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Why do dogs play? Function and welfare implications of play in the domestic dog
Abstract
Play is an enigmatic behaviour, the function of which is still debated, despite more than a century of research. We discuss the evolutionary function of play behaviour, focusing on the domestic dog (Canis familiaris), a unique species due to its past domestication and current cohabitation with humans. The ultimate function of play in dogs is explored through four main theories: 1) developing motor skills; 2) training for the unexpected; 3) social cohesion; and 4) play as a by-product of biological processes. The proximate functions of play and the association between play and animal welfare, which is widely believed to be positive, are examined. The majority of evidence supports the developing motor skills and social cohesion functions of play in dogs, with some support for training for the unexpected. Most types of play appear to improve social cohesion between humans and dogs, increasing their familiarity and reducing agonistic interactions. Play in dogs is unlikely to have arisen only as a by-product of other biological processes, but has been shaped directly and indirectly by artificial selection. Multiple factors determine when and why adult dogs play and these differ for solitary, intraspecific and interspecific play. We suggest that play is not a reliable, generalisable, positive welfare indicator, but, rather, a heterogeneous behaviour which serves different functions. This multifaceted view of play implies that early experience, prior life-history and the context of the interaction define the association between play and welfare.
... One striking feature of play behaviour is that although the behaviours involved in play can occur in a 'low-stress' context, they are described as behaviours resembling more complex, fully functional behaviours that might confer a direct inclusive fitness advantage when performed in the appropriate context (Burghardt, 2015). Many play behaviours mimic those involved in domains such as foraging and hunting (Sommerville et al., 2017), which include related behaviours, such as: manipulating prey before killing or consuming it (Dawson et al., 2022;Vanderschuren et al., 2016); aggressive contests (Baxter et al., 2019;Burghardt, 2015;Vanderschuren et al., 2016); apparently aimless running and 'gambolling' behaviours that mimic flight or pursuance (Baxter et al., 2019;Vanderschuren et al. 2016); exploratory behaviours and object manipulations, which mimic behaviours necessary for hunting or foraging, nest construction etc. (O'Hara & Auersperg, 2017). Indeed, after reviewing various rodent models, Vanderschuren et al. (2016: p. 87) state that: 'Thus, social play behaviour in rats clearly combines elements of sexual and aggressive behaviours' . ...
... It is therefore noteworthy that in their article on play in domestic dogs, Sommerville et al. (2017) caution against using play as a welfare indicator in non-human animals owing to a number of confounding variables, such as species variations, individual variability and environmental factors. The observations made by Sommerville et al. (2017) thus suggest that the issues demonstrated in this section are not simply isolated to the welfare study by Baxter et al. (2019). ...
... It is therefore noteworthy that in their article on play in domestic dogs, Sommerville et al. (2017) caution against using play as a welfare indicator in non-human animals owing to a number of confounding variables, such as species variations, individual variability and environmental factors. The observations made by Sommerville et al. (2017) thus suggest that the issues demonstrated in this section are not simply isolated to the welfare study by Baxter et al. (2019). ...
Play is a suite of apparently non‐functional, pleasurable behaviours observed in human and non‐human animals. Although the phenomenon has been studied extensively, no adaptationist behavioural theory of how play evolved can be supported by the available evidence. However, the advancement of the extended evolutionary synthesis and developments in systems biology offer alternative avenues for non‐adaptationist physiological hypotheses. I therefore propose a hypothesis of play, based upon a complex ACh activity that is under agential control of the organism, whereby play initiates ACh‐mediated feedforward and feedback processes which act to: (i) regulate metabolic processes; (ii) form new ACh receptors via ACh mRNA activity; (iii) mediate attention, memory consolidation and learning; and (iv) mediate social behaviours, reproduction and embryonic development. However, play occurs across taxa, but does not occur across all taxonomic groups or within all species of a taxonomic group. Thus, to support the validity of the proposed hypothesis, I further propose potential explanations for this anomaly, which include sampling and observer biases, altricial versus precocial juvenile development, and the influence of habitat niche and environmental conditions on behaviour. The proposed hypothesis thus offers new avenues for study in both the biological and social sciences, in addition to having potential applications in applied sciences, such as animal welfare and biomedical research. Crucially, it is hoped that this hypothesis will promote further study of a valid and behaviourally significant, yet currently enigmatic, biological phenomenon. image
... One striking feature of play behaviour is that although the behaviours involved in play can occur in a 'low-stress' context, they are described as behaviours resembling more complex, fully functional behaviours that might confer a direct inclusive fitness advantage when performed in the appropriate context (Burghardt, 2015). Many play behaviours mimic those involved in domains such as foraging and hunting (Sommerville et al., 2017), which include related behaviours, such as: manipulating prey before killing or consuming it (Dawson et al., 2022;Vanderschuren et al., 2016); aggressive contests (Baxter et al., 2019;Burghardt, 2015;Vanderschuren et al., 2016); apparently aimless running and 'gambolling' behaviours that mimic flight or pursuance (Baxter et al., 2019;Vanderschuren et al. 2016); exploratory behaviours and object manipulations, which mimic behaviours necessary for hunting or foraging, nest construction etc. (O'Hara & Auersperg, 2017). Indeed, after reviewing various rodent models, Vanderschuren et al. (2016: p. 87) state that: 'Thus, social play behaviour in rats clearly combines elements of sexual and aggressive behaviours' . ...
... It is therefore noteworthy that in their article on play in domestic dogs, Sommerville et al. (2017) caution against using play as a welfare indicator in non-human animals owing to a number of confounding variables, such as species variations, individual variability and environmental factors. The observations made by Sommerville et al. (2017) thus suggest that the issues demonstrated in this section are not simply isolated to the welfare study by Baxter et al. (2019). ...
... It is therefore noteworthy that in their article on play in domestic dogs, Sommerville et al. (2017) caution against using play as a welfare indicator in non-human animals owing to a number of confounding variables, such as species variations, individual variability and environmental factors. The observations made by Sommerville et al. (2017) thus suggest that the issues demonstrated in this section are not simply isolated to the welfare study by Baxter et al. (2019). ...
Play is a suite of apparently non-functional, pleasurable behaviours observed in human and non-human animals. Although the phenomenon has been studied extensively, no adaptationist behavioural theory of how play evolved can be supported by the available evidence. However, the advancement of the extended evolutionary synthesis and developments in systems biology offer alternative avenues for non-adaptationist physiological hypotheses. I therefore propose a hypothesis of play, based upon a complex ACh activity that is under agential control of the organism, whereby play initiates ACh-mediated feedforward and feedback processes which act to: (i) regulate metabolic processes; (ii) form new ACh receptors via ACh mRNA activity; (iii) mediate attention, memory consolidation and learning; and (iv) mediate social behaviours, reproduction and embryonic development. However, play occurs across taxa, but does not occur across all taxonomic groups or within all species of a taxonomic group. Thus, to support the validity of the proposed hypothesis, I further propose potential explanations for this anomaly, which include sampling and observer biases, altricial versus precocial juvenile development, and the influence of habitat niche and environmental conditions on behaviour. The proposed hypothesis thus offers new avenues for study in both the biological and social sciences, in addition to having potential applications in applied sciences, such as animal welfare and biomedical research. Crucially, it is hoped that this hypothesis will promote further study of a valid and behaviourally significant, yet currently enigmatic, biological phenomenon.
... Normal development of chewing occurs without the need to play with targeted objects. However, play such as jaw sparring in play-fighting and object play improves adult motor skills (125,126). Animals with less experience playing with chews may develop less nuanced chewing skills, and therefore, be less efficient at acquiring nourishment from them. Dogs are believed to play into adulthood more than most other species (4). ...
... Dogs are believed to play into adulthood more than most other species (4). This highlights the persistent role of object play in adult dogs, varying depending on object type (125). This suggests that the availability of objects that can be mouthed and chewed may influence their usefulness for play. ...
Dogs chew on both nutritive and non-nutritive items as part of their food acquisition, ingestive behaviour, self-care, and social interactions. Various definitions distinguish chewing from related oral activities, such as gnawing, masticating, and biting. Surprisingly, despite chewing being a ubiquitous behaviour in dogs, its relevance to a dog’s comfort, health, and purpose remains unclear. Additionally, the risk of dental fractures or other injuries may lead veterinarians to advise against feeding bones to dogs. This article explores the literature on chewing in dogs through the ethological framework of “Tinbergen’s Four Questions” and the Five Domains framework for animal welfare assessment. Evidence is gathered from wild and domestic canids and from human and animal models where shared physiological or biological processes provide insight. Chewing appears to promote biological fitness, providing benefits such as dental and oral hygiene, digestive health, bone strength, psychological health, and stress management. Furthermore, this article discusses the evolutionary importance of chewing, the mechanisms underlying bite force, chew rate and morphology, and the development of chewing throughout a dog’s life, from primary teeth eruption to senescence. Application of the Five Domains framework for animal welfare helps assess the impact of chewing, or lack thereof, on a dog’s welfare. A dog’s preference for chew items is primarily driven by odour, taste, and mouthfeel. Macronutrient proportions may also play a role in food preferences, which, in turn, can affect the selection of chewable items. A lack of preferred chew items may result in redirected chewing toward less appropriate items, such as non-food chews that could be harmful to dentition or the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Chewing on such inappropriate items may also lead to the adoption of alternative oral behaviours or reduced their contentment by impeding telos. Overall, chewing positively impacts a dog’s physical and psychological health, contributing to its welfare and appearing essential as a regular part of a dog’s daily life. However, the significant benefits of chewing must be carefully weighed against potential risks.
... "Fetching" can be defined as the retrieval of an object, often thrown by a pet owner 23 . Fetching is a very common social bonding and play activity between owners and domestic dogs that is frequently seen in younger dogs 23,24,27,52 . Playing fetch has also been shown to reduce stress and develop motor skills in dogs 52,53 . ...
... Fetching is a very common social bonding and play activity between owners and domestic dogs that is frequently seen in younger dogs 23,24,27,52 . Playing fetch has also been shown to reduce stress and develop motor skills in dogs 52,53 . Dogs have been shown to differentially retrieve objects dependent on the owner's emotional valence towards certain objects 54 . ...
Domesticated animals are famous for the ease with which they can accommodate to diverse human environments and roles, but less well-studied is the ease with which domestic animals can manipulate their human caregivers to their own ends. For example, domestic animals may start and end their play behaviour with humans at times of their choice. Here we present the results of a survey of 924 cat owners who report fetching behaviour in 1154 cats. The overwhelming majority (94.4%) of these owners report that fetching emerged in the absence of explicit training. Fetching was primarily first noticed when the cats were less than one year old (n = 701) or 1–7 years old (n = 415). Cats initiated and terminated fetching bouts more often than did their owners. Thus, cats who fetch demonstrate independent and co-ordinated agency in the onset and maintenance of fetching behaviour with their human partners. Additional findings highlight the diversity of objects fetched and the diversity in household demographics. Our thematic analysis reveals owners’ perspectives on (a) the process of a fetching session, (b) the initial acquisition of fetching, and (c) the circumstantial factors that influence fetching patterns. In summary, cats who fetch largely determine when they engage in fetching sessions and actively influence the play behaviour of their owners.
... Hypotheses explaining the evolution of play can be applied to specific play behaviors in particular species or to play behavior across the animal kingdom (e.g., Spinka et al. 2001), although the diverse nature of play makes it unlikely that a single hypothesis will explain all instances of play behavior (Burghardt 2014). Even within a particular species, more than one hypothesis may be required to explain the full breadth of play behavior; for example, Sommerville et al. (2017) reviewed the literature on play behavior in domesticated dogs and discovered strong support for the predictions of both the motor skills development and social cohesion hypotheses. In considering why adult dogs play, Bradshaw et al. (2015) reached a similar conclusion and suggested that different forms of dog play behavior may actually have independent evolutionary origins. ...
... Dogs also enjoy social object play: "fetch" and "tug-of-war" are commonly played with humans, and dogs show increased interest in objects that other dogs or humans are manipulating (Bradshaw et al. 2015). The dog's enthusiasm for social object play has been exploited by breeders to create "sporting dogs" that will retrieve the quarry of human hunters (Sommerville et al. 2017). ...
... Hypotheses explaining the evolution of play can be applied to specific play behaviors in particular species or to play behavior across the animal kingdom (e.g., Spinka et al. 2001), although the diverse nature of play makes it unlikely that a single hypothesis will explain all instances of play behavior (Burghardt 2014). Even within a particular species, more than one hypothesis may be required to explain the full breadth of play behavior; for example, Sommerville et al. (2017) reviewed the literature on play behavior in domesticated dogs and discovered strong support for the predictions of both the motor skills development and social cohesion hypotheses. In considering why adult dogs play, Bradshaw et al. (2015) reached a similar conclusion and suggested that different forms of dog play behavior may actually have independent evolutionary origins. ...
... Dogs also enjoy social object play: "fetch" and "tug-of-war" are commonly played with humans, and dogs show increased interest in objects that other dogs or humans are manipulating (Bradshaw et al. 2015). The dog's enthusiasm for social object play has been exploited by breeders to create "sporting dogs" that will retrieve the quarry of human hunters (Sommerville et al. 2017). ...
... Social play has an important role in developing social experiences and skills (Bekoff, 1974b(Bekoff, , 1984. The high prevalence of social play in adult dogs indicates its social cohesion and bonding function (Bradshaw et al., 2015;Palagi et al., 2015;Sommerville et al., 2017). In addition, it was found that the affiliative behavior of the human handler during play decreased cortisol levels in working dogs (Horváth et al., 2008). ...
... However, there have been some debates regarding whether play behavior is a reliable indicator of positive welfare since the play occurs under less favorable environmental conditions as well (Held and Špinka, 2011;Sommerville et al., 2017). ...
Although there have been a growing number of studies focusing on dog welfare, the research field concerning dog positive-emotion assessment remains mostly unexplored. This paper aims to provide a state-of-the-art review and summary of the scattered and disperse research on dog positive-emotion assessment. The review notably details the current advancement in dog positive-emotion research, what approaches, measures, methods, and techniques have been implemented so far in emotion perception, processing, and response assessment. Moreover, we propose possible future research directions for short-term emotion as well as longer-term emotional states assessment in dogs. The review ends by identifying and addressing some methodological limitations and by pointing out further methodological research needs.
... The results demonstrated that playful activities with a human researcher post-learning improved training performance, evidenced by the fewer trials needed to relearn the task 24 h later (dog-human play group: mean number of trials 26 ± 6; resting group: mean number of trials 43 ± 19, effect size d = 1.2). Indeed, it has recently been shown that interaction in the form of play can induce a positive affective state in both dogs and humans, with the additional effect of play being considered intrinsically rewarding [11]. ...
... It has been shown that dogs prefer social play with humans over solitary play [22], and that dogs rarely play individually; rather they choose to play with humans [23]. Play is considered to be intrinsically rewarding [11], induces a positive affective state in both parts of the human-animal dyad, and, hence, can strengthen the human-dog relationship [24]. In addition, owners who petted, talked to, and played with their dogs, showed an increase in beta endorphins, prolactin, dopamine, and oxytocin [25], indicating the postulated positive affective state of play. ...
Simple Summary
Situations that are emotional and arousing can have an effect on the memorability of events. The beneficial effect of dog–human play immediately after learning a new task has recently been shown to improve training performance in companion dogs (Labrador Retrievers) when required to solve the same task 24 h later. This follow-on study re-trained the same dogs after a period of one year in the same two-choice discrimination paradigm. Analyzed factors included: the age of the dogs, the effect of the trainer identity, training performance in the previous study, heart rate, and the number of trials and errors to meet the re-training criterion. The results show that all dogs relearned the task; however, dogs from the dog–human play group needed significantly fewer trials and made significantly less errors when compared to the control group. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first evidence that post-training activity may influence memory in dogs up to 1 year after the initial task acquisition. However, when interpreting the overall results, the limitations due to the low sample size must be taken into account.
Abstract
Arousing and emotional situations can improve cognitive performance and the memorability of events. Recently, the enhancement of training performance in Labrador Retriever dogs through 30 min of dog–human play immediately after acquiring a novel task, when compared to a resting period, was demonstrated. This follow-on study used the same pseudo-randomized, counterbalanced, between-subject study design, and 11 Labrador Retrievers were re-trained in the identical two-choice discrimination paradigm after a period of 1 year. The playful activities group needed significantly less trials and made significantly less errors to successfully reach the re-training criterion (Mann–Whitney U test, critical value of U at p < 0.05 is 5, U = 5, Z = 1.73, p = 0.04 and U = 4.5, Z = 1.8, p = 0.03, respectively). Following model simplification of a multiple factor/covariate general linear model analysis, the type of intervention, the number of trials needed to re-learn the task after 24 h, the average heart rate during the intervention a year ago, and age were significantly correlated to the number of trials and errors needed to resolve the task. A significant difference due to intervention allocation (heart rate during the intervention, trials needed to re-learn the task after 24 h) between the groups was confirmed. Age did not significantly differ between the groups; nevertheless, the effects of ageing cannot be fully excluded, given the low sample size. No effects of the trainer and of the cortisol concentrations (of the previous year) were observed. This is the first evidence that post-training activity may influence memory up to 1 year after task acquisition.
... Still, this hypothesis remains unconfirmed and research shows contrasting results. For instance, social play in meerkats does not reduce aggressive interactions (Sharpe and Cherry, 2003) or improve social cohesion (Sharpe, 2005), though, it does improve social cohesion in dogs (Sommerville et al., 2017), and improves future social bonding in juvenile macaques (Macaca fuscata, Shimada and Sueur, 2018). Under the assumption that play has positive effects on social relations, researchers have proposed a connection between the spread of play (i.e. ...
... Additionally, a review on the function of play (in dogs) shows that social play appears in a range of different positive and negative contexts, that play is modulated by different factors such as early-life experience and the context of interaction, and that play may serve different functions such as motor skill development and social cohesion (see Sommerville et al., 2017, for a review of different theories). However, the beneficial outcome of play, such as social cohesion, does not necessarily imply that play itself is positive in the moment it occurs. ...
The aim of this review is to discuss recent arguments and findings in the comparative study of empathy. Based on a multidisciplinary approach including psychology and ethology, we review the non-human animal literature concerning theoretical frameworks, methodology, and research outcomes. One specific objective is to highlight discrepancies between theory and empirical findings, and to discuss ambiguities present in current data and their interpretation. In particular, we focus on emotional contagion and its experimental investigation, and on consolation and targeted helping as measures for sympathy. Additionally, we address the feasibility of comparing across species with behavioural data alone. One main conclusion of our review is that animal research on empathy still faces the challenge of closing the gap between theoretical concepts and empirical evidence. To advance our knowledge, we propose to focus more on the emotional basis of empathy, rather than on possibly ambiguous behavioural indicators, and we provide suggestions to overcome the limitations of previous research.
... In other words, not all distractions are created equal, and those provided by animals can elicit playfulness, as well as, calm and relaxation. Play has been found to activate hormones that can help people cope with stress (Sommerville, O'Connor, and Asher 2017). Individuals who demonstrate playfulness are more likely to view a stressful situation as a minor obstacle or temporary state (Magnuson and Barnett 2013). ...
... Teachers may consider bringing a therapy animal into their classroom not only to reduce stress but also to encourage play. Play requires individuals to respond to novel and unexpected situations, thus, promoting skills in problem-solving and emotional regulation (Eig 2017;Palagi et al. 2016;Sommerville, O'Connor, and Asher 2017). When engaged in play, students' attentional focus can shift from everyday worries and concerns to the activities in which they are currently engaged. ...
Writing skills are essential for students’ academic and career development. Writing helps students to organize their thoughts and ideas. Students benefit not only from learning process-related strategies such as drafting and revising a paper, but also reflective strategies that can have an impact upon writing quality and productivity. In this paper, the author considers reflection as a key component of being a productive writer. With reference to cognitive behavioral coaching (CBC), the author discusses the psychological aspects of writing that help to promote self-knowledge and self-reflection. As well, the author provides reflective strategies for educators to help improve students’ motivation and writing productivity.
... Quanto mais estimulados nessa fase, mais os inesperadas, permitindo o desenvolvimento de capacidades físicas e motoras. Por sua vez, a brincadeira social, que ocorre entre dois ou mais indivíduos, também melhora a habilidade motora, com um impacto na coesão social e aumento nas interações com coespecíficos (Sommerville et al., 2017). ...
... Há situações, no entanto, em que o uso das brincadeiras como indicador de bem-estar positivo deve ser visto com cautela, pois pode estar associado a potenciais riscos ao bem-estar. Em espécies sociais como os cães, por exemplo, a brincadeira individual frequente pode indicar uma tentativa de se adaptar a um ambiente muito pobre em estímulos ou, mesmo, ao baixo grau de socialibilidade (evitação social) (Sommerville et al., 2017). Por sua vez, a brincadeira social pode levar a condutas agressivas, culminando em injúrias e estresse social em certas situações, em especial quando essa estimula comportamentos competitivos entre os animais. ...
A crescente valorização do bem-estar dos animais pela sociedade contemporânea produz implicações nos mais diversos âmbitos onde estes estejam de alguma maneira envolvidos, gerando reflexos econômicos, culturais, legais e científicos. Na presente revisão faremos um breve histórico da abordagem científica do bem-estar animal, destacando os principais referenciais teóricos que embasaram esta ciência ao longo das últimas décadas. Em seguida, trataremos da estreita associação entre a etologia aplicada e o bem-estar animal, por meio da apresentação dos principais indicadores comportamentais de bem-estar. O estudo do comportamento animal tem sido uma ferramenta útil e vastamente utilizada para a avaliação do bem-estar, com um importante aperfeiçoamento metodológico e evolução dos métodos empregados ao longo do tempo. Inicialmente, a avaliação do bem-estar tinha como principal foco quantificar o atendimento de necessidades básicas relacionadas, principalmente, a disponibilidade de recursos e componentes físicos do ambiente (e.g. alimento, água, espaço, conforto térmico, coespecíficos familiares). Com a maior valorização das motivações dos animais para acessar tais elementos essenciais, passou-se a buscar parâmetros que evidenciassem o sofrimento quando do não atendimento de suas necessidades comportamentais. Os estados mentais e emoções tornam-se, a partir de então, uma parte fundamental da avaliação do bem-estar animal. Mais recentemente a relação entre cognição e emoções vem sendo explorada a fim de permitir que estados mentais sejam objetivamente acessados. Vários desafios estão associados ao desenvolvimento de indicadores de bem-estar positivo, já que a qualidade de vida dos animais não é mais caracterizada pela evitação de experiências negativas, mas também pela oportunidade de vivenciar experiências positivas.
... Since the functions and effects of play are likely to vary with species, the sub-type of play, age, and other factors (Ahloy Dallaire and Mason, 2016;Burghardt, 2005;Pellis, 1991;Sommerville et al., 2017), it is thus also likely that the welfare significance of play will vary from one case to another as well: something also demonstrated by the literature on play in humans (Section 2). This has not been studied in depth in animals: as Table 3 shows, most studies either investigate one single sub-type of play or pool the different sub-types in their analyses. ...
... For example, a look at Table 2 shows that a disproportionate number of the studies showing the unexpected association between increased play and worse welfare (cf. Line 3) focus on adult animals, and correspondingly, papers expressing skepticism about play as a welfare indicator often focus on adults too (Blois-Heulin et al., 2015;Hausberger et al., 2012;Sommerville et al., 2017;Yamanashi et al., in press). Furthermore, where play has consistently been found to be associated with poor welfare in young animals, such as for object play in prematurely-weaned kittens, this points toward the perfect model systems in which to test corresponding hypotheses about the functions and developmental effects of play (e.g. ...
Play is commonly used to assess affective states in both humans and non-human animals. Play appears to be most common when animals are well-fed and not under any direct threats to fitness. Could play and playfulness therefore indicate pre-existing positive emotions, and thence optimal animal welfare? We examine this question by surveying the internal and external conditions that promote or suppress play in a variety of species, starting with humans. We find that negative affective states and poor welfare usually do suppress play (although there are notable exceptions where the opposite occurs). Furthermore, research in children suggests that beyond the frequency or total duration of play, poor welfare may additionally be reflected in qualitative aspects of this heterogeneous behaviour (e.g. display of solitary over social play; and 'fragmentation' of play bouts) that are too often overlooked in animals. There are surprisingly few studies of play in subjects with pre-existing optimal welfare or in unambiguously highly positive affective states, making it currently impossible to determine whether play can distinguish optimal or good welfare from merely neutral welfare. This therefore represents an important and exciting area for future research.
... Many shelters in the United States implement individual housing paired with structured group play sessions. This approach has demonstrated several positive outcomes, including reductions in abnormal behaviours and agonistic interactions and increased adoption rates [115][116][117]. These findings highlight the importance of enrichment and appropriate social opportunities in improving the welfare of shelter dogs. ...
The welfare of shelter dogs is a growing concern, particularly in regions like Taiwan, where public animal shelters (PASs) often face overcrowding. This study aimed to identify and prioritise welfare conditions (WCs) affecting shelter dogs in Taiwan’s PASs, offering insights into their impacts on population and individual welfare. A modified Delphi approach engaged 14 experts to evaluate the prevalence, severity, and duration of 59 potential WCs using the Five Domains model. The welfare impact of each WC on individual dogs was assessed as the product of severity and duration, with WCs scoring a median of 3 or higher considered critical. Of the 59 identified WCs, 49 were deemed critical. The most prevalent WCs were “limited access to toys” (median = 4.00), “insufficient foraging opportunities” (median = 4.00), and “intermittent, excessive barking noise” (median = 4.00). The most impactful WCs for individual dogs were “depressive disorders” (median of the product of duration and severity scores = 16.00), “fear-related or anxiety disorders” (median = 15.00), and “limited space” (median = 15.00). The Physical Environment Domain and the Behavioural Interactions Domain were highlighted as having the most significant and prolonged negative effects on welfare. This study provides a comprehensive WC list for shelter dogs, guiding future welfare improvements and resource allocation strategies.
... The beneficial effect of play on cognitive development has been investigated thoroughly in the past [66][67][68][69][70], and it seems to be a promising tool for treating dementia [71][72][73]. It is plausible that play also has similar functions in dogs [74]. ...
Efforts to counteract age-related decline have resulted in the emergence of various interventions. However, everyday benefits are rarely reported in elderly people. Dogs provide an excellent model for studying aging and interventions due to their similarities to humans. Our aim was to investigate whether a combined physical and cognitive intervention (most effective in humans) could enhance the performance of pet dogs and lead to far transfer effects (improvement in not just the trained specific task). We examined the impact of three-month-long intervention therapies (cognitive, physical, combined) on the cognitive performance and behaviour of old, healthy dogs (N = 72; aged 7.68–14.54 years) using a 12-subtest behavioural test battery. We did not find the combined intervention group outperforming either the cognitive-only or physical-only therapy groups. Physical interventions, either alone or in combination, improved dogs' behavioural flexibility and social behaviour. Cognitive interventions, either alone or in combination, increased neophilia. Furthermore, all intervention therapies made dogs more engaged with their environment. Moreover, less old, around eight years old dogs, exhibited improved social behaviour, problem solving ability, and increased neophilia by their second test occasion. Additionally, dogs' performance was influenced by their health, training, daily play with the owner, and activity/excitability traits. In sum, both cognitive and physical intervention therapies can have an impact on the behaviour of old, healthy pet dogs. However, these therapies may be more effective when longer or applied at a younger age, as the healthy older dogs were less likely to show improvement.
... As mentioned above, play is one of the activities in which we might glimpse moral behavior in animals. However, it has also been suggested that play is conducted as a function of developing motor skills, social cohesion, and is predominately correlated with positive welfare [34]. Lastly, animal companion caregivers should be mindful of how long they leave their animal companions alone and what the environment is like when animal companions are left alone. ...
What is the basis of our obligations to our animal companions? This is an important question for practical reasons, as the relationship that many individuals have with their animal companion is amongst the most intimate of relationships they share with a non-human animal. It is also important for theoretical reasons. One of those reasons is that our commitments to animal companions may appear to present a kind of puzzle. If we think that we have moral commitments to animal companions that we do not have to other animals, such as livestock or free-roaming animals, what could explain this? I argue that the explanation for this difference in moral commitments is the result of the special relationship we have with our animal companions. More specifically, the basis of our moral commitments to animal companions are like those incurred by parents. Further, it is argued that causing the existence of or voluntarily taking on commitments of care for especially vulnerable and dependent sentient organisms implies robust responsibilities aimed at nurturing and promoting individual flourishing. This conclusion has implications regarding several related moral issues, such as whether animal companions require a moral education, what end-of-life commitments animal companion caregivers have, and whether it is justified to feed our animal companions other animals or let them engage in predation. Further, these issues are of practical interest to animal companion caregivers, law makers, and veterinarians, as well as being of theoretical interest to legal scholars and ethicists.
... Ensuring that interactions with people, such as grooming and play sessions, are positive for greyhounds builds trust and promotes healthy attachment between the dogs and their caregivers (110,111). For example, interactive play sessions between people and greyhounds can be undertaken using toys, agility equipment, or flirt poles. ...
Animal welfare denotes how an animal experiences their life. It represents the overall mental experiences of an animal and is a subjective concept that cannot be directly measured. Instead, welfare indicators are used to cautiously infer mental experiences from resource provisions, management factors, and animal-based measures. The Five Domains Model is a holistic and structured framework for collating these indicators and assessing animal welfare. Contemporary approaches to animal welfare management consider how animals can be given opportunities to have positive experiences. However, the uncertainty surrounding positive mental experiences that can be inferred has resulted in risk-averse animal welfare scientists returning to the relative safety of positivism. This has meant that aspects of positive welfare are often referred to as animal ‘wants’. Agency is a concept that straddles the positivist-affective divide and represents a way forward for discussions about positive welfare. Agency is the capacity of individual animals to engage in voluntary, self-generated, and goal-directed behavior that they are motivated to perform. Discrete positive emotions are cautiously inferred from these agentic experiences based on available knowledge about the animal’s motivation for engaging in the behavior. Competence-building agency can be used to evaluate the potential for positive welfare and is represented by the Behavioral Interactions domain of the Five Domains Model. In 2020, The Model was updated to, amongst other things, include consideration of human-animal interactions. The most important aspect of this update was the renaming of Domain 4 from “Behavior” to “Behavioral Interactions” and the additional detail added to allow this domain’s purpose to be clearly understood to represent an animal’s opportunities to exercise agency. We illustrate how the Behavioral Interactions domain of The Model can be used to assess animals’ competence-building agency and positive welfare. In this article, we use the examples of sugar gliders housed in captivity and greyhounds that race to illustrate how the agentic qualities of choice, control, and challenge can be used to assess opportunities for animals to exercise agency and experience positive affective engagement.
... In this scenario, the response "coming when called" could be considered a behavioral cusp [129], as it is a requisite skill for being safely off leash, affording access to new environments, new opportunities to engage in species-typical behaviors associated with "feeling good" [130], and contact with new reinforcers, including but not limited to access to variable scents. Additional examples of enrichment include food puzzles from which animals must manipulate an object to obtain food [131], chews and toys meant for gnawing and dissecting [132], sniffing, which induces positive judgment bias [133][134][135], and play with humans or conspecifics [136]. Enrichment was shown to positively impact behavior welfare indicators by increasing behavior variability and exploration and decreasing stress-related behaviors. ...
Simple Summary
Pet dogs are more prone to exhibit challenging behaviors than ever before. Dog trainers are increasingly tasked with helping pet owners resolve behavior issues, not just teach their charges good manners. The interventions used by professionals to help ameliorate behavior complaints must be evidence-based and include the effectiveness of the intervention, how the intervention is perceived by the learner, and how the intervention affects the learner’s quality of life before, during, and after behavior intervention procedures. The objective of this paper is to review literature from multiple scientific disciplines and demonstrate how concepts from applied behavior analysis and the animal welfare sciences can be used together to ensure that the animal undergoing intervention experiences good welfare during the training process.
Abstract
Social validity refers to the social significance and acceptability of intervention goals, procedures, and outcomes. Animal practitioners, who are often guided by the principles of ABA, lack the benefit of verbal participants (at least with respect to target animals) with which to assess a client’s needs and preferences. The study of a learner’s welfare is useful for determining areas where intervention is needed or how the learner feels about an intervention that is underway. Three tenets of animal welfare measurement include physiological function, naturalistic behavior, and affect, where affect refers to private events, including emotions, which are a function of the same variables and contingencies responsible for controlling public behavior. The development of new technologies allows us to look “under the skin” and account for subjective experiences that can now be observed objectively. We introduce the reader to tools available from the animal welfare sciences for the objective measurement of social validity from the learner’s perspective.
... Along with other functions, games allow animals to develop flexible kinetic and emotionnal reactions to unexpected actions, during which they feel sudden loss of the control (Špinka et al., 2001). Games usually facilitate search-exploring behaviour, contribute to obtaining positive experience or affiliated behaviour in the group (Young & Moskowitz, 2005;Sommerville et al., 2017). ...
Improvement of welfare of piglets is one of the key factors which underlie the effectiveness of producing pork and the profit-
ability of pig farming. This article offers a solution to the main industrial problem – creation of comfortable maintenance condi-
tions for pigs using toys which satisfy their ethological needs. Piglets used in the experiment were kept in the swine complex of
agricultural production of Agrofirm Mig-Service-Agro Cooperative in Novoodesky district of Mykolaiv Oblast (Ukraine).
The objective of the study was assessment of the effect of toys on the behaviour of piglets, level of concentration of hormone
serotonin in blood plasma and their energy of growth. The experiment was performed on 120 weaned piglets aged 28 days, which
were divided according to the principle of analogues with 60 individuals in each group: I – the control group, the animals were
kept with no toys; II – the experimental group, where the animals had toys. During the experiment chronometric monitoring of the
piglets’ behavioural acts was carried out using video observation, we extracted blood samples for determination of the content of
the hormone serotonin using the method of highly-efficient fluid chromatography and assessed the growth of the piglets. After the
end of the experiment, we determined that the presence of toys reduced the intragroup aggression, which was accompanied by
decrease in the duration of fights and almost three-fold increase in playing behaviour. Among piglets which had access to toys, the
number of individuals observed to bite tails and ears decreased from 11 to 3. In the period of the study, the concentration of sero-
tonin in the blood plasma of piglets who had free access to toys was 10 times higher compared with animals of the control group.
Change in the behaviour patterns among the animals of the experimental group led to significant differences regarding the para-
meters of growth, where probable increase in the live weight at the age of 90 days was observed, which was associated with sig-
nificant increase in their mean daily weight gain compared with the animals of the control group. This study confirms that use of
toys for piglets during growth completion can prevent features of aggression and abnormal forms of stereopathy within groups,
increase the live weight and mean daily weight gain and improve emotional condition, which affects the welfare of pigs.
... Play is frequently observed under low-threat conditions, across a variety of different species (57,58). Despite potential fitness costs, conducting play behavior may indicate that the animal feels comfortable or relaxed within its environment. ...
To date, investigations of the welfare of therapy dogs have focused largely on examining physiological and behavioral measures that could indicate if the animal is experiencing stress or distress. However, this approach does not fully address the definition of welfare which is often described as existing on a continuum from negative (or stressful) to positive. With therapy dogs, it would be worth addressing if they experience positive emotional affect while working since the quality and efficacy of animal-assisted interventions for the human recipient is likely to be influenced by the animal's emotional state during the interaction. The purpose of this review is to articulate how objective measurements of the HPA axis and measurements of behavioral observations and standardized questions can be used to evaluate positive welfare in therapy dogs. A potentially relevant indicator of positive welfare is the peripheral concentration of the neurohormone oxytocin, which has been found to increase in systemic circulation within a variety of species during positive social and affiliative contexts, including during human-dog interaction. Oxytocin is also a negative-feedback regulator of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis, which culminates with the production of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol is widely used as a physiological indicator to assess negative welfare states in animals, including therapy dogs. Observable behavior during interactions with humans that may convey enjoyment could provide indicators of positive welfare in dogs such as engagement in play, or human-directed affiliative behaviors including leaning against, nudging, or licking the patient. However, in assessing positive welfare, it is also critical to consider that all animal behavioral displays and physiological responses are dependent on the dog's individual (and breed) temperament. Temperament directly drives how the animal copes and responds to its current physical and social environment, including during stressful situations such as when therapy dogs interact with unfamiliar humans in novel healthcare settings. Coupled with both positive and negative physiological and behavioral welfare indicators, questionnaire data can provide further context to, and enhance interpretations of, therapy dog welfare assessment results. Overall, to date, no studies have measured all of these factors to assess therapy dog welfare.
... Non-human animals engage in play(ful) behavior [110][111][112][113][114][115], but only humans play rule-based games [112]. Rule-based games are more than just child's play. ...
While most animals play, only humans play games. As animal play serves to teach offspring important life-skills in a safe scenario, human games might, in similar ways, teach important culturally relevant skills. Humans in all cultures play games; however, it is not clear whether variation in the characteristics of games across cultural groups is related to group-level attributes. Here we investigate specifically whether the cooperativeness of games covaries with socio-ecological differences across cultural groups. We hypothesize that cultural groups that engage in frequent inter-group conflict, cooperative sustenance acquisition, or that have less stratified social structures, might more frequently play cooperative games as compared to groups that do not share these characteristics. To test these hypotheses, we gathered data from the ethnographic record on 25 ethnolinguistic groups in the Austronesian language family. We show that cultural groups with higher levels of inter-group conflict and cooperative land-based hunting play cooperative games more frequently than other groups. Additionally, cultural groups with higher levels of intra-group conflict play competitive games more frequently than other groups. These findings indicate that games are not randomly distributed among cultures, but rather relate to the socio-ecological settings of the cultural groups that practice them. We argue that games serve as training grounds for group-specific norms and values and thereby have an important function in enculturation during childhood. Moreover, games might server an important role in the maintenance of cultural diversity.
... Dogs that do not get enough play opportunities when they are young may show inappropriate behavior in adult play with other dogs or humans. If it is misinterpreted by the owner as actual aggression and the dog is given fewer play opportunities as a result, this may lead to reduced welfare [59]. Furthermore, a UK study by Christley and colleagues in 2021 [40] reported that during the lockdown their dogs received more frequent playing sessions and received more toys. ...
Simple Summary
The SARS-CoV2 pandemic forced an abrupt interruption of social contacts and interpersonal affective relationships all over the world, according to national directives. The SARS-CoV2 pandemic imposed an abrupt termination of social contacts and interpersonal affective relationships around the world for a period whose duration depended on national directives This situation caused considerable inconvenience with important repercussions also on the emotional state of people. The dog-human coevolutionary process has led to the development of common cognitive abilities and a marked sociability. In this study, performed through a national survey, we investigated the influence of the first lockdown in the human-dog relationship and to what extent the owners were able to perceive the discomfort of their dog. How much could the lockdown affect our dogs’ emotional states? How do owners rate their dogs’ quality of life during restrictions? How much did the affectivity and the perception of one’s dog as demanding or expensive before and during the lockdown vary in the human-dog relationship? These and other questions were proposed in the survey. The survey analysis highlighted a stability in the interaction and a decrease in the dogs’ costs perceived by the owners, considering the human-dog relationship. Furthermore, the evaluation of symptoms revealed a moderate percentage increase in anxious behavior in the dog, probably due to the change of routine. Overall, the human sample did not seem particularly worried about any discomfort experienced by their dog during quarantine.
Abstract
The SARS-CoV2 pandemic forced an abrupt interruption of social contacts and interpersonal affective relationships all over the world, according to national directives. Many considerable inconveniences occurred with important repercussions also on the emotional state of people and their pets. We carried out a national survey to evaluate the human-dog relationship in a social isolation context using an adapted version of Monash Dog Owner Relationship Scale, the perception of the dogs’ discomfort by their human owners, and the resilience of the dog through the quantification of symptoms, in time of the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results highlighted that the human-dog interaction was similar during quarantine; however, there was lower owner’s perception of a dog’s cost during the quarantine than before it.
... While housing dogs in kennels can create physical distance between them and their dyadic partner, a contributor to dysfunction (Chung, Park, Kwon, & Yeon, 2016;Kobelt et al., 2003), it often indicates that a great deal of time, energy, and money was spent on dog care-factors associated with strong human-dog bonds (Diverio, Boccini, Menchetti, & Bennett, 2016;Dotson & Hyatt, 2008). These owners may strengthen the bond with their dog in other ways, such as spending more time with them (Rooney & Bradshaw, 2003;Sommerville, O'Connor, & Asher, 2017;Tami et al., 2008). ...
Human–dog dyads represent a mutually beneficial partner- ship with a 16,000-year-old history. However, when this relationship becomes dysfunctional the consequences for the human, dog, and society at large can be severe. Canine members of dysfunctional dyads often display problem behaviors, such as aggression, and are frequently allowed to roam, becoming a public health concern. The cause of this dysfunction is multifactorial and includes human and canine personality factors as well as husbandry choices. By using our knowledge of these factors, there is a possibility of early identification of such pairings so that they can be corrected or even prevented. This study evaluated the factors that can contribute to the existence of dysfunctional human–dog dyads. Dog owners were asked to fill out questionnaires regarding their dog (general characteristics and the Canine Behavioral Assessment & Research Questionnaire) and themselves (general characteristics, education, family make-up, husbandry choices, and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised). A total of 255 responses were obtained and differences between the two dyad types were found in hus- bandry choices and in both human and dog personalities. Using these factors, logistic regression was performed, and two models were obtained that could allow for the early identification of dysfunctional dyads. These models could be used to develop targeted educational programs, to better match dogs to new owners within the context of shelter medicine and help better tailor patient care in a clinical context.
... Furthermore, Somerville et al. [27] point out that domestic dogs playing with humans are likely to have been shaped by artificial selection in order to promote this trait, and that play is not a reliable positive welfare indicator but depends on the context. We have characterised play as being voluntary, but the human-dog dynamic suggests that usually the human is in control of when and how play occurs. ...
This one-day workshop examines how we might use technologies to support design for playful interspecies communication and considers some of the potential implications. Here we explore aspects of playful technology and reflect on what opportunities computers can provide for facilitating communication between species. The workshop's focal activity will be the co-creation of some theoretical systems designed for specific multi-species scenarios. Through our activities, we aim to pave the way for designing technology that promotes interspecies communication, drawing input not only from ACI practitioners but also from those of the broader HCI and animal science community, who may be stakeholders in facilitating, expanding, and/or redefining playful technology.
... A repertoire of social play in dogs expanded during domestication from unique dog-dog play into dog-human play, and studies show that social play in dogs is a marker of healthy development with a positive effect on social bonds [10,11]. However, we must remember that dog-dog play and dog-human play appear to be motivationally distinct [12] so we focused our study on the intraspecies social play. ...
Simple Summary
Social interactions within canine groups have been studied for decades. In relation to egalitarianism in social play (the “rule of 50:50”), most discussed attributes were body size or age of the play participants. We observed the social play of 14 German Shepherd puppies (two litters) at the age of 7 weeks, and once again at the age of 9 weeks (in total we observed 43 play pairs, also known as dyads). These litters were observed separately (litter 1: n = 28, litter 2: n = 15), and we evaluated 2542 interactions of social play in total. This total number included all interactions observed between the 43 dyads—1287 interactions at the age of 7 weeks old and 1255 interactions at 9 weeks old were recorded. The aim of our study was to evaluate symmetry within play interactions of puppies. Symmetry within the play has been confirmed for litter 1 at the age of 7 and 9 weeks and for litter 2 at the age of 7 weeks, but the final interpretation of our results is limited due to the small sample size and it is impossible to generalize our results for domestic dogs or a specific breed. For further studies, we would suggest an evaluation of breed differences (and including more individuals of each breed), ecological backgrounds and environmental factors regarding the development of egalitarian (or some other) play style.
Abstract
The symmetry of social play in Canids has been previously studied, especially in wolves, free-ranging dogs, and within mixed-aged groups, however our study focused on symmetry and asymmetry within play interactions in two litters (14 puppies) of German Shepherd dogs (GSDs). At the age of 7 weeks, we evaluated 1287 dyadic interactions (litter 1: n = 339 interactions, litter 2: n = 948 interactions), and at the age of 9 weeks we evaluated 1255 dyadic interactions (litter 1: n = 433 interactions, litter 2: n = 822 interactions). Dyadic interactions were observed and the winning indexes were calculated for 43 pairs (dyads). The groups of puppies studied were all the same age, therefore we focused on the aspects of sex and body size as primary variables. The weight and chest circumference of all puppies were measured. The distribution of interactions showed a slight inclination to mixed-sex dyads, but we did not obtain any statistically significant results concerning the impact of body size on play interactions. Symmetry in play was observed within litter 1 at the age of 7 weeks and at the age of 9 weeks, and within litter 2 at the age of 7 weeks. Since the number of puppies in this study was too small, these results should be interpreted regarding this limitation, and cannot be generalized to a larger population of domestic dogs nor the GSD breed. In further studies, it would be interesting to compare larger samples of different breeds, under different breeding conditions, and the effect of the environment on the style of social play.
... Along with other functions, games allow animals to develop flexible kinetic and emotionnal reactions to unexpected actions, during which they feel sudden loss of the control (Špinka et al., 2001). Games usually facilitate search-exploring behaviour, contribute to obtaining positive experience or affiliated behaviour in the group (Young & Moskowitz, 2005;Sommerville et al., 2017). ...
Improvement of welfare of piglets is one of the key factors which underlie the effectiveness of producing pork and the profitability of pig farming. This article offers a solution to the main industrial problem – creation of comfortable maintenance conditions for pigs using toys which satisfy their ethological needs. Piglets used in the experiment were kept in the swine complex of agricultural production of Agrofirm Mig-Service-Agro Cooperative in Novoodesky district of Mykolaiv Oblast (Ukraine). The objective of the study was assessment of the effect of toys on the behaviour of piglets, level of concentration of hormone serotonin in blood plasma and their energy of growth. The experiment was performed on 120 weaned piglets aged 28 days, which were divided according to the principle of analogues with 60 individuals in each group: I – the control group, the animals were kept with no toys; II – the experimental group, where the animals had toys. During the experiment chronometric monitoring of the piglets’ behavioural acts was carried out using video observation, we extracted blood samples for determination of the content of the hormone serotonin using the method of highly-efficient fluid chromatography and assessed the growth of the piglets. After the end of the experiment, we determined that the presence of toys reduced the intragroup aggression, which was accompanied by decrease in the duration of fights and almost three-fold increase in playing behaviour. Among piglets which had access to toys, the number of individuals observed to bite tails and ears decreased from 11 to 3. In the period of the study, the concentration of serotonin in the blood plasma of piglets who had free access to toys was 10 times higher compared with animals of the control group. Change in the behaviour patterns among the animals of the experimental group led to significant differences regarding the parameters of growth, where probable increase in the live weight at the age of 90 days was observed, which was associated with significant increase in their mean daily weight gain compared with the animals of the control group. This study confirms that use of toys for piglets during growth completion can prevent features of aggression and abnormal forms of stereopathy within groups, increase the live weight and mean daily weight gain and improve emotional condition, which affects the welfare of pigs.
... Nevertheless, while laughter within the play context is typically associated with corresponding positive affect, it may not always be the case. As shown in a recent review of play in dogs (Sommerville et al., 2017), play may serve an array of different functions unrelated to affiliation, including motor development and social cohesion, and can also occur in a range of positive as well as negative contexts, such as in periods of social tension, such as waiting for food and periods of social crowding (Yamanashi et al., 2018;Palagi et al., 2006). As discussed by Adriaense et al. (this issue) a recent review revealed also that a systematic investigation documenting the relationship between positive affect and play remains outstanding (Ahloy-Dallaire et al., 2018). ...
Humans and great apes are highly social species, and encounter conspecifics throughout their daily lives. During social interactions, they exchange information about their emotional states via expressions through different modalities including the face, body and voice. In this regard, their capacity to express emotions, intentionally or unintentionally, is crucial for them to successfully navigate their social worlds and to bond with group members. Darwin (1872) stressed similarities in how humans and other animals express their emotions, particularly with the great apes. Here, we show that emotional expressions have many conserved, yet also a number of divergent features. Some theorists consider emotional expressions as direct expressions of internal states, implying that they are involuntary, cannot be controlled and are inherently honest. Others see them as more intentional and/ or as indicators of the actor's future behavior. After reviewing the human and ape literature, we establish an integrative, evolutionary perspective and provide evidence showing that these different viewpoints are not mutually exclusive. Recent insights indicate that, in both apes and humans, some emotional expressions can be controlled or regulated voluntarily, including in the presence of audiences, suggesting modulation by cognitive processes. However, even non-intentional expressions such as pupil dilation can nevertheless inform others and influence future behavior. In sum, while showing deep evolutionary homologies across closely related species, emotional expressions show relevant species variation.
... Propensity for play in dogs is known to vary with breed (Svartberg, 2006;Asp et al., 2015) and temperament (Starling et al., 2013). Play in dogs is generally thought to increase social cohesion but it is also heterogeneous -i.e., forms include solitary, intraspecific, and interspecific -and types of play are mediated by different factors (reviewed by Sommerville et al., 2017). For example, intraspecific play may be more competitive than interspecific play (Bradshaw et al., 2015). ...
This second edition of Mental Health and Well-Being in Animals is fully revised, expanded, and comprehensively updated with the most current knowledge about the full array of mental health issues seen in animals. Written by key opinion leaders, internationally-recognized experts and specialists, it is comprehensive covering basic principles to mental wellness, emotional distress, suffering and mental illness, through to measurement and treatment. With even more practical information and clinical pearls, this book remains invaluable to veterinary professionals, animal welfare researchers and advocates, and other animal caregivers. This edition has 388 pages with 25 chapters divided into five parts: foundational issues of animal mental health and well-being (Part I, covers chapters 1-4); the pleasant experiences: mental wellness (Part II, chapters 5-10); the unpleasant experiences: distress, suffering, and mental illness (Part III, chapters 11-14); mental health issues in special populations (Part IV, covers chapters 15-22); assessment and management of emotional distress and disorders (5th part, chapters 23, 24, and 25).
... The main aim of this study was therefore to explore how these two microevolutionary forces, common ancestry and gene flow, have played a role in mediating population divergence within a single species in a behavioural phenotype in a comparative study of dogs. We investigated human-directed play behaviour as a focal phenotype, because it is heritable (Arvelius, Eken Asp, Fikse, Strandberg, & Nilsson, 2014;Arvelius, Strandberg, & Fikse, 2014) and can be well discriminated among breeds (Asp, Fikse, Nilsson, & Strandberg, 2015;Lobell & Powell, 2010;Sommerville, O'Connor, & Asher, 2017;Svartberg, 2005;Wheat, Fitzpatrick, Tapper, & Temrin, 2018), suggesting that the trait can be subject to selection. Play behaviour is a very important trait that strengthens the social relationship between humans and dogs (Rooney, Bradshaw, & Robinson, 2000); thus, one can hypothesize that this trait is considered in breeding programmes and the design of crosses among breeds, which should then affect genetic relations and gene flow among breeds. ...
Among‐population variance of phenotypic traits is of high relevance for understanding evolutionary mechanisms that operate in relatively short timescales, but various sources of non‐independence, such as common ancestry and gene flow can hamper the interpretations. In this comparative analysis of 138 dog breeds, we demonstrate how such confounders can independently shape the evolution of a behavioral trait (human‐directed play behavior from the Dog Mentality Assessment project). We combined information on genetic relatedness and haplotype sharing to reflect common ancestry and gene flow, respectively, and entered these into a phylogenetic mixed model to partition the among‐breed variance of human‐directed play behavior while also accounting for within‐breed variance. We found that 75% of the among‐breed variance was explained by overall genetic relatedness among breeds, while 15% could be attributed to haplotype sharing that arises from gene flow. Therefore, most of the differences in human‐directed play behavior among breeds have likely been caused by constraints of common ancestry as a likely consequence of past selection regimes. On the other hand, gene flow caused by crosses among breeds has played a minor, but not negligible role. Our study serves as an example of an analytical approach that can be applied to comparative situations where the effects of shared origin and gene flow require quantification and appropriate statistical control in a within‐species/among‐population framework. Altogether, our results suggest that the evolutionary history of dog breeds have left remarkable signatures on the among‐breed variation of a behavioral phenotype.
... The initial 10 min involved reintroducing the dog to each patient, the next 20 min involved structured activity with the dog, a 20-min interview of each patient, and the last 10 min involved the same ending activities each time (Table 1). For the entire duration of the intervention, the dog remained an active part of the study, whether it was actively acting with the play [39,40], or at rest conditions on the dog mat. Its presence in the setting allowed the creation of a relational thrust between operator and patient and facilitated the establishment of a relationship of trust. ...
Simple Summary
This study aimed to improve the moment of dialysis because the emotional management of a person during treatment can help to reduce stress, anxiety and depression. This process positively affects the acceptance and progress of treatment and improves the self-management of the disease, a very important achievement in chronic kidney disease. Serotonin and oxytocin are important neuromodulators of different human behaviours, such as affectivity and socialization, and are involved in the control of stress, anxiety and social cooperation. The relationship between humans and domestic animals provides psychophysical well-being and can facilitate interpersonal bonds by favouring mechanisms involved in social relations. Dogs due to their ethological characteristics, allow the establishment of an active relationship through play, communication and interaction. Animal-assisted activities (AAAs) are structured interventions aimed at improving the psychophysical conditions of people in stressful conditions. Our study was aimed at determining the circulating levels of serotonin and oxytocin in patients who participated in an AAAs program with a dog during dialysis treatment.
Abstract
Our study aimed to measure the levels of serotonin and oxytocin in patients affected by end-stage renal disease (ESRD), undergoing dialysis and participating in a program of animal-assisted activities (AAAs) with a dog. Ten patients with comparable levels of ESRD were enrolled. A blood sample was taken before the start of the study in order to establish basal levels. Eleven meetings were held once a week for 3 months during the last hour of dialysis, and blood samples were collected before and after AAAs. Two more meetings, one month apart from each other, were held two months later without the dog but with the same veterinarian zootherapist. Blood was drawn at the beginning and at the end of each meeting. The samples were then processed for the measurement of serotonin and oxytocin, and data obtained were analysed using analysis of variance with mixed effect models. The results show an increasing level of both serotonin and oxytocin between subsequent meetings with the dog and an increasing trend of inter-intervention levels. Overall, the results suggest that AAAs lead to modifications of serotonin and oxytocin levels, which are also accompanied by behavioural changes of patients.
... There is a plethora of scientific literature concerning the benefits of play among dogs (for review, see Sommerville, O'Connor, & Asher, 2017). There are numerous underlying reasons as to why dogs crave play with conspecifics. ...
Given the large number of dogs housed in animal shelters each year, it is important to consider how the shelter environment impacts a dog’s welfare. Providing shelter-housed dogs social contact with conspecifics can increase the welfare of the dogs and benefit the shelter by increasing adoption rates. Mostly Mutts Pet Rescue and Adoption Center in Kennesaw, Georgia was investigating ways to increase social contact for the dogs in their facility. To assist with this goal, we conducted a literature review that examined the impact of social housing, playgroups, and visual social contact on dog behavior. Social housing and playgroups can provide welfare benefits, including reducing abnormal behavior and decreasing aggression, and can also increase adoption rates. There has been limited research on the effect of visual social contact on behavior, but dogs provided with visual access have been found to spend more time in the front of their crate (which has been shown to increase adoption rates). We also propose that visual access may supply the dogs with a sense of predictability and control over their environment, an important aspect of welfare. This literature review discusses the benefits, cautions of, and requirements for these three modes of increasing welfare via social contact. We conclude with recommendations for Mostly Mutts Pet Rescue and Adoption Center based on observations we conducted on site and the supporting literature. However, the benefits of these recommendations are not restricted to Mostly Mutts, as they may be of benefit to other shelters as well.
... Nevertheless, dogs direct many of the play-soliciting behaviors to humans just as easily as to other dogs. Practically all the studies on dog social play show similar results, generally indicating that social play in dogs is a marker of healthy development and positive affect, with long lasting effects on human-dog social cohesion (Horowitz and Hecht, 2016;Sommerville et al., 2017). Social play behavior has been described as an essential component of social development of animals, seemingly equipping animals with skills and strategies to deal with a variety of behaviors expressed in adulthood (Wang et al., 2012). ...
Exploration and play are considered to be crucial behaviors during mammalian development. Even though the relationship between glucocorticoids and exploratory behavior, stress, and anxiety is well described in the literature, very little is known about their role in play behavior in non-rodents. Likewise, the functional role of the “social hormone” oxytocin in exploration, play, stress, and anxiety is still unknown. The present work addresses this literature gap by studying plasma hormone profiles for cortisol (CORT) and oxytocin (OT) of domestic dogs exposed to a novel arena containing two unfamiliar trainers who did not interact with the dogs. We provide evidence suggesting a functional relationship between hormonal measures of cortisol and oxytocin and adaptive behavior (play-soliciting and exploration) in freely behaving domestic dogs. We have taken into account several possible factors in our analyses and interpretations, from the nature and quality of the measurements to demographic factors to statistical robustness. Our results indicate that reduced CORT levels are associated with increments of both play-soliciting behavior frequency and exploratory behavior duration. Furthermore, taken together, our data and our simulations suggest a relationship between OT and the enactment of play-soliciting behaviors by freely behaving domestic dogs that must be further investigated. Future studies should consider naturalistic structured and semi-structured experimental approaches linking behavior with (neuro) physiological measures, taking into account demographic factors such as age and relevant interphase factors such as the sex of the dog; and socio-historic factors such as the playfulness of the dog, history of interaction with young humans, among others, to take full account of interaction between humans and animals in comparative studies (Parada and Rossi, 2018).
... Among all its functions, play enables animals to develop flexible kinematic and emotional responses to unexpected events in which they experience a sudden loss of control (Špinka et al., 2001). Play can improve welfare through self-reward, positive experiences, or social bonding (Sommerville et al., 2017). Reimert et al. (2013) suggested that tail movement could serve as a behavioural indicator of positive emotions in pigs: both tail wagging and tail posture changes occurred more often during rewarding than aversive events. ...
Positive welfare is more than the absence of negative experiences. Nevertheless, there are few feasible animal-based measures for positive welfare. This study aimed to investigate whether object and social play behaviours in pigs, which is believed to trigger positive emotions, is linked to peripheral oxytocin and/or serotonin changes over time. Moreover, the study examines the relationship between tail movement, play behaviour, and peripheral levels of oxytocin and serotonin in animals that have the possibility to play, along with the approach towards humans and the difficulty/ease of working with the animals. At six months old, 10 mini-pigs from the Play group participated in one or two play sessions per day for three weeks. Eight mini-pigs from a Control group did not participate in play sessions. For each first play session, blood was sampled before the play session (T0) and 5-10 min after the play session ended (T1). The same procedure was performed each day for three weeks. For the Control group, blood samples were drawn at the same times as the experimental group, the following day. Results showed a Play session effect on oxytocin, where a significant difference was observed for time (Chi-Square = 3.88, DF = 1, p = .05) and for group*time interaction (Chi-Square = 5.65, DF = 1, p = .02): in the Control group, T1 was significantly higher than T0 (p < 0.01). Regarding Play session effect on serotonin, a significant difference was observed for time (Chi-Square = 5.92, DF = 1, p = .02), between T0 and T1 in the mean of both groups, but there was no significant difference between groups nor between group*time. No significant difference was found for the long-term effect of toy provision on oxytocin and serotonin. There was no significant difference between Play group and Control group regarding the difficulty/ease of working with and handling the pigs and their approach towards humans in our test conditions. Finally, some interesting correlations were found in the Play group during week three: positive correlations between object play frequency and tail movement duration (r = 0.84), as well as between social play duration and tail movement duration (r = 0.60); and a negative correlation between the motivation to play and the increase of peripheral serotonin between T0 and T1 (r = -0.66). This study investigated the effect of toy provision in a pig experimental system on peripheral oxytocin and serotonin, as well as other parameters. The results demonstrate some interesting effects, which could be further studied for use as potential physiological and behavioural measures of positive emotions in pigs.
Background: In the present study, the changes in oxytocin (OXT) and serotonin (5-ht) were measured in dialysis patients involved in Animal Assisted Activity (AAA) interventions.
Methods: Thirty patients (15 men and 15 women) with chronic kidney disease, undergoing hemodialysis three times per week, for 4 hours were enrolled. The patients were at random divided into 3 groups: 2 experimental groups who received the AAA intervention and a control group who never received the AAA intervention. A specific dog-zootherapist vet pair was assigned for each experimental group. All sessions of the two experimental groups were weekly performed, for a total period of 3 months (12 sessions). Blood samples were taken at the beginning and end of each session (T0 and T1), lasting about one hour. The samples were then analyzed to measure the levels of oxytocin and serotonin. Data obtained were processed using analysis of variance with mixed effects models.
Results: The emerged results showed that both dog-zootherapist vet dyad caused a statistically significant overall effect of both oxytocin and serotonin, increasing during the sessions, compared to the control group. In addition, it was observed progressively increasing effect between two consecutive weeks.
Conclusion: The results that emerged showed that the AAA represents a positive stimulus for patients on dialysis. Thus, our study suggests that structured AAA intervention in a hemodialysis center can improve patients' quality of life.
Introduction
Chronic pain can profoundly affect the wellbeing of dogs and our understanding is limited regarding the multidimensional impact it has on dog quality of life. This study aimed to assess the factors that are significant and predictive of chronic pain in dogs using the Animal Welfare Assessment Grid (AWAG) to further understand what factors influence their welfare.
Methods
Seventy six AWAG assessments were undertaken across 46 dogs that clinicians diagnosed as having musculoskeletal conditions that caused chronic pain. Wilcoxon-rank sum tests were used to assess the difference in scores between dogs with chronic pain and a cohort of healthy dogs (n = 143).
Results
All physical factors besides body condition, and all psychological, environmental, and procedural factors were significantly different between healthy dogs and dogs with chronic pain, evidencing how chronic pain impacts all domains of a dog’s life. Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient (RS) revealed several significant strong positive correlations such as the association between the severity of clinical symptoms with poorer mobility and the frequency at which the dog experienced fearful stimuli. Logistic regression showed that fears and anxieties frequency, the dog’s reaction to stressors, engagement with enrichment, and social interactions were significant predictors of chronic pain in dogs.
Discussion
This highlights that typical signs of musculoskeletal disorders such as gait changes, stiffness, lameness might manifest after behavioral changes such as increased fearfulness, prolonged recovery from a stressful event, a reduced interested in social interactions, toys or play. Owners only seeking veterinary attention when the presence of physical signs of disease are evident may result in a delayed veterinary attention resulting in reduced welfare. Regular veterinary assessments combined with use of the AWAG can proactively identify these behavioral indicators and result in prompt treatment and improved quality of life.
Domesticated animals are famous for the ease with which they can accommodate to diverse human environments and roles, but less well-studied is the ease with which domestic animals can manipulate their human caregivers to their own ends. Here we present the results of a survey of 924 cat owners who report fetching behaviour in 1,154 cats. The overwhelming majority (94.4%) of these owners report that fetching emerged in the absence of explicit training. Fetching was primarily first noticed when the cats were less than one year old ( n = 701) or 1 to 7 years old ( n = 415). Cats initiated and terminated fetching bouts more often than did their owners. Thus, cats who fetch demonstrate independent and co-ordinated agency in the onset and maintenance of fetching behaviour with their human partners. Additional findings highlight the diversity of objects fetched and the diversity in household demographics. Our thematic analysis reveals owners’ perspectives on (a) the process of a fetching session, (b) the initial acquisition of fetching, and (c) the circumstantial factors that influence fetching patterns. In summary, cats who fetch largely determine when they engage in fetching sessions and actively influence the play behaviour of their owners.
Objective
The objective of this scoping review is to explore the implications of human-dog dyadic interactions on canine chronic pain, by investigating the mediating role of human emotion on the affective and behavioural states of dogs typically associated with canine pain.
Introduction
Canine chronic osteoarthritis pain causes significant burden of disease in pet dog populations. It is understood that chronic pain is complex and multidimensional, with poor correlation between disease severity and functional disability. Interactions with their human caregivers have measurable effects of affective and physiological states in dogs. A better understanding of how these interactions may affect functional disability in dogs with osteoarthritis pain will inform patient management approaches.
Inclusion criteria
This review included studies evaluating behavioural, physiological, affective or cognitive changes in dogs, within a human-dog dyad, in response to human caregiver behaviour, personality or emotion.
Methods
The databases searched included PUBMED, SCOPUS, CINAHL, SOCINDEX, PSYCHARTICLES AND PSYCHINFO, and articles were screened by two independent reviewers for assessment against the inclusion criteria for the review.
Results
55 Full text articles were included in the results.
Conclusions
The data support the hypothesis that human affective states influence canine affect, physiology, cognition and behavioural adaptation.
Play and welfare have long been linked within animal research literature, with play considered as both a potential indicator and promoter of welfare. An indicator due to observations that play is exhibited most frequently in times when an animal's fitness is not under threat and when immediate needs such as food, water and adequate space are met. And a promoter, because of observations that animals who play more also have better welfare outcomes. However, limited research has been undertaken to investigate this link, especially in companion animals. The domestic cat (Felis catus) is one of the most popular companion animals in the world, yet little is known about the impact of play behaviour on cat welfare. We review the current literature on play and welfare in cats. This includes examining the role of cat play in mitigating negative welfare outcomes, such as reducing problem behaviours, one of the leading reasons for guardian dissatisfaction and cat relinquishment to shelters. Play is also discussed as a potential tool to provide environmental enrichment and to improve cat-human relationships. Future areas for research are suggested. We find that further research is needed that uses a multi-faceted approach to assess how quantity, type and quality of play impact subsequent cat behaviour and welfare. Future research could also assess cat play needs and preferences as well as investigate the role of play in mitigating threats to cat welfare such as reducing problem behaviour and improving human-cat relationships. If play is an indicator and promoter of welfare, studies into the impact of play may offer an accessible approach for monitoring and improving domestic cat welfare.
Simple Summary
New dog owners are given a plethora of advice on how to socialise their puppy, but such advice is often outdated and based on very few experimental studies. The resulting inadequate socialisation can lead to behavioural problems in adult dogs. This review aims to describe all relevant literature regarding canine socialisation. Many of the 29 studies identified were retrospective owner-filled questionnaires, which are susceptible to bias. Few modern studies experimentally investigated the effects of different socialisation methods. We, therefore, recommend studies on the minimum necessary level of socialisation and breed differences in the optimum timing for socialisation. We hope this future research helps owners and breeders to produce well-adjusted dogs.
Abstract
There are over 10 million pet dogs in the UK alone, and they have become a member of modern human families. If not properly socialised as puppies, dogs have a higher risk of problematic behaviours during adulthood, yet socialisation studies are lacking. Much of the experimental research was carried out at least 50 years ago, and the importance of socialisation was demonstrated so clearly that further studies with unsocialised controls would be deemed unethical. In this review, the aim was to evaluate all literature relevant to canine socialisation. This review used PRISMA-P guidelines to identify 29 studies: 14 were questionnaire-based studies (two of which also had a testing element), 15 included some form of experimental manipulation relating to socialisation, and one was a purely observational study. Based on this literature review, we recommend future research into minimum necessary socialisation levels, as well as breed differences in the timing of effective socialisation. Such studies will help owners and breeders produce well-adjusted adult dogs.
Our relationship with dogs runs thousands of years deep. Today, we might know dogs intimately as members of our human family, but we can also know and consider dogs on their own terms, as members of Canis familiaris , with a unique evolutionary history and species‐specific characteristics and needs. This chapter is a resource for all types of dog knowers and caretakers. It relies heavily on empirical research to anchor readers in the foundations of canine behavior—such as dog behavioral development, normal dog behavior, factors influencing behavior, and relationships with people—and considers how these topics affect dogs of all ages and backgrounds who find themselves in the shelter environment.
This paper seeks to bring into the light of academic debate the position and experiences of disabled animals within leisure, to encourage academics, the leisure industry, and society in general to consider these animals and their needs from their perspective. It is based on the recognition of animals as sentient beings and that disabled individuals may have distinct needs regarding leisure and access to the leisure environment. To date, disabled animals represent an under-studied population, both in and beyond the leisure experience. This lack of attention parallels the discrimination disabled people have long experienced. The paper highlights how even data on the number of disabled animals and the range of disabilities they face is lacking. It further considers how disabled animals are marginalised, both by society and academics in relation to the leisure experience and why this is the case. The potential of overturning this marginalisation for the benefit of both animals and humans is considered before the paper turns to address future research related to disabled animals and leisure. In doing so, the paper notes the need to engage with the animal ‘other’ in a critical animal-centric approach to understand their needs, wants, and experiences.
Ethically speaking, humans should benefit from the human–animal interaction only if the animals themselves benefit as well. As the field of animal-assisted interventions (AAI) places more consideration on the welfare and well-being of the animals involved, questions as to how to best assess welfare and how to improve welfare for the animals are critical to answer. There are challenges to answering these questions, though. The study of welfare can be ambiguous, especially when AAIs are seemingly innocuous to observers. However, there is concern that AAIs may be physically and mentally taxing on animals if precautions are not taken. As research seeks to clarify the effect that AAI has on animal welfare, practitioners need to be aware of what they can do on a daily basis to safeguard the health and well-being of their animal partners. This requires the practitioner to be knowledgeable in how to judge animal welfare, what conditions put animals at risk, and what can be done to minimize risk. This chapter will discuss the considerations for assessment of animal welfare in therapy settings and provide guidance for modifying interventions in hopes of assuring the well-being of the animals involved, thus enhancing the benefits for all parties involved. While the discussion will primarily focus on canine species, these welfare considerations may be applied to all species used in AAIs.
Play, whether it be social or with toys on their own, is purposeful and benefits the animal. There is a disproportionate amount of studies on play in younger dogs compared to senior dogs. It is unclear why research on play behaviour in senior dogs is limited and why play behaviour apparently declines with age. Further studies are certainly warranted, since play could offer many benefits for senior dogs and improve their quality of life. This article offers hypotheses into the apparent decline in play with ageing. In addition, the article proposes that continuation of play throughout the life stages and into senior years could be beneficial for the dog in multiple ways.
While there has been increasing interest in the human-animal leisure intersection in recent times, leisure still largely remains human-centric or focussed. Much remains to be explored in seeking to understand animal leisure, and the intersection of animal leisure with human leisure. Spring boarding from Franklin’s argument that understanding cross species involvement calls for intense, reflective analyses that can begin in our own human lives and experiences we use an ethnographic approach to explore the intersection of human and animal leisure’s. Use is made of Stebbins’ Serious Leisure Perspective (SLP) categorisation to present observations, analyses and learnings as to the leisure lives of the 5 dogs that share our (the authors) very different multi-species leisure lives. Our explorations demonstrate that multi-species leisure cannot be presumed; and that experiences of leisure per se intersect with individual animal preferences and personalities. We also identify the potential to see some animal leisure as Serious-Amateur and even Devotee Work when incorporating ‘instinct’ (the outcome of generational human control of some species fertility) into considerations, and briefly explore the extension of human parenting and leisure moralising to the rising profile of fur-parenting.
The kennel environment, even for short periods, is a potential psychogenic stressor for most dogs owing to its novel surroundings and separation from social attachment figures. To improve their well-being, they could be administered problem-solving games. This would benefit them because individual play, like problem solving, could improve an individual's physical and cognitive capabilities, and therefore their welfare. The aim of this study was to evaluate how problem solving tasks improve welfare in boarding dogs. The study was conducted in dogs from a boarding kennel in Lucca, Italy. The dogs were divided into two groups: the Problem Solving Group (PSG), formed by 6 bitches (3 neutered) and 9 males dogs (3 neutered), 32.0 ± 20.3 months old, who participated in problem solving sessions during the boarding period and the Control Group (CG), formed by 4 dogs (2 females and 2 males, 61.0 ± 48.0 months old), who did not attend such sessions. The survey was carried out using a purposely prepared questionnaire, distributed to the owners. when they left their dogs to a boarding kennel; the owners were asked to fill the same questionnaire two days after returning home, in order to evaluate the variation of the dogs' stress behaviors. Statistical analysis shows that the PSG displayed decreased stress behaviors such as: follow the owner (W = -2.831; P = 0.019), scarf in coat (W = -2.440; P = 0.041) and excessive vocalizations (W = -1.998; P = 0.061), and in general a decrease in the high stress level. In CG the behaviors were observed: attachment (46.67%) and vocalizations (53.33%) and a general increase in the high stress level (W=-2.236; p <0.025). In conclusion, this pilot study suggests that dogs, engaged in problem solving activities, appear to be less stressed after the housing in a boarding kennel dogs.
Why do dogs behave in the ways that they do? Why did our ancestors tame wolves? How have we ended up with so many breeds of dog, and how can we understand their role in contemporary human society? Explore the answers to these questions and many more in this study of the domestic dog. Building on the strengths of the first edition, this much-anticipated update incorporates two decades of new evidence and discoveries on dog evolution, behavior, training, and human interaction. It includes seven entirely new chapters covering topics such as behavioral modification and training, dog population management, the molecular evidence for dog domestication, canine behavioral genetics, cognition, and the impact of free-roaming dogs on wildlife conservation. It is an ideal volume for anyone interested in dogs and their evolution, behavior and ever-changing roles in society. The ultimate book about the domestic dog, ideal for anyone interested in their evolution, behavior and ever-changing roles in society A new edition of a classic text, presenting the latest research on dog behavior, training, domestication, genetics and cognition Includes seven entirely new chapters by leading experts in the field, incorporating two decades of new evidence and discoveries.
Dogs are hypersocial with humans, and their integration into human social ecology makes dogs a unique model for studying cross-species social bonding. However, the proximal neural mechanisms driving dog-human social interaction are unknown. We used fMRI in 15 awake dogs to probe the neural basis for their preferences for social interaction and food reward. In a first experiment, we used the ventral caudate as a measure of intrinsic reward value and compared activation to conditioned stimuli that predicted food, praise, or nothing. Relative to the control stimulus, the caudate was significantly more active to the reward-predicting stimuli and showed roughly equal or greater activation to praise versus food in 13 of 15 dogs. To confirm that these differences were driven by the intrinsic value of social praise, we performed a second imaging experiment in which the praise was withheld on a subset of trials. The difference in caudate activation to the receipt of praise, relative to its withholding, was strongly correlated with the differential activation to the conditioned stimuli in the first experiment. In a third experiment, we performed an out-of-scanner choice task in which the dog repeatedly selected food or owner in a Y-maze. The relative caudate activation to food- and praise-predicting stimuli in Experiment 1 was a strong predictor of each dog’s sequence of choices in the Y-maze. Analogous to similar neuroimaging studies of individual differences in human social reward, our findings demonstrate a neural mechanism for preference in domestic dogs that is stable within, but variable between, individuals. Moreover, the individual differences in the caudate responses indicate the potentially higher value of social than food reward for some dogs and may help to explain the apparent efficacy of social interaction in dog training.
Due to their playful propensity, dogs are a good model to test some hypotheses about play dynamics (length, asymmetry, features of players) and communication (play bow [PBOW]; relaxed open-mouth [ROM] display). We video-recorded 203 play sessions between dogs in an off-leash dog park in Palermo, Italy. Contrary to the expectation, play asymmetry (particularly high in this species) did not differ between stranger and familiar dogs, thus suggesting the limited role of play in forming dominance relationships. Asymmetry negatively affected the duration of the session, whereas the increasing number of players was positively linked to the duration of playful interactions. The number of PBOWs exchanged by players may exert a certain influence on the session length as well. PBOWs were performed independently from the kind of play (locomotor vs. contact) the dogs were engaging in. Conversely, ROMs were preferentially emitted during contact play when "face-to-face" interactions were more likely. Body closeness is also required in case opening the mouth has not a signal function but only preludes a bite. However, in the 82% of cases play bites did not follow a ROM, thus suggesting that dogs place ROMs in the appropriate context to optimize signal detectability. In conclusion, 2 tactics may concur in coping with the asymmetry and unpredictability of play sessions in dogs. First, whenever the asymmetry increases dogs shorten the duration of their sessions thus limiting the risk of possible escalation. Second, dogs make use of a good communicative system based on the reciprocal exchange of playful signals. (PsycINFO Database Record
Despite the growing interest in research on the interaction between humans and dogs, only a very few research projects focus on the routines between dogs and their owners. In this study, we investigated one such routine: dog-human play. Dyadic interspecific play is known to be a common interaction between owner and charge, but the details of what counts as play have not been thoroughly researched. Similarly, though people represent that "play" is pleasurable, no study has yet undertaken to determine whether different forms of play are associated with different affective states. Thus, we aimed to generate an inventory of the forms of dyadic play, the vocalizations within play, and to investigate the relationship of affect to elements of play. Via a global citizen science project, we solicited videotapes of dog-human play sessions from dog owners. We coded 187 play bouts via frame-by-frame video playback. We then assessed the relationship between various intra-bout variables and owner affect (positive or neutral) during play (dog affect was overwhelmingly positive). Amount of physical contact ("touch"), level of activity of owner ("movement"), and physical closeness of dog-owner dyad ("proximity") were highly correlated with positive affect. Owner vocalizations were found to contain different elements in positive- and neutral-affect play. One novel category of play, "tease", was found. We conclude that not all play is created equal: the experience of play to the owner participant is strongly related to a few identifiable characteristics of the interaction.
Early life experiences are known to influence behavior later in life. In dogs, environmental influences of early home rearing could be exploited to improve the chances of developing adult behavior most suited to the adult environment. For working dog organisations, such as Guide Dogs, suitable adult behavior is important to ensure dogs can fulfil their role as guides for people with visual impairment.
Here we test the hypothesis that dogs' home rearing environment will influence behavioral development. To investigate this hypothesis, carers of potential guide dogs (puppy walkers) completed a questionnaire, termed the Puppy Walking Questionnaire (PWQ), about the dog's behavior at 5, 8 and 12 months of age. An additional 11 questions were answered about the home environment at the last assessment. Since no questionnaire existed which measured behavior most relevant to Guide Dogs, questions from an existing questionnaire (C-BARQ) were combined with additional questions. Thus, a subsidiary aim of the study was to test the reliability of the PWQ for measuring behavioral development of potential guide dogs.
The PWQ, scored on a 100mm visual analogue scale, grouped into five new scales: Trainability, Distractibility, General Anxiety, Body Sensitivity, and Stair Anxiety, with four C-BARQ scales: Excitability, Separation-related behavior, Attachment and attention seeking and Energy Level. For each reliable scale, multivariate linear regression identified significant predictors from the home environmental questions.
The results suggest that home rearing environment is indeed important for behavioral development: 9 out of 11 environmental variables were significant predictors of behavioral scores. Those environmental variables that appeared most important were social in nature. Dogs were scored as higher in Energy Level, Excitability and Distractibility if they had been raised in a home with children, lower on Energy Level and Distractibility the more experience of puppy walking their carer had, and lower on Separation-related behavior the more they had been able to play with other dogs. These findings have implications for matching between dogs’ early and later home environments. Follow-up of dogs in this study could help to elucidate effects on guiding suitability and matching between dog and guide dog owner.
Background: Previous analysis suggests that brown bear play behaviour can enhance first-year survival. Question: Can play behaviour enhance multi-year survival? Organisms: Young brown bears (Ursus arctos). Times and places: 1985–1994, Pack Creek, Admiralty Island, Alaska, USA. Method of analysis: Regression models and diagnostics; principal components analysis. Conclusions: Young bears that played more were more likely to survive to independence. This association did not result solely from condition, litter size, salmon availability, or maternal characteristics.
The play of healthy, well-fed young mammals and birds includes varied and improvised behavioural routines and occurs in relatively stress-free contexts. Play behaviour has evolution-ary costs but no apparent benefits. Play, therefore, poses a problem for evolutionary theory. Theory on play generally assumes future (adult) benefits, but benefits of animal play may be short term. In a 10-year field study, we measured play and survival in young of 11 families of individually identified, free-ranging brown bears, Ursus arctos. Our results are the first to relate play to survival. Cubs who played more during their first summer survived better from their first summer to the end of their second summer. To explain this apparent association, we applied statistical controls to three potential confounding factors: cub condition, prenatal and first-year salmon availability, and maternal characteristics. Controlling for these factors, we confirmed that survival increases as play increases, independently of these other possible effects. Play can have demonstrable and measurable evolutionary and population consequences if it increases short-term survival of immatures. Mechanisms linking play of bears or of other animals to short-term survival are not yet known. We speculate that play experience relieves past stress and builds resistance to future stress. We cite known neuroendocrinological mechanisms that may support this suggestion.
Play is an important aspect of dolphin life, perhaps even an essential one. Play provides opportunities for dolphin calves to practice and perfect locomotor skills, including those involved in foraging and mating strategies and behaviors. Play also allows dolphin calves to learn important social skills and acquire information about the characteristics and predispositions of members of their social group, particularly their peers. In addition to helping dolphin calves learn how to behave, play also provides valuable opportunities for them to learn how to think. The ability to create and control play contexts enables dolphins to create novel experiences for themselves and their playmates under relatively safe conditions. The behavioral variability and individual creativity that characterize dolphin play yield ample opportunities for individual cognitive development as well as social learning, and sometimes result in innovations that are reproduced by other members of the group. Although adults sometimes produce innovative play, calves are the primary source of such innovations. Calves are also more likely to imitate novel play behaviors than are adults, and so calves contribute significantly to both the creation and transmission of novel play behaviors within a group. Not unexpectedly, then, the complexity of dolphin play increases with the involvement of peers. As a result, the opportunity to observe and/or interact with other dolphin calves enhances the effects of play on the acquisition and maintenance of flexible problem solving skills, the emergence and strengthening of social and communicative competencies, and the establishment of social relationships. It seems that play may have evolved to help young dolphins learn to adapt to novel situations in both their physical and social worlds, the beneficial result being a set of abilities that increases the likelihood that an individual survives and reproduces.
Historically, pet dogs were trained using mainly negative reinforcement or punishment,
but positive reinforcement using rewards has recently become more popular. The
methods used may have different impacts on the dogs’ welfare. We distributed a
questionnaire to 364 dog owners in order to examine the relative effectiveness of
different training methods and their effects upon a pet dog’s behaviour. When asked how
they trained their dog on seven basic tasks, 66% reported using vocal punishment, 12%
used physical punishment, 60% praise (social reward), 51% food rewards and 11% play.
The owner’s ratings for their dog’s obedience during eight tasks correlated positively
with the number of tasks which they trained using rewards (P < 0.01), but not using
punishment (P = 0.05). When asked whether their dog exhibited any of 16 common
problematic behaviours, the number of problems reported by the owners correlated with
the number of tasks for which their dog was trained using punishment (P < 0.001), but
not using rewards (P = 0.17). Exhibition of problematic behaviours may be indicative of
compromised welfare, because such behaviours can be caused by—or result in—a state
of anxiety and may lead to a dog being relinquished or abandoned. Because punishment
was associated with an increased incidence of problematic behaviours, we conclude that
it may represent a welfare concern without concurrent benefits in obedience. We suggest
that positive training methods may be more useful to the pet-owning community
An online survey, using open and prompted response questions, was undertaken to collate the views of stakeholders on the priority welfare issues currently facing companion dogs (Canis familiaris) in Great Britain and on dogs' general quality of life. The stakeholder sectors targeted broadly comprised Education, Government, Industry, Charity and Veterinary. Overall, respondents described companion dogs as, at minimum, having a life worth living. Whether welfare issues were openly described or ranked within a set list, those of high priority in the perceptions of stakeholders matched those cited in published scientific literature; particuarly exaggerated physical features, inherited disease, obesity, and inappropriate socialisation. Puppy farming and status dogs, which have been highlighted recently in the media, were also viewed as important. Lack of appropriate mental stimulation, irresponsible ownership and inappropriate environment were raised as priority issues by stakeholders and are under-reported in scientific literature. Significant differences between stakeholder sectors in ranking of welfare issues percieved importance, urgency to rectify, impact (on the individual) or prevalence in Britain may be explained by vested interests, organisational roles, differences in terminology and the contexts within which the stakeholders came into contact with companion dogs. Pet travel, dew claw removal and complementart and alternative medicines were amongst those issues thought to be of least urgent welfare concern. Issues percieved to enhance welfare included the quality of veterinary care, physical stimulation, educational resources, responsible ownership, the high status of dogs in society and the work of welfare organisations.
Why do animals play? Play has been described in animals as diverse as reptiles, birds and mammals, so what benefits does it provide and how did it evolve? Careful, quantitative studies of social, locomotor and object play behaviour are now beginning to answer these questions and to shed light on many other aspects of both animal and human behaviour. This interdisciplinary volume, first published in 1998, brings together the major findings about play in a wide range of species including humans. Topics about play include the evolutionary history of play, play structure, function and development, and sex and individual differences. Animal Play is destined to become the benchmark volume in this subject, and will provide a source of inspiration and understanding for students and researchers in behavioural biology, neurobiology, psychology and anthropology.
Why do animals play? Play has been described in animals as diverse as reptiles, birds and mammals, so what benefits does it provide and how did it evolve? Careful, quantitative studies of social, locomotor and object play behaviour are now beginning to answer these questions and to shed light on many other aspects of both animal and human behaviour. This interdisciplinary volume, first published in 1998, brings together the major findings about play in a wide range of species including humans. Topics about play include the evolutionary history of play, play structure, function and development, and sex and individual differences. Animal Play is destined to become the benchmark volume in this subject, and will provide a source of inspiration and understanding for students and researchers in behavioural biology, neurobiology, psychology and anthropology.
Selection during the last decades has split some established dog breeds into morphologically and behaviourally divergent types. These breed splits are interesting models for behaviour genetics, since selection has often been for few and well-defined behavioural traits. The aim of this study was to explore behavioural differences between selection lines in golden and Labrador retriever, in both of which a split between a common type (pet and conformation) and a field type (hunting) has occurred. We hypothesised that the behavioural profiles of the types would be similar in both breeds. Pedigree data and results from a standardised behavioural test from 902 goldens (698 common and 204 field) and 1672 Labradors (1023 and 649) were analysed. Principal component analysis revealed six behavioural components: curiosity, play interest, chase proneness, social curiosity, social greeting and threat display. Breed and type affected all components, but interestingly there was an interaction between breed and type for most components. For example, in Labradors the common type had higher curiosity than the field type (F(1,1668) = 18.359; P < 0.001), while the opposite was found in goldens (F(1,897) = 65.201; P < 0.001). Heritability estimates showed considerable genetic contributions to the behavioural variations in both breeds, but different heritabilities between the types within breeds was also found, suggesting different selection pressures. In conclusion, in spite of similar genetic origin and similar recent selection criteria, types behave differently in the breeds. This suggests that the genetic architecture related to behaviour differs between the breeds.
The study, conducted between 1991 and 1994 at Baobab Farm, Kenya, attempts to clarify some of the crucial factors, such as agonistic behaviour, related to herding of oryx antelopes. To distinguish between "pure" aggression and more playful encounters a structuralistic approach with three categories and 54 relatively form constant elements was used. During ontogeny structure and context of oryx play changes from solitary to social play. These changes occur along with a social reorganisation, since former singly hiding calves joined each other in a kindergarten group and started at the age of around one month to play communally. When four months old, the calves began to join the play sessions of the subadults and adult animals. Oryx play is rich in ritualised displays and fighting techniques, and probably allows participants to recognise and estimate the physical abilities and characteristics of other herd members. As a result relatively few agonistic interactions occurred during grazing and walking. Nevertheless, the analysis of disturbing interactions during resting indicate a linear rank order between adult females while subadult females and sexually mature males were in the process to set up hierarchical structures. These findings suggest that subadult oryx establish hierarchical structures during playful encounters.
This 2nd edition is a complete re-write of the 1st edition in 1993. It reflects developments in knowledge since the 1st edition and includes many new chapters and contributors. Concern over the welfare of confined animals is continuing to increase and extends not only to farm and zoo animals, but also to laboratory and companion animals. This book focuses on environmentally induced stereotypes, rather than drug induced or neurologically based stereotypes and discusses why captive animals perform these stereotypes. It also examines what this behaviour can tell us about animal welfare, options for prevention and cure and assesses future research directions and implications for animal welfare.
The main aim of this book is to provide a basis for a complete dog behavioural biology based on concepts derived from contemporary ethology. Thus, dog behaviour is viewed from both functional (evolution and ecology) and mechanistic and developmental points of view. The study of dogs is placed in a comparative context which involves comparison with their ancestors (wolves), as well as with humans with which dogs share their present environment. Instead of advocating a single theory which would explain the emergence of dogs during the last 20,000 years of human evolution, this book gives an overview of present knowledge which has been collected by scientists from various fields. It aims to find novel ways to increase our understanding of this complex evolutionary process by combining different methods originating from different scientific disciplines. This is facilitated by describing complementing knowledge provided by various field of science, including zooarchaeology, cognitive and comparative ethology, human-animal interaction, behaviour genetics, behavioural physiology and development, and behavioural ecology. This interdisciplinary approach to the study of dogs deepens our biological understanding of dog behaviour, but also utilizes this knowledge to reveal secrets to behavioural evolution in general, even with special reference to the human species.
This compact, easy-access guide to behavioral problems encountered in veterinary practice offers immediate and helpful advice for today's veterinary team. Instructor resources are available please contact your Elsevier sales representative for details. Coverage offers immediate advice to the veterinary team who are often presented with behavioral problems in their practice. Easy-to-read format includes introductions, medical differentials, underlying causes, diagnosis, action boxes, and summaries. Content refers the reader to other chapters throughout the book, so that information can be found quickly and easily. Helpful handouts, which can be photocopied, offer yet another way to further your learning experience.
Behavioural effects of the use of a shock collar during guard dog training of German shepherd dogs were studied. Direct reactions of 32 dogs to 107 shocks showed reactions (lowering of body posture, high pitched yelps, barks and squeals, avoidance, redirection aggression, tongue flicking) that suggest stress or fear and pain. Most of these immediate reactions lasted only a fraction of a second. The behaviour of 16 dogs that had received shocks in the recent past (S-dogs) was compared with the behaviour of 15 control dogs that had received similar training but never had received shocks (C-dogs) in order to investigate possible effects of a longer duration. Only training sessions were used in which no shocks were delivered and the behaviour of the dogs (position of body, tail and ears, and stress-, pain- and aggression-related behaviours) was recorded in a way that enabled comparison between the groups. During free walking on the training grounds S-dogs showed a lower ear posture and more stress-related behaviours than C-dogs. During obedience training and during manwork (i.e. excercises with a would-be criminal) the same differences were found. Even a comparison between the behaviour of C-dogs with that of S-dogs during free walking and obedience exercises in a park showed similar differences. Differences between the two groups of dogs existed in spite of the fact that C-dogs also were trained in a fairly harsh way. A comparison between the behaviour during free walking with that during obedience exercises and manwork, showed that during training more stress signals were shown and ear positions were lower. The conclusions, therefore are, that being trained is stressful, that receiving shocks is a painful experience to dogs, and that the S-dogs evidently have learned that the presence of their owner (or his commands) announces reception of shocks, even outside of the normal training context. This suggests that the welfare of these shocked dogs is at stake, at least in the presence of their owner.
Play, as defined by biologists and psychologists, is probably heterogeneous. On the other hand, playfulness may be a unitary motivational state. Playful play as opposed to activities that merge into aggression is characterized by positive mood, intrinsic motivation, occurring in a protected context and easily disrupted by stress. Playful play is a good measure of positive welfare. It can occupy a substantial part of the waking-life of a young mammal or bird. Numerous functions for play have been proposed and they are by no means mutually exclusive, but some evidence indicates that those individual animals that play most are most likely to survive and reproduce. The link of playful play to creativity and hence to innovation in humans is strong. Considerable evidence suggests that coming up with new ideas requires a different mindset from usefully implementing a new idea.
Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) inhabit the western edge of Great Bahama Bank (GBB), Bahamas. In 1998, a photo-identification and behaviour project was initiated in this area. Over three consecutive winters (64 days) dolphins were observed on GBB. Interspecific behaviours are described over 6 years (1998 & 2003). Habitat of GBB is comparable to an adjacent study site on Little Bahama Bank (LBB) that has been under observation since 1985. To date, no photo-identification overlap has been documented between the two study sites (62 identified spotted dolphins on GBB and 220 identified spotted dolphins on LBB). Size of single species groups (GBB=9.1SD 6.8/LBB=9.3SD 8.0) and aver-age duration of encounters (GBB=28 min/LBB= 31 min) were similar. Mothers with calves on GBB were mottled in coloration, similar to first parturi-tion coloration reported for LBB spotted dolphins. The majority of behavioural activities documented for LBB spotted dolphins during summer months were observed on GBB during winter months, including foraging in the sand, travelling, resting, playing, disciplining, courtship/mating, and intra and interspecific aggression with bottlenose dolphins. In addition, in 2002 male spotted dolphins were observed in dominant mounting behaviour of male bottlenose dolphins (reverse roles to LBB). In the winter of 2003, a hybrid male calf was repeatedly observed with a lactating adult female spotted dolphin. The offshore form of the bottlenose dolphin was observed on GBB, engaging in aggressive activity with resident spotted dolphins. Ongoing research in these adjacent study sites includes genetic sampling and habitat analysis to provide insight into the comparative natures of these two adjacent sandbanks and delphinid species.
In the diagnosis and treatment of behavioural disorders in multi-cat households, it is often assumed that a dominance hierarchy exists between the cats ( e.g. Crowell-Davis, 2002). While such hierarchies are probably commonplace among dogs, what evidence there is to support the existence of social hierarchies in groups of domestic cats has mainly been gathered from reproductively entire animals, such as single sex laboratory colonies, and free-ranging aggregations of ferals. For example, Natoli et al. (2001) used receipt of “submissive” (defensive) behaviour to construct a weakly linear hierarchy in a group of 14 farm cats, but this did not correspond to the hierarchy derived from receipt of affiliative behaviour. We have investigated the alternative hypotheses that apparent dominance hierarchies in multi-cat households may actually be based upon territorial behaviour, or some other undetermined social system.
The methods by which owners train their pet dogs range widely, with some exclusively using rewards, and others using a combination, or only punishment-based methods. This paper examines links between the way in which owners reported to have trained their dogs and observations of the dogs’ subsequent behaviour. It also explores associations between behaviour of owner and dog when tested in their own home. A total of 53 owners were surveyed about their preferred methods for training each of seven common tasks, and were each filmed interacting with their dog in a series of standardised scenarios. Dogs owned by subjects who reported using a higher proportion of punishment were less likely to interact with a stranger, and those dogs whose owners favoured physical punishment tended to be less playful. However, dogs whose owners reported using more rewards tended to perform better in a novel training task. Ability at this novel task was also higher in dogs belonging to owners who were seen to be more playful and who employed a patient approach to training. This study shows clear links between a dog's current behaviour and its owner's reported training history as well as the owner's present behaviour. High levels of punishment may thus have adverse effects upon a dog's behaviour whilst reward based training may improve a dog's subsequent ability to learn.
In the popular literature, it is often assumed that a single conceptual framework can be applied to both dog–dog and dog–human interactions, including play. We have, through three studies, tested the hypothesis that dog–dog and dog–human play are motivationally distinct. In an observational study of dogs being walked by their owners (N=402), dogs which were walked together, and had opportunities to play with one another, played with their owners with the same frequency as dogs being walked alone. This finding was supported by a questionnaire survey of 2585 dog owners in which dogs in multi-dog households played slightly more often with their owners than dogs in single-dog households. The performance of dog–dog play does not, therefore, seem to suppress the dogs' motivation to play with their owners as would be predicted if they were motivationally interchangeable. In an experimental comparison of dog–dog and dog–human toy-centred play, the dogs were more likely to give up on a competition, to show and present the toy to their play partner, if that partner was human. When two toys were available, dogs playing with other dogs spent less time showing interest in both toys and possessed one of the toys for longer, than dogs playing with people. Overall, the dogs were more interactive and less likely to possess the object when playing with a person. We conclude that dog–dog and dog–human play are structurally different, supporting the idea that they are motivationally distinct. We therefore suggest there is no reason to assume that the consequences of dog–dog play can be extrapolated to play with humans.
The motor training hypothesis, proposed in its first form nearly half a century ago and broadened subsequently, states that the function of play is adaptive modification of the developing neuromuscular system. Evidence from many mammalian species indirectly supports the motor training hypothesis, but the exact nature of developmental change prompted by play remains unknown. We reviewed literature on the anatomical and physiological effects of exercise in mammals and categorized these as effects available to individuals at any age, versus effects available only during a discrete period of postnatal development, and transitory effects, which decay soon after exercise ends, versus permanent effects. We found that most effects are available at any age and are transitory; we argue that they are not likely primary benefits of play. However, two effects that influence motor performance-modification of cerebellar synaptogenesis and modification of skeletal muscle fiber type differentiation-are available only during a short period of postnatal development and appear to be permanent. In three species for which both kinds of data were available, the age distribution of play closely matched the age distribution of these two types of experience-modifiable development. We propose that play may not be motor training in the broad sense, but rather it may be behavior designed to influence specific types of development.
The relationships between behaviour, owner-rated personality, and cortisol were exam- ined in companion dogs that visited a local off-leash dog park. In Study 1, salivary cortisol increased significantly from baseline levels following 20 min in the dog park (P = 0.013), but not in the same dogs following a 20 min on-leash walk. In Study 2, cortisol was cor- related with dog park visit frequency, such that dogs which visited the park least often had higher cortisol levels (r=−0.34, P=0.013). Hunched posture in dogs was associated with higher cortisol, even after the effect of park visit frequency was removed. Cortisol appeared to be independent of all other measured behaviours and signals indicative of play, stress, agonism, and mounting, as well as dog time budgets. Nor was cortisol related to dog personality scores as measured by the Monash Canine Personality Questionnaire-Revised (MCPQ-R). Scores on the Extraversion, Amicability, and Neuroticism scales predicted some observations in the park: more extraverted dogs showed higher activity (measured as time budget state changes; R2 = 0.21, P < 0.001) and spent more time in conspecific dyads (R2 = 0.083, P = 0.033), more amicable dogs showed more behaviours indicative of play (R2 = 0.10, P = 0.014), and more neurotic dogs showed higher frequencies of hunched pos- ture (R2 = 0.10, P = 0.008). Time budget states correlated with specific behaviours, e.g., focal dog’s time spent in dyads correlated highly with total play signals/behaviours in the session (r = 0.69, P < 0.001). Thus, in a social context such as an off-leash dog park, changes in corti- sol may be largely independent of social behaviour/signalling (with the possible exception of postural changes), and personality scores may predict some social behaviours, but not necessarily changes in cortisol. Given that this dog park sample contains dogs which appear to score higher than average for Extraversion, additional relationships between personal- ity, behaviour and cortisol may be detected in broader dog populations and/or other social contexts. As the popularity of off-leash dog parks is increasing in North America, under- standing factors related to individual dogs’ experiences in such parks may be important for welfare reasons.
In this essay we outline how video-related technology can be used as a tool for studying animal behaviour. We review particular aspects of novel, innovative animal behaviour uploaded by the general public via video-based media on the internet (using YouTube as a specific example). The behaviour of animals, particularly the play behaviour focused on here, is viewed by huge audiences. In this essay we focused on three different kinds of media clips: (1) interspecies play between dogs and a range of other species; (2) object play in horses; and (3) animal responses to stimuli presented on iPads, iPods and iPhones. We argue that the use of video is a good means of capturing uncommon or previously unknown behaviour, providing evidence that these behaviours occur. Furthermore, some of the behaviours featured on YouTube provide valuable insights for future directions in animal behaviour research. If we also take this opportunity to convey our knowledge to a public that seems to be fundamentally interested in animal behaviour, this is a good means of bridging the gap between knowledge among an academic few and the general public.
Toys are often provided for adult dogs housed in kennels, but their effectiveness as environmental enrichment is not well documented. At a minimum, toys need to elicit interest in the animal for which they are intended, before any “enrichment” can be claimed. In this study we have examined short-term preferences for toys with a range of characteristics, using two methods of presentation, in both long-stay dogs in complex kennels, and short-stay dogs in rehoming kennels. The dogs, one sample in residential kennels (LSE, N=30) and the other in rehoming kennels (RH, N=66), were tested individually with four robust toys, presented both hanging and on the floor, over two 15min trials. The trial was also repeated with a second RH sample (N=34) comparing the four robust toys with less robust toys, all presented on the floor. Latency to and duration of interaction with each toy were recorded remotely. In the first trial, 34% of RH dogs and 43% of LSE dogs interacted with the toys; of the dogs that interacted, the average duration of interaction was higher among RH dogs (120s) than among LSE dogs (28s). Toys on the floor were interacted with for significantly longer than hanging toys by both LSE and RH dogs. RH dogs were faster to interact with the floor toys than the hanging toys, but the LSE dogs did not appear to discriminate between hanging and floor toys in latencies to interact. In the second trial, 76% of the RH dogs interacted with one or more of the toys, interacting for significantly longer with the four less robust toys, but their latencies to interact were similar between the robust and less robust toys. Average duration of interaction (227s) was higher than in the first trial. Our findings support previous proposals that robust toys are little used by kennel housed dogs. However, with less robust toys, interaction was relatively prolonged, indicating that interest to the dog may be enhanced if the toy can be chewed easily and/or makes a noise. Hanging toys were not favoured, although these have been reported to stimulate high levels of interaction in juvenile laboratory beagles.
This study compares the effects of social and physical enrichment on the behaviour and physiological responses of group and pair-housed beagles. Some 432 h of observation were collected from 48 beagles assigned equally to four groups: (1) a control group, (2) a group given increased opportunities for social contact with conspecifics, (3) a group given 30 s day−1 of intensive handling, and (4) a group provided with three different toys/chews permanently suspended in the pen: Rawhide, Gumabone chew and a piece of plastic tubing. After 2 months both the controls and the enriched groups spent less time resting and more time on hind legs looking out of the pen. Both human-socialised and dog-socialised groups maintained pre-treatment scores of ‘sniffing kennel mate’, and ‘time spent in contact with kennel mate’, while the control and environment-enriched groups scores for these behaviours fell, but overall intraspecific socialisation in these groups showed no change. During human-socialisation, dogs' time spent chewing items of cage furniture was reduced by 90%. Following 2 months of environmental enrichment, dogs spent a substantial proportion of their time (24%) using the toys, showing that frequent changes of items are not necessary to avoid habituation, if the appropriate toys/ chews are used. Time spent inactive by environment-enriched dogs fell by 20% of pre-treatment values to 51% of total time. However, socialising with kennel mates also fell by 70% of pre-treatment values to 4% of the total time. Environment-enriched dogs solicited less play, played less and spent less time in contact with their kennel mate. These changes may show a ‘preference’ by the dogs for toys over social activity or they may be due to competition for toys. Environment-enriched dogs also spent less time chewing items of pen furniture (a fall on pre-treatment scores of 85%) and walked less (a fall of 35%). Following the addition of a platform to the pens these dogs spent over 50% of their time on it observing surroundings as well as guarding toy items. The study shows that appropriate enrichment can: increase the complexity of dog behaviour, substantially change the expression of behaviour and help to prevent undesirable behaviours. Small increases in the opportunities for social interactions with handlers may produce changes in behaviour with conspecifics. In large facilities physical enrichment is likely to be the most cost-effective option, but staff should be encouraged to have regular positive socialisation sessions with their dogs.
The effects of social contact and space allowance on the expression of play behaviour in domestic calves were studied. Forty-eight female dairy calves in three groups were housed in one of four pen types: (1) small single pen (0.9 m×1.5 m); (2) large single pen (1.8 m×3.0 m); (3) small group pen (1.8 m×3.0 m for 4 calves); and (4) large group pen (3.0 m×5.4 m for 4 calves). The behaviour of all calves was video-recorded for 8 h in week 2 and for 24 h in weeks 4 and 6 of the experiment. Data for play behaviour were obtained from each individual for all hours of observation. In weeks 4 and 6, space allowance affected the quantity of locomotor play. A low space allowance reduced locomotor play in both individually and group-reared calves. The quality of locomotor play was also affected. Elements of locomotor play that involve much movement were either absent or rarely seen in the small single pens. Furthermore, calves in single pens were less active than calves in group pens. The results of this study indicate that sufficient space is essential for the expression of play behaviour in domestic calves. It is suggested that play behaviour may be used to indicate the presence of good welfare in calves and in juveniles of other farm animal species. The use of a measure to indicate the presence of good welfare in addition to measures to indicate the absence of poor welfare may be a step towards a better assessment of welfare in farm animals.
Why do animals play? Play has been described in animals as diverse as reptiles, birds and mammals, so what benefits does it provide and how did it evolve? Careful, quantitative studies of social, locomotor and object play behaviour are now beginning to answer these questions and to shed light on many other aspects of both animal and human behaviour. This interdisciplinary volume, first published in 1998, brings together the major findings about play in a wide range of species including humans. Topics about play include the evolutionary history of play, play structure, function and development, and sex and individual differences. Animal Play is destined to become the benchmark volume in this subject, and will provide a source of inspiration and understanding for students and researchers in behavioural biology, neurobiology, psychology and anthropology.
Many of the structural modifications of modern breeds of domestic dog,Canis familiariscan be explained by changes in the rate of development, during domestication from the wolf,C.lupusThese changes have been dominated by paedomorphosis, or underdevelopment, so that the adult passes through fewer growth stages and resembles a juvenile stage of its ancestor. In this paper the effects of these processes on the signalling ability of 10 breeds selected for their degree of physical dissimilarity to the wolf are examined. The number of ancestral dominant and submissive behaviour patterns used during signalling within single-breed groups ranged from two (Cavalier King Charles spaniel) to 15 (Siberian husky), and this correlated positively with the degree to which the breed physically resembles the wolf, as assessed by a panel of 14 dog behaviour counsellors. When the signals displayed by each breed were grouped according to the stage of wolf development in which they first appear, those breeds with the smallest repertoires were found to draw most of their signals from those appearing before 20 days of age in the wolf, suggesting that physical paedomorphism has been accompanied by behavioural paedomorphism.