Spontaneous activities measured continuously by an accelerometer in beagle dogs housed in a cage.

Spontaneous activities in 10 beagle dogs housed in an individual cage were recorded continuously for 2 hr by an accelerometer fixed to dogs and by a video camera. The responses of the accelerometer were compared to movements identified from the video tapes. We found that gross differentiation of quantitative spontaneous activities might be possible by using only the accelerometer if the threshold of the accelerometer and the amount of acceleration volume were set adequately: the responses of the accelerometer at the threshold of 0.10 G with the acceleration number of 251 or more revealed only movements of the whole-body, and those at the threshold of 0.02 G all movements including changes of the part(s) of the body.