights and actual weights using both formulas. Thus, both formulas can be used to estimate weights in medium to large-sized adult Philippine native dogs in the absence of a scale.