Dog Behavior Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Millions of unwanted pets enter animal shelters each year in the USA, but only a portion leave alive. Previous research has found that morphology and in-kennel behavior influence adoption. The current study evaluated whether any behaviors exhibited by dogs during an out-of-kennel interaction with a potential adopter predicted adoption. In addition, we evaluated whether other predictors such as the morphology of the dog, intention to adopt a dog that day, and location of the interaction influenced adoption. Finally, the study assessed correspondence between the potential adopters’ answers on a questionnaire and the dogs’ behavior during the interactions. The behavior of shelter dogs in out-of-kennel interactions with potential adopters was observed (n = 250). After each interaction, visitors were given a questionnaire to indicate their reasons for adopting or not adopting that specific dog. The vast majority of shelter visitors only requested to interact with only a single dog and the average duration of interaction was 8 min. Only two behaviors: ignoring play initiation by and lying in proximity to the potential adopter, but no morphological variables, influenced adoption decisions. Dogs that were adopted spent half as much time ignoring play initiation by and twice as much time lying in proximity to the adopter than dogs that were not adopted. The probability (P) of adoption was higher in a smaller outdoor concrete area (P = 0.423) than in both large grass area (P = 0.320) or an indoor room (P = 0.229). Intention to adopt a dog that day resulted in the highest probability of adoption (P = 0.586), whereas an intention to not adopt resulted in a low probability (P = 0.102). Dogs that were labeled as not social by non-adopters after an interaction had higher scores than average in ignoring play initiations. However, non-adopter reports did not exactly correspond with the dogs’ behavior during the interactions. Our findings may be used to develop targeted training programs for shelter dogs.

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- Dog Behavior, Animal Welfare, Dog Training, Overpopulation

The dog (Canis familiaris) is a promising non-invasive translational model of human cognitive neuroscience including sleep research. Studies on the relationship between sleep and cognition in dogs and other canines are only just emerging, but still very scarce. Here we provide insight into canine sleep and sleep-related physiological and cognitive/behavioral phenomena. We show that dogs do not only fulfil all behavioral and polygraphic criteria of sleep, but are characterized by sleep homeostasis, diurnal pattern of activity, circadian rhythms, ultradian sleep cycles, socio-ecologically and environmentally shaped wake-sleep structure, sleep-related memory improvement, as well as specific sleep disorders. Developmental patterns of sleep-related physiological indices, as well as parallel trends in age-dependent changes in cognition and sleep were evidenced in dogs.

- by Huba Eleőd
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- Dog Behavior, Medicine, Heart rate variability, Sleep
- by Ádám Mikósi
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- Zoology, Dog Behavior, Social learning, Animal Production

Although the study of canine cognition is in vogue, at present there is little known about how domestic dogs (canis familiaris) categorize information. A touchscreen testing system was used to which a dog was trained to respond differentially to two lightsound compounds – a bright light/soft sound and a dim light/loud sound. Reinforcement was contingent upon touch at a different screen location for each compound. In order to examine how the elements of such lightsound compounds are processed the dog was tested with combinations of additional light and sound intensities. It was found that the dog used the information provided by both stimulus dimensions in a manner that maximized the probability of a correct choice. This research is relevant to the understanding of information processing, specifically attention, categorization and generalization.

- by Katherine Compitus
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- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Perception, Animal Science

In de derde bijdrage bespreekt Esteban Rivas diverse onderzoeken naar empathie bij dieren. In de geschiedenis van de westerse filosofie en wetenschap is de mens vaak gedefinieerd in onderscheid tot andere dieren. Ten opzichte van de mens zou het dier intelligentie en gevoel ontberen. Dit antropocentrisme, waarin de mens centraal staat en als het meest ontwikkelde wezen wordt gezien, kwam met de evolutietheorie van Darwin ter discussie te staan. Sindsdien is er meer onderzoek gedaan naar het mentale leven van dieren. Er is echter geen consensus over de vraag of dergelijk gedrag ook echt empathie betreft en of het geen vorm van antropomorfisme is om eigenschappen als empathie aan niet-menselijke dieren toe te schrijven. Rivas leert ons anders denken en concludeert dat mensen en alle andere dieren wezens zijn met allerlei vormen van cognitie, gevoelens en emoties die niet exclusief menselijk maar in feite dierlijk zijn: empathie is een heel oud dierlijk vermogen.

- by Esteban Rivas
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- Dog Behavior, Affective Neuroscience, Animal Behaviour, Emotional Contagion
- by Seana Dowling-Guyer
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- Psychology, Dog Behavior, Medicine, Animals
- by Ádám Mikósi
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- Bioinformatics, Animal Behavior, Principal Component Analysis, Dog Behavior

בעשור האחרון נושא ההיררכיה היה מקור לדיונים ולמחלוקות רבים בקרב אקדמאים, וטרינרים ומאלפי כלבים. מאמר זה מבקש להציג את הגישה של המודל הפסיכופתולוגי הצרפתי שבו ההיררכיה מוכרת ומתוארת
בתור מקור של איזון ומקור של הפרעות.

- by Stephane Bleuer-Elsner
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- Dog Behavior, Hierarchy

מאמר זה מתאר גור ויימרנר, שאובחן עם תסמונת היפר-רגישות/היפר-אקטיביות, אחת ההפרעות השכיחות ביותר של התפתחות התנהגותית. המאמר דן בסימנים הקליניים, באבחנה של המחלה, בטיפול הפסיכוטרופי, בטיפול ההתנהגותי ובמעקב של המטופל. הדיון מתאר ומסביר את... more

In the debate on canine domestication, researchers have identified a lot of valid information regarding the time, the region and the ancestor of the dog. But researchers are still figuring out, why and how this process started. The scavenging hypothesis, first proposed 2001 by Ray and Lorna Coppinger, proclaims the first human waste dumps as the ecological niche for the self-domestication-process of dogs. Many scientists refer to that model, sometimes partly modified. The scavenging hypothesis is broadcasted by most public media as the commonly accepted model of dog's domestication. Thus, we have to deal with that popular model. Based on a broad multidisciplinary approach like human evolution, archaeology, palaeogenetics, psychology and neurobiology, we will look for evidence. Investigating nine assumptions of the scavenging hypothesis we did not find any evidence. Dog's domestication started thousands of years before the advent of food waste dumps. The scavenging hypothesis cannot explain why only wolves and never foxes nor jackals have been domesticated. Paleolithic people and ancient wolves were living together closely in the same ecological niche hunting the same prey with the same cooperative methods. It is likely that they met very often and knew each other very well. We have some hints, that ancient wolves and people treated each other with respect cooperatively. We have hints for an active cooperation from humans and dogs starting in the Upper Paleolithic period long before it would have even been possible scavenging human waste. We have hints for emotional bonds between ancient people and dogs. Emotional bonds would have been unlikely for an animal hanging around human settlements while scavenging carrion and feces, like the scavenging hypothesizes describe. Looking at recent dogs and humans we have evidence for strong unique similarities in the psychological and neurobiological structures eventually allowing interspecific bonding, communication and working. Interspecific cooperation decreased the level of the stress axis of both species in the Paleolithic period and even does so today, what improves our social and cognitive abilities. We propose that dogs domestication could be understand as an active social process of both sides. Further investigations need a closely networked multidisciplinary approach.

- by Christoph Jung
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- Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Psychology, Animal Studies, Coevolution

W ramach pracy zbadano skuteczność i możliwe skutki uboczne karania pozytywnego w szkoleniu i terapii zaburzeń zachowania psów oraz sformułowano podstawowe zasady prawidłowego stosowania takiej metody modyfikacji zachowania na podstawie polsko i anglojęzycznej literatury tematycznej oraz opracowań badań naukowych.
Wyniki badań pozwalają wnioskować, że warunkiem koniecznym do tego, aby kara pozytywna mogła pełnić swoją funkcję, jest spełnienie odpowiednich kryteriów użycia stymulacji awersyjnej. Większość badań wskazujących na skuteczność karania pozytywnego była prowadzona w sztucznych i kontrolowalnych warunkach laboratoryjnych. Jednak wyniki tych badań rzadko mają przełożenie na rzeczywiste środowisko, w którym spełnienie kryteriów użycia stymulacji awersyjnej jest zazwyczaj bardzo trudne, a czasem wręcz niemożliwe. Dlatego stosowanie stymulacji awersyjnej okazuje się często mniej skuteczne niż by to wynikało z założeń teoretycznych. Badania, w których zwierzęta były poddawane działaniu zmiennych, będącymi typowymi czynnikami spotykanymi w życiu i były szkolone w rzeczywistym, dynamicznym i złożonym świecie, a nie w laboratorium, wskazują na nieefektywność stosowania kar w eliminowaniu zachowań problemowych oraz pokazują, że stosowanie kar pozytywnych w szkoleniu psów nie skutkuje wyższym poziomem posłuszeństwa u psa w porównaniu do metod alternatywnych. Ponadto badania pokazują, iż kara pozytywna nie powinna być stosowana w przypadku agresji o podłożu lękowym, reakcji lękowych i fobii, zachowań kompulsywnych czy też zaburzeń zachowania związanych z separacją, które rozwinęły się z zaburzeń o podłożu lękowym oraz w przypadku wszystkich innych zachowań, którym towarzyszą negatywne stany emocjonalne zwierzęcia. We wszystkich tych sytuacjach karanie może przynieść odmienny skutek i spowodować wzrost częstości i/lub intensywności karanego zachowania. Uwzględniając przy tym dobrostan szkolonych psów, bardziej zalecaną metodą staje się szkolenie oparte o wzmacnianie pozytywne pożądanych zachowań i unikanie wzmacniania niewłaściwych reakcji, które w badaniach terenowych okazuje się być jednocześnie znacznie efektywniejsze niż szkolenie oparte o karanie pozytywne.

- by Hanna Różacka
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- Animal Behavior, Dog Behavior, Animal cognition (Psychology), Dogs

How dogs are perceived by different Native American Cultures.

- by David Ian Howe
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- Dog Behavior, Cultural Anthropology, Darwinism, Behavioral Ecology

Studies on domestication reveal the parallel evolution of dogs and humans. The many debates and the difficulty of adapting science to good practices have resulted in some critical confusion around the perception of dogs and has adversely impacted approaches in dog parenting, dog training, and dog behaviour assessment. While many features of dog domestication are still in a grey zone, we need to invest more resources in helping people and the community to understand their relationship with dogs from an evolutionary perspective and to support them in reframing the value of dogs for human societies. More efforts in integrating knowledge about the parallel evolution of dogs and humans to good practices are required. While free-ranging dogs may represent a window on the early domestication stage, pet-companion dogs can provide insight on some essential points. Additionally, the recent Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent massive lockdowns have tremendously impacted the lives of people and animals worldwide, including companion dogs and free-ranging dogs. Changes in the ecology and behaviour of free-ranging and wild animals have been observed and notable gains for the environment have occurred. This significant event recalls the concept of rewilding and fosters reconsiderations of the impact humans have on other species, the ecosystem and the climate. The human-dog interaction and co-existence in the age of the Anthropocene is one aspect that can be reconsidered. As well, the dog-human alliance can be reframed and leveraged. Here we propose some perspectives to support further reflections on these topics with the event of Covid-19 potentially signalling the transition into a new epoch.

- by Marco Adda
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- Dog Behavior, Human-Animal Studies, Human-Dog Relations, Anthropocene studies

Currently, there is still no consensus about whether animals can ascribe mental states (Theory of Mind) to themselves and others. Showing animals can respond to cues that indicate whether another has visual access to a target or not, and that they are able to use this information as a basis for whom to rely on as an informant, is an important step forward in this direction. Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) with human informants are an ideal model, because they show high sensitivity towards human eye contact, they have proven able to assess the attentional state of humans in food-stealing or food-begging contexts, and they follow human gaze behind a barrier when searching for food. With 16 dogs, we not only replicated the main results of Maginnity and Grace (Anim Cogn 17(6):1375–1392, 2014) who recently found that dogs preferred to follow the pointing of a human who witnessed a food hiding event over a human who did not (the Guesser–Knower task), but also extended this finding with a further, critical control for behaviour-reading: two informants showed identical looking behaviour, but due to their different position in the room, only one had the opportunity to see where the food was hidden by a third person. Preference for the Knower in this critical test provides solid evidence for geometrical gaze following and perspective taking in dogs.

- by Lisa Wallis
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- Dog Behavior, Dog Cognition, Human-Dog Relations, Dogs

The paper takes a close look at the construction of animality and humanity in Cesar Millan's show The Dog Whisperer and in his training books.
Dog training has undergone significant changes in the past three decades: Don't Shoot the Dog, Karen Pryor’s groundbreaking book from 1984, posited that the advantage of ‘modern training methods’ lies in their not being based on «folk beliefs but on behavioral science». The suitability of a training practice is now established in the laboratory and the scientists unanimously agree on the dangers of the abuse of punishment. In this atmosphere, it would seem that a reality television show hosted by a trainer with no academic credentials – and one that promotes punishment-based methods – should be bound to fail. Yet, César Millán’s The Dog Whisperer remained the most popular television program about dogs from 2004 to 2012. The response from within the animal training and animal behavior communities has been to systematically debunk the myths perpetuated by Millán. However, this approach does not address the roots of Millán’s popularity. The anti-intellectual Millán rose to fame in a climate in which expert knowledge perpetrates every sphere of life. Engaging with other sources on Millán’s show (Weber 2009, Jackson Schebetta 2009, Pręgowski 2015) the article argues that the popularity of Millan can be read as populist cry for ‘common sense’ in an era in which expert knowledge perpetrates every sphere of human (and canine) life. Aided by the format of the makeover show – one which Brenda Weber (2009) has interpreted as the perfect embodiment of the contradictions inherent in cultural narratives of self hood, citizenship and Americanness – Millán sets off on something of a populist anti-establishment crusade that allows him to become an expert precisely through his renunciation of expert knowledge. The position of the ‘folk expert’ makes it possible for Millán to diagnose not only the causes of a dog’s misbehavior but, in a holistic and highly non-scientific approach, the problems of the dog’s owner and even of American society in general. Through the simple fixes he advocates Millán targets not the dogs but the often-female owners. He diagnoses their attachment to the dog as excessive and proposes programs of ‘tough love,’ which result in a restoration of balance; understood as a situation in which the priorities of the owners are set straight: human relationships come first and the relationship with the dog is subordinate.

- by Justyna Wlodarczyk
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- Cultural Studies, American Studies, Gender Studies, Human-Animal Relations

In this study we analyzed the possible contextspecific and individual-specific features of dog barks using a new machine-learning algorithm. A pool containing more than 6,000 barks, which were recorded in six different communicative situations was used as the sound sample. The algorithm's task was to learn which acoustic features of the barks, which were recorded in different contexts and from different individuals, could be distinguished from another. The program conducted this task by analyzing barks emitted in previously identified contexts by identified dogs. After the best feature set had been obtained (with which the highest identification rate was achieved), the efficiency of the algorithm was tested in a classification task in which unknown barks were analyzed. The recognition rates we found were highly above chance level: the algorithm could categorize the barks according to their recorded situation with an efficiency of 43% and with an efficiency of 52% of the barking individuals. These findings suggest that dog barks have context-specific and individual-specific acoustic features. In our opinion, this machine learning method may provide an efficient tool for analyzing acoustic data in various behavioral studies.

- by Csaba Molnar
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- Acoustics, Machine Learning, Dog Behavior, Dogs

This book is written for animal professionals who wish to hone their skills in working effectively with people. The outcomes of any intervention or training program depend on how well the human client is engaged in the process. The book contains many practical ideas, skills, and ways of thinking that help professionals collaborate with their human clients for the best outcomes for the animals.

- by Dr Rise VanFleet
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- Veterinary Medicine, Animal Science, Animal Behavior, Dog Behavior
- by Ludwig Huber
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- Psychology, Cognition, Dog Behavior, Food
- by Rich Furman
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- Creative Writing, Creative Nonfiction, Non Fiction Writing, Critical Theory

Dog training methods traditionally rely on individual learning (mainly operant conditioning). Yet dogs are adept in acquiring information socially and are able to imitate humans. Dogs’ predisposition to learn socially has been recently introduced in dog training with the Do as I do method. With this method dogs first learn to match their behaviour to a small set of actions displayed by a human demonstrator on com- mand ‘Do it!’ and later are able to generalise this rule to use it to learn novel actions. In the present study, we compare the effectiveness of the Do as I do method with that of shaping/clicker training, a method that relies on individual learning, for teaching dogs two different kinds of actions: a body movement and an object-related action. As measures of effectiveness, we use the number of dog-trainer pairs experienced with either method, that succeed in obtaining five performances in a row of the predetermined action within 30 min and the latency to the fifth performance. Additionally, we assess the effect of these training methods on dogs’ memory of the trained action and its verbal cue in different contexts. Our results show that the Do as I do method is more effective than shaping/clicker training to teach dogs object-related actions within a relatively short time and suggest that this method might be also applied for training body-movements. Importantly, the use of social learning enhances dogs’ memory and generalisation of the learned action and its verbal cue.

- by Claudia Fugazza and +1
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- Memory (Cognitive Psychology), Dog Behavior, Social learning, Dogs

本研究應用紅外線自動相機來調查常見入侵物種(犬貓)的活動模式，藉由紀錄其個體特徵，引入捉放法與族群模擬技術，以評估犬貓族群數量，與其他獸類在時間和空間資源使用上的潛在衝突。研究樣區在臺北市陽明山地區的天母古道林地，在2014到2016年間，五個相機位點共記錄401張有效照片，及4目8科9種哺乳動物，其中自由犬佔全體活動量的19%，而拍攝清晰可進行個體辨識的犬則有31隻；貓隻則佔全體活動量的14%，出現有12隻貓個體。運用程式Capture模擬估計犬族群量有... more

- by Cheng-Heng Hu
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- Dog Behavior

Inhibitory control, the ability to overcome prepotent but ineffective behaviors, has been studied extensively across species, revealing the involvement of this ability in many different aspects of life. While various different paradigms have been created in order to measure inhibitory control, only a limited number of studies have investigated whether such measurements indeed evaluate the same underlying mechanism, especially in non-human animals. In humans, inhibitory control is a complex construct composed of distinct behavioral processes rather than of a single unified measure. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the validity of inhibitory control paradigms in dogs. Sixty-seven dogs were tested in a battery consisting of frequently used inhibitory control tests. Additionally, dog owners were asked to complete an impulsivity questionnaire about their dog. No correlation of dogs' performance across tasks was found. In order to understand whether there are some underlying behavioral aspects explaining dogs' performance across tests, we performed principle component analyses. Results revealed that three components (persistency, compulsivity and decision speed) explained the variation across tasks. The questionnaire and dogs' individual characteristics (i.e., age and sex) provided only limited information for the derived components. Overall, results suggest that no unique measurement for inhibitory control exists in dogs, but tests rather measure different aspects of this ability. Considering the context-specificity of inhibitory control in dogs and most probably also in other non-human animals, extreme caution is needed when making conclusions about inhibitory control abilities based on a single test.

- by Lisa Wallis
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- Dog Behavior, Dog Cognition, Human-Dog Relations, Dogs

Approximately 4 million dogs live in animal shelters each year. However, understanding and measuring the welfare of these kenneled dogs presents a challenge. One way to determine welfare is by assessing how stay at the shelter influences physiology, immune function, and behavior of the dogs. Prior research, from all of these domains, has not resulted in clear conclusions on how the animal shelter influences the well-being of dogs. One robust finding is that, when placed into a kennel environment, dogs experience a spike in cortisol levels followed by a decrease to original at-home levels. Current evidence cannot differentiate between several proposed hypotheses that may be responsible for this pattern. In addition, very few studies have assessed the effects of kenneling on immune function of dogs, and of these, no consistent findings have emerged. However, this line of inquiry can have a large impact as infectious diseases are rampant in animal shelters. The ability of behavioral measures to inform us about the welfare of dogs is discussed by reviewing published and new data on the effects of kenneling on dog behavior. Prior research has suffered from a lack of consistent operational definitions when defining abnormal behavior in dogs, resulting in difficult to interpret results. Research on the well-being of individual dogs, rather than on group averages, may be a fruitful next step in determining and improving the welfare of dogs housed in shelters.

- by Alexandra Protopopova
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- Dog Behavior, Stress, Animal Welfare, Animal Shelters

Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), derived from wolves (Canis lupus), are known as the first domesticated animal and dogs have been living in human environment for about 25.000 years. Today researchers tend to proclaim a selfdomesticationprocess, but they are still figuring out, why and how this process started. During the Palaeolithic period, humans and wolves lived in similar structured family clans as cooperative hunters in the same ecological niche. Evolutionary continuity of mammalian brains enabled humans and wolves interspecific communication and social interaction which reduced stress and aggression during their frequently contacts as the first step of a natural domestication process. Domestication means decreased aggression and decreased flight distance concerning to humans. Therefore changes of the activity of the Hypothalamicpituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis are suspected to be important during the domestication processes from wolf to dog. The hypothesis of Active Social Domestication (ASD) considers genetic selection as a necessary prediction but not a sufficient explanation of dog domestication. In addition dog domestication is suggested to be essentially an epigenetic based process that changes the interactions of the HPAaxis and the 5Hydroxytryptamine (5HT) system. The limbic brain regions such as hippocampus and amygdala play a key role in the mood control. They are sensitive to glucocorticoids and innerved by serotonergic projections. The HPAaxis and the 5HT system are closely crossregulated under physiological conditions. The activity of the HPAaxis is influenced thru an enhancement of the corpus amygdala and an inhibition thru the hippocampus. Hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor density (hGCR) is likely to affect its inhibitory effect on this system. Prosocial behaviour enhances epigenetically hGCR expression via increased serotonin and subsequently increased nerve growth factor levels binding on GRexon1;7promotorbloc inducing its demethylation and thus leading to decreased cortisol levels. Low cortisol levels increase social learning capability and promote the activity of the prefrontal cortex contributing to better executive function including better cognitive inhibition. Thus epigenetically decreased cortisol levels of less stressed humanassociated wolf clans allowed them to extend their social skills to interactions with humans. Over time tame wolves could grow into domestic dogs able to emerge human directed behaviour.

- by Christoph Jung
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- Evolutionary Psychology, Animal Science, Dog Behavior, Evolution
- by Meow dog
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- Acoustics, Animal Behavior, Acoustic Communication, Dog Behavior

À partir de la dédicace de ce roman, restée mystérieuse et secrète jusqu'à présent, l'auteur dessine une cartographie littéraire du rapport narratif entre l'homme et le chien - et entre les romanciers pris en considération - qui s'étend sur trois continents. De l'Europe de l'allemand Thomas Mann et du hongrois Tibor Déry, à l'Afrique du caribéen-français-africain René Maran et finalement à l'Amérique latine du péruvien Ciro Alegría et de l'haïtien Francis-Joachim Roy: les rapports entre les êtres humains et les êtres canins sont représentés sous des formes et des images qui vont
de la métonymie individuelle (le chien comme prolongement narratif du maître) à la métaphore collective (les chiens symboles de certaines conditions humaines).
En effet, on part du chien européen à maître (à un seul maître) chez Mann, au chien libre d'adopter par affection des maîtres chez Déry, au chien africain symbole de la colonisation chez Maran, aux chiens latino-américains: chiens péruviens compagnons de l'homme dans le travail initialement, puis ses antagonistes dans la lutte pour la survie chez Alegría; chiens haïtiens ennemis farouches à jamais de l'homme, contre qui ils attendent le moment de la rescousse, de la vengeance historique. À l'horizon, on laisse entrevoir l'espèce aux aguets des chiens africains de la tragédie et du génocide postcoloniaux, pour qui l'homme peut à la fin devenir une proie.

Recent trends in social sciences advocate the recognition of interactive properties in human–animal relationships. Based on an ethnographic study, this paper explores the interactive properties of the relationships between herding dogs and their trainer-users, and how the dogs' behaviors participate in the construction of trainer-users' knowledge. Trainer-users' discourses and practices revealed a common theoretical axis, portraying the herding dog as a social predator descended from the wolf and driving the game towards his pack-leader. The dog's hunting skills are used to turn him/her into a working tool, through minimally constrained education and training. Once trained, the dog should become an autonomous but controllable worker, who helps livestock breeders lead their flock quietly. Two training modes were identified and used simultaneously by the trainers: contextual training (teaching the human–dog–livestock relationship to the dog) and conditioned training (teaching the commands to the dog). Trainer-users all recognized the individual personalities of the dogs and were sensitive to the quality of their relationships with them. They expected the dogs to be more competent than humans in understanding livestock behaviors, thus suggesting that the dog is more a work assistant than a work tool. Indeed, the dog helps the livestock breeder to establish an optimal interrelational distance between the species by managing space, time, and affectivity in the human–dog–livestock relationship. This triangular relationship, defined by the trainers as a leader–predator–prey relation, resembles a misunderstanding maintained by the livestock breeders in order to reach the leader position. Finally, the livestock-handling context appears particularly fruitful for revealing the complexity of interspecific relationships, the evolution of work in the livestock breeding context, and for understanding the human's connection to their social environment, including non-human living beings.

- by Nicolas Lescureux
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- Human-Animal Relations, Ethnography, Dog Behavior, Ethnozoology

Each year, nearly 4 million dogs will enter one of over 13,000 animal shelters operating in the United States. We review programmes implemented at shelters aimed at increasing the likelihood of adoption. The morphology of shelter dogs plays a large role in in-kennel adopter selection, but their behaviour is also influential in out-of-kennel adopter interactions. Previous studies suggest that dogs have the ability to readily learn new behaviours at the shelter, and programmes designed to improve behaviour of the dogs can increase adoption rates. Whilst human interaction has been well-established to improve behavioural and physiological outcomes of dogs living in shelters, analysis of the effects of sensory, environmental, and social-conspecific enrichment has not resulted in clear conclusions. We also review the literature on the relinquishment of owned dogs and return rates of previously adopted dogs. Whilst owner-and dog-related risks to relinquishment are discussed, we show that there is a notable lack of research into programmes that address issues that may prevent the initial surrender of dogs to shelters, or that could prevent re-relinquishment. It is likely that factors, unrelated to the dog, play a larger role than previously believed. Suggestions for further research include multi-site studies, investigations into the efficacy of in-shelter enrichment programmes, predictive validity of behavioural assessments, understanding of adopter behaviour at the shelter, and programmes within the community focused on keeping dogs in their homes.

- by Alexandra Protopopova
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- Dog Behavior, Adoption, Animal Welfare, Companion Animals

Animals featured in all aspects of ancient Egyptian life and it is clear that
Egyptian society felt compelled to represent them in their art, particularly in the Old Kingdom. The dog was depicted in a range of Old Kingdom tomb scenes in the company of various individuals: under the chair of the tomb owner, in packs instructed by a hunter, near officials overseeing work, with workmen in the fields, amongst the tomb owner's entourage in palanquin scenes and on route to fishing and fowling pursuits, and led by dependents or animal keepers. Despite such diversity in activities and human associations, Egyptologists usually view the dog as simply a 'pet' or 'hunting hound' (Tzm), whose master is the tomb owner. Three enigmatic images of personal physical contact (i.e. intimacy) between ancient Egyptians and their dogs question this assumption.3 Additionally, closer examination of these images focusing separately on the dogs, the humans and their interaction have provided significant insights about human-dog relations during the Old Kingdom, and have hinted at a knowledge of natural dog behaviour that perhaps exceeds that of pet owners today.

The aim of this study was to develop a humane alternative to the traditional remote devices that deliver punishers contingent on home-alone dog barking. Specifically, we evaluated the use of remote delivery of food contingent on intervals of not barking during the pet owner's absence. In Experiment 1, 5 dogs with a history of home-alone nuisance barking were recruited. Using an ABAB reversal design, we demonstrated that contingent remote delivery of food decreased home-alone barking for 3 of the dogs. In Experiment 2, we demonstrated that it is possible to thin the differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior (DRO) schedule gradually, resulting in a potentially more acceptable treatment. Our results benefit the dog training community by providing a humane tool to combat nuisance barking.

- by Alexandra Protopopova
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- Animal Behavior, Dog Behavior, Animal Welfare

There are approximately 3,400 species of snakes known, and the number is increasing as scientists look more carefully at snake diversity. About 20% of these snakes are front-fanged species and about 5% pose a serious threat to the health of a human or pet. Snake envenomation in dogs and humans is a complex medical problem and occurs wherever venomous snakes exist. Snake diversity is highest at tropical and sub-tropical latitudes, but temperate zones also support diverse snake communities. The American south and southwest are rich in snake species and the state of Arizona boasts the greatest number of rattlesnake species.The exact number of humans bitten by venomous snakes each year is unknown. In remote areas of the world, records of snakebites in humans and dogs are unavailable or unreliable. Many people bitten by snakes are in fact bitten by harmless snakes and, of those who are bitten by venomous species, not all receive venom (a dry bite). In cases where envenomation occurs, death is by no means a certainty since, more often than not, a snake delivers a sub-lethal dose of venom. Here we discuss ways in which dog-owners can reduce the probability that their dog will be bitten by a venomous snake.

- by John C. Murphy
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- Dog Behavior, Dog Cognition, Snakebite and envenomation

Following human gaze in dogs and human infants can be considered a socially facilitated orientation
response, which in object choice tasks is modulated by human-given ostensive cues. Despite their
similarities to human infants, and extensive skills in reading human cues in foraging contexts, no evidence
that dogs follow gaze into distant space has been found. We re-examined this question, and
additionally whether dogs' propensity to follow gaze was affected by age and/or training to pay attention
to humans. We tested a cross-sectional sample of 145 border collies aged 6 months to 14 years with
different amounts of training over their lives. The dogs' gaze-following response in test and control
conditions before and after training for initiating eye contact with the experimenter was compared with
that of a second group of 13 border collies trained to touch a ball with their paw. Our results provide the
ﬁrst evidence that dogs can follow human gaze into distant space. Although we found no age effect on
gaze following, the youngest and oldest age groups were more distractible, which resulted in a higher
number of looks in the test and control conditions. Extensive lifelong formal training as well as shortterm
training for eye contact decreased dogs' tendency to follow gaze and increased their duration of
gaze to the face. The reduction in gaze following after training for eye contact cannot be explained by
fatigue or short-term habituation, as in the second group gaze following increased after a different
training of the same length. Training for eye contact created a competing tendency to ﬁxate the face,
which prevented the dogs from following the directional cues. We conclude that following human gaze
into distant space in dogs is modulated by training, which may explain why dogs perform poorly in
comparison to other species in this task.

- by Lisa Wallis and +2
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- Animal Science, Animal Behavior, Dog Behavior, Animal Cognition

Los perros ocupan un lugar especial en el elenco de interacciones que los seres humanos tenemos con otros animales, siendo la primera especie animal en participar en un proceso de domesticación. Esta dimensión particular del perro se manifiesta simbólicamente a través de su presencia en enterramientos desde el Paleolítico Superior. Esta domesticación es, además, la única que parece preceder al desarrollo de las primeras sociedades agrícolas. A través de una relación simbiótica, los humanos accedieron a la capacidad cinegética y de transporte de material en ambientes fríos de los perros a cambio de comida y abrigo. En este artículo,
trataré la evidencia morfométrica, isotópica y genética que nos permite distinguir los orígenes de la domesticación del perro.
Mucho se ha especulado sobre qué acercó a los lobos a los campamentos humanos, hablándose principalmente del hambre y la posibilidad de carroñear los huesos y otros despojos abandonados por los seres humanos. Sin embargo, pocas veces se ha intentado demostrar científicamente esta hipótesis mediante un estudio tafonómico sistemático de conjuntos óseos en yacimientos paleolíticos para determinar la acción oportunista de carnívoros con acceso secundario a los restos de comida de grupos cazadores-recolectores.
En este contexto, el excelente estado de conservación del registro faunístico de Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar (La Encarnación, Murcia), promete arrojar
información fundamental al respecto. Conocer la naturaleza y la profundidad cronológica de este fenómeno comensalista durante el Pleistoceno euroasiático es clave para entender el marco socio-ecológico que pudo favorecer la domesticación del perro.

- by Gonzalo Linares Matás
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- Genetics, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Zooarchaeology

Dogs are said to bark for different reasons in various situations and under diverse conditions. For instance, a dog may bark when she hears a noise outside and the family is home, suggesting that she does it to alert her humans of danger. But she may also bark when she hears a noise while no one’s home. Who is the dog alerting then? Some dogs will also bark at another dog during play. This often seems to be done to get the other dog to play harder or with more intensity. This is clearly much different from a dog who supposedly barks to alert her family of danger. However, in this article I’ll identify 12 different situations where dogs bark, and offer a single underlying cause for all 12.

- by Lee Charles Kelley
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- Dog Behavior

The aim of the present study was to increase adoption rates of dogs housed in shelters. Previous research suggests that the public perceives friendly and sociable dogs as more adoptable. The present study hypothesized that dogs trained to gaze into potential adopters’ eyes would be perceived as more attractive and would therefore have a greater likelihood of being adopted. In addition, we investigated other individual factors that may predict adoption success. For each dog in the study, we tracked outcome (adoption or euthanasia), physical characteristics, and how they were acquired by the shelter. Dogs in a group trained to gaze at people were not significantly more likely to be adopted than untrained dogs in a control group (70.7% in the training group vs. 67.8% in the control group, P > 0.10). However, breed type, mode of intake (how dogs were taken into the shelter), and kennel location were predictive of adoption (P < 0.001, P < 0.05. and P < 0.05 respectively) and size, breed type, and mode of intake were predictive of length of stay (P < 0.05, P = 0.05, and P < 0.01 respectively). In a second experiment, participants unaware of the dogs’ outcomes (adoption or euthanasia) rated photographs of the dogs, according to attractiveness, on a scale ranging from 0 to 1. The average rating of attractiveness for the adopted and euthanized group were significantly different: 0.50 (SD = 0.08) for adopted dogs and 0.46 (SD = 0.09) for the euthanized dogs (P < 0.05). These findings suggest that other factors besides gazing may be more important to adopters when considering adoption of a dog.

- by Alexandra Protopopova
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- Animal Behavior, Dog Behavior, Animal Welfare

Previous research in canids has revealed both group (dog versus wolf) and individual differences in object choice task (OCT) performance. These differences might be explained by variation in the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene, as intranasally administered oxytocin has recently been shown to improve performance on this task by domestic dogs. This study looked at microsatellites at various distances from the OXTR gene to determine whether there was an association between this gene and: i) species (dog/wolf) and ii) good versus bad OCT performers. Ten primer sets were designed to amplify 10 microsatellites that were identified at various distances from the canine OXTR gene. We used 94 (52 males, 42 females) blood samples from shelter dogs, 75 (33 males, 42 females) saliva samples from pet dogs and 12 (6 males, 6 females) captive wolf saliva samples to carry out our analyses. Significant species differences were found in the two markers closest to the OXTR gene, suggesting that this gene may have played an important part in the domestic dogs’ evolution from the wolf. However, no significant, meaningful differences were found in microsatellites between good versus bad OCT performers, which suggests that other factors, such as different training and socialisation experiences, probably impacted task performance.

- by Jean-Loup Rault
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- Animal Behavior, Dog Behavior, Animal Welfare, Animal domestication

The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether dogs that exhibit stereotypy also show higher behavioral persistence in an extinction-learning task. Thirteen pet dogs with stereotypy and 13 breed-matched control dogs were assessed on a resistance to extinction test. Each dog was trained for 40 trials using a food reinforcer to nose-touch the experimenter's hand on a continuous reinforcement schedule. After acquisition, the dogs entered an extinction phase, during which food was no longer delivered. The numbers of nose-touches as well as inter-response times during this phase were recorded. A linear regression found that stereotypy status (t=-2.46, P=.027) and breed type (t=2.44, P=.023) were significant predictors of the number of responses in extinction. Dogs with stereotypy responded more in extinction than control dogs. The mean number of responses was 13.4 (SD=14.7) in the control group and 26.0 (SD=15.3) in the stereotypy group. These results suggest a link between previous laboratory and zoo animal findings on the neurophysiology of stereotypy and the pet dog population. They also have implications for the use of extinction procedures to reduce stereotypic behaviors in pet dogs, as these dogs show enhanced resistance to extinction.

- by Alexandra Protopopova
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- Animal Behavior, Dog Behavior, Animal Welfare, Abnormal Behavior
- by Ildikó Brúder and +2
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- Bioinformatics, Animal Behavior, Principal Component Analysis, Dog Behavior
- by Jorge Echegaray
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- Conservation Biology, Conservation, Dog Behavior, Dogs

Emesis, also known as nausea and vomiting, are common symptoms associated with ingestion of toxicants, drug side effects, advanced terminal diseases such as cancer and postoperative procedures. Emesis is mediated through the coordinated
action of central and peripheral regulatory centres that involve receptors including dopamine Type 2, serotonin, muscarinic cholinergic, histamine, cannabinoids and NK-1 receptors. Many anti-emetic drugs targeting these receptors are currently in
use but they also cause undesirable side effects such as excessive sedation, hypotension,dry mouth, dysphoria, hallucinations and extrapyramidal signs. This review highlights the pharmacological mechanism of emesis and current antiemtic drugs
together with detailed analysis of in vitro and in vivo anti-emetic bioassay models. The pharmacology of crude natural products extracts and purified anti-emeticcompounds (cannabinoids, chalcones, diarylheptanoids, flavonoids, hydroxycinnamic
acids, lignans, phenylpropanoids, polysaccharides, saponins, terpenes and glycosidic derivatives) are also systematically presented with their mechanism of action. The potential of natural products as sources of new clinically proven anti-emetic drugs are discussed.

- by Salman Ahmed
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- Natural Products, Natural Products Chemistry, Africa, Dog Behavior

Hello, Adrienne here! this is free e-book you will learn how to play “The Airplane Game,” which is one of the games from my Brain Training for Dogs online dog training course. It is designed to improve your dog’s ability to pay... more

Hello, Adrienne here! this is free e-book you will learn
how to play “The Airplane Game,” which is one of the
games from my Brain Training for Dogs online dog
training course. It is designed to improve your dog’s
ability to pay attention to you despite distractions. If you
enjoy this game, be sure to check out the full course:

- by PavanKumar Hadli
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- Dog Behavior, Veterinary Sciences

Pets are seen as family members who provide emotional support, companionship, and protection. They satisfy interpersonal needs of inclusion, control, affection, and respect. They provide rewards, which often outweigh the costs of having them as family members. Pet therapy is discussed. The intriguing intent-impact model of nonverbal communication is discussed in terms of pet signals to their family. Even divorced couples have argued over co-custody rights about their pets. Many families feel their unconditional love. Recall the old classic maxim pertaining to dogs, “Peoples' best friend.” Yet, animals as family members can be diverse through various species. If you have a pet as a family member or a companion and do not have an animal phobia, enjoy their stability, sharing of emotions, protection, and entertainment value. Continue to communicate verbally and nonverbally through emotional expressions, gesturing, pointing, and voice tonality. Finally, if you have a pet, will he or she be anxiously waiting for you when you arrive home?

- by James M Honeycutt
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- Animal Science, Animal Behavior, Dog Behavior, Dog Cognition

"Abstract: Over the past decade the Basque philologist Joseba Lakarra has published a series of articles in which he puts forward his reconstruction of an entity he calls Pre-Proto-Basque, whose exact referential time frame is still... more

- by Roslyn Frank
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- Marketing, Discourse Analysis, Ethnohistory, Botany
- by Claudia Fugazza
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- Memory (Cognitive Psychology), Dog Behavior, Memory, Dogs