tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6706894884305510832024-03-16T11:53:10.910-07:00Do you believe in dog?Canine science for everyoneDoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.comBlogger159125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-16524140794069804192018-11-01T03:49:00.000-07:002018-11-01T03:52:24.635-07:00Women are thriving in canine science - tell a girl you know!<div style="background-color: white;">
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When we learned why girls aren't pursuing futures in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, we wanted to help.</h2>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At <i>Do You Believe in Dog?</i> we're enthusiastic about canine science for lots of reasons. Clearly - dogs are awesome. So is science! Since starting the blog in 2012, we've noticed that dogs offer a wonderful way to get <i>others </i>interested in science. People who might not have thought it was for them. Canine science is also fantastic because of its inherent diversity. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Whether you are interested in evolutionary biology, statistics, genetics, human psychology, animal behaviour, wearable tech, nutrition, anatomy, ecology, urban design, communication, biochemistry, exercise physiology, animal-technology interactions, bio-monitoring, science communication or animal learning - canine science offers a way to be involved! </span></span></div>
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</b></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>To showcase how females are thriving in science, we reached out to a selection of the amazing group of woman succeeding in canine-related science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) globally. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>They wanted to help too.</b></span><br />
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</b></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Thanks to their support, we'll be featuring one of these fabulous women each day on our social media channels in November, so be sure to keep track on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DoYouBelieveInDog/">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/DoUBelieveInDog">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/miacobb/">LinkedIn</a> or <a href="http://instagram.com/mlcobb77">Instagram</a>.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here's why we're doing this...</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fewer girls than boys study and work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, and the gap between girls and boys is growing. Research into biological factors, including </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">genetics,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">brain structure and development, neuroscience and hormones, shows that the gender gap in STEM is not the result of sex differences in these factors or related to any type of 'innate ability'. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When young, girls and boys show the same level of interest and abilities in STEM. They may demonstrate different approaches to solving the same issue - exactly why we need both in these fields as diversity offers strength and flexibility in solving problems. Sadly, social, cultural and educational discrimination and biases are leading to girls losing interest in STEM. The ages between 10-15 have been identified as most critical, with many 15 year olds having already lost interest in STEM subjects. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Several recent studies have explored this trend across Europe, the US, Canada and Australia, surveying tens of thousands of girls and women.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">GIRLS CITED A LACK OF FEMALE ROLE MODELS IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS AS A <u>KEY REASON</u> THEY DIDN'T FOLLOW A CAREER IN THE SECTOR</span></b></h4>
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<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Having visible female role models almost doubles the number of girls interested in STEM careers and helps them to picture themselves pursuing these fields. </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">There is a clear link between role models and an increased passion for science, technology, engineering and maths subjects, with more interest in careers in these fields, and greater self-confidence. </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Perhaps surprisingly, celebrities are considered to be the least influential role models for driving girls’ interest in STEM, while women working in STEM fields are the top drivers, with the most impact.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Increased interest in STEM isn’t limited to a single subject. On average, across maths, physics, biology, chemistry and computer science, having a STEM role model results in a 12 percent increase in interest.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Equally as important, results show that if a girl has a role model for a particular subject area, such as maths, a corresponding positive effect is still seen across all other STEM fields.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Girls also become more interested in STEM once they’re able to conceive what they can do with these subjects in real life situations and how relevant they are to their future.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The women in canine science want to help inspire the next generation of girls to know that STEM is accessible, fun and waiting for them. </span></b><b style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And importantly - SO ARE THE DOGS!</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Do You Believe in Dog? </i>are honoured to help share insights to the exciting work in this field and the advice today's women would like to pass on to girls considering a future in STEM. </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So tell a girl you know that females are thriving in canine science. Today, please!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Mia and Julie</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #2f2f2f;"><b>References:</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2f2f2f;"><a href="https://news.microsoft.com/uploads/2017/03/ms_stem_whitepaper.pdf" style="color: #2f2f2f;">Microsoft STEM White Paper Report</a></span></span><br />
<a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0025/002534/253479e.pdf"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #2f2f2f;">UNESCO </span><span style="color: #2f2f2f;">Cracking the code: </span><span style="color: #2f2f2f;">Girls’ and women’s education in science, technology, </span><span style="color: #2f2f2f;">engineering and mathematics</span></span></a><br />
<a href="https://www.accenture.com/t20180524T074231Z__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/Accenture/next-gen-3/girls-who-code/Accenture-Cracking-The-Gender-Code-Report.pdfla=en"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Accenture: Cracking the Gender Code Report</span></a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2f2f2f; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/index-eng.cfm" style="color: #2f2f2f;">Canada Census in brief reports</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://air4.com.au/">Air4 Australia</a></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxusqyJo4fSBO1_xcuMxInKmLhDmQcicxb0u-IXvL8LryjLqLEhsJgbHQuDAXq8OIDRJoWuk7fT72oqxVYFCfTVnuh4RQpcsch_i6xXaWrGym206xxV3e1DaQideEM9dRz2_q9wBv-YOv/s1600/AlexandraHorowitzFB+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="940" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxusqyJo4fSBO1_xcuMxInKmLhDmQcicxb0u-IXvL8LryjLqLEhsJgbHQuDAXq8OIDRJoWuk7fT72oqxVYFCfTVnuh4RQpcsch_i6xXaWrGym206xxV3e1DaQideEM9dRz2_q9wBv-YOv/s400/AlexandraHorowitzFB+%25281%2529.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com17Melbourne VIC, Australia-37.8136276 144.96305759999996-39.415753599999995 142.38127059999997 -36.2115016 147.54484459999995tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-1723661283129182902018-09-18T16:30:00.000-07:002018-09-18T16:30:08.050-07:00<h2>
How active is the average dog? And do extreme weather events affect their activity? </h2>
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Researchers are appealing to dog owners around the world for help.</h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How active is your dog? <a href="https://heatstroke.dog/">Emily Hall</a> wants to know, and needs your help to find out! Emily Hall is a vet and PhD student investigating risk factors for canine heatstroke and how environmental conditions affect dog’s ability to exercise. Together with Dr Anne Carter (Senior Lecturer in Animal Biology) and Dr Mark Farnworth (Associate Professor in Animal Welfare) at Nottingham Trent University, Emily is asking dog owners around the world to share information about their dog’s normal exercise routine via an online survey. Dogs of any age, any breed and any health status can participate. Live with more than one dog? Simply re-start the survey to add additional dogs’ details too. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please share the survey link <a href="https://ntusurvey.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/investigating-dog-activity-levels">here</a>, open until 31st December 2018:<br />
<a href="https://ntusurvey.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/investigating-dog-activity-levels">https://ntusurvey.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/investigating-dog-activity-levels</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What did your dog do today? How about your neighbour's dog? From the moment they woke up, to the point at which they curled up in their bed (or perhaps your bed), how did they spend their day? Did they go out for a walk, or a run? Did they chase a ball, or a cat? Did they compete in a <a href="https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/activities/canicross/">canicross</a> race, or train for an agility competition? Did they do as much as they were doing this time last year? Do you know what they will be able to do this time next year?</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Surprisingly, we don’t know very much at all about dog activity levels.</b></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Google “how much exercise does a dog need every day”, and one site will tell you this varies from dog to dog. Another site goes as far as to provide breed specific information on just how much your dog should be doing. For example, a Beagle apparently needs over two hours of exercise daily to keep them physically and mentally fit. A canine charity suggests how many walks a dog should ideally have a day. So who do you trust, and which one is right for your dog?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">None of these popular, well-respected websites list any evidence base, such as references or sources of information to support these statements.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Go a step further with a search to Google Scholar. Search “dog OR canine AND activity levels”. The results explore how dog ownership impacts human activity levels, walking and general health. The only results relating to the dog’s activity levels, explore the use of wearable technology for measuring step count and distance travelled. We just don’t know how much exercise the average dog is getting, so we have absolutely no idea how age, breed, health status or external factors such as location or weather, impact the dog’s ability to exercise.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHYR884Vua42seXcmlNxCwSo6CJcxSA-LKYYKoKnFuZ5ILsynN4aNP1YSfE7j8lieuIGfiKtPvSw1HLU4HErFdr2jXvw0eION-hSOl-yZ1I01UvjsXma5j-XeV3jBQUUT55RIv81O8XtE8/s1600/22203839492_881cc32f80_k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHYR884Vua42seXcmlNxCwSo6CJcxSA-LKYYKoKnFuZ5ILsynN4aNP1YSfE7j8lieuIGfiKtPvSw1HLU4HErFdr2jXvw0eION-hSOl-yZ1I01UvjsXma5j-XeV3jBQUUT55RIv81O8XtE8/s1600/22203839492_881cc32f80_k.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Amongst the articles on how dog ownership impacts human health, we see at one point the </span><a href="https://www.nhs.uk/news/older-people/owning-a-dog-may-encourage-older-people-to-exercise/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">British tabloids reported the National Health Service was prescribing dog walking to help people keep fit</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, following a </span><a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4422-5" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">study showing that older people walked more if they own a dog</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. Sounds good? Perhaps, until you explore the study design. Participants were required to confirm their ability to walk unaided for a minimum of 10 minutes continuously. Ok, sounds reasonable? For the dog owning participants, they had to confirm the same criteria applied to their dog. So sadly, this study is flawed because it excludes all the dog owners who don’t have an active dog. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The key problem with suggesting dog ownership to improve human health and physical activity levels, is the lack of evidence for normal canine activity levels. Confounding that, we also have no idea how canine factors such as breed, age or health impact activity levels. To complicate things further, increasingly frequent extreme weather events such as record breaking heatwaves like those seen in parts of Australia in 2017 — and the UK, Canada and Japan in 2018 — may also impact a dog’s ability to exercise. We just don’t know. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In planning our next research project, we hit this wall. To get past it, we need to know: how active are our dogs? What affects their ability to be active? </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It’s always interesting when some of these really fundamental questions have been overlooked in the field of canine science, and we’re excited to learn more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Participate in the online survey</b></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Through our online survey we are investigating activity levels in dogs of every age, every breed, from all over the world. We are asking owners to share their dog’s health status so we can investigate if certain health problems impact a dog’s ability to exercise. It may sound obvious that a dog with a painful hip won’t want to walk as far as a healthy dog, but what about a dog with long-term itchy skin, or epilepsy? Does their disease impact their exercise routine? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We also want to know how the weather affects dogs. How are the heatwaves affecting dog’s activity levels? Are they exercising at all, or is the risk of heatstroke too great? At the other extreme, what happens when it snows? Do some dogs love the snow and exercise more, or do they get too cold and refuse the leave the house!</span></div>
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<h4>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://ntusurvey.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/investigating-dog-activity-levels">Share your dog’s activity levels</a></b></span></h4>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We would like all dog owners to complete the survey, no matter how old, young, or healthy your dog is. The survey can be completed as many times as required, so if you have more than one dog, re-start the survey for each individual dog. If you feel a question doesn’t apply to you, leave it blank, or leave a comment. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please access and share the survey using this link: <a href="https://ntusurvey.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/investigating-dog-activity-levels">https://ntusurvey.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/investigating-dog-activity-levels</a> </span></div>
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<h4>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The results</b></span></h4>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The survey doesn’t close until the end of 2018, so you’ll need to be patient while we crunch the numbers, but all results will be shared via the project blog, at <a href="https://heatstroke.dog/">https://heatstroke.dog/</a> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Any questions, please get in touch via <a href="mailto:heatstroke.dog@gmail.com">heatstroke.dog@gmail.com</a></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
<b>Emily Hall</b><br />
Nottingham Trent University, UK<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Images via Flickr: froderamone / carterse / blumenbiene</i></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.comNottingham, UK52.954783199999987 -1.158108599999991452.801723699999989 -1.4808320999999913 53.107842699999985 -0.83538509999999144tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-36808359272134492532018-08-10T15:54:00.001-07:002018-08-12T18:52:01.046-07:00The importance of studying free-ranging dogs, and what we learned about Bali dogs<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY4QKUygNwuxfCmHlC0YgMgb58utaNRs8ONbQp1GW00eOuRULsdu_3SdP-aP7u2QPwS9Is5JBLojuOWrcUVEWqEibhNriImwHzDq0jlaUf3aAppNMjkqgEGmpGxN_NtEpphbAwNh4KdOVB/s1600/Shogun%252BMarco.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY4QKUygNwuxfCmHlC0YgMgb58utaNRs8ONbQp1GW00eOuRULsdu_3SdP-aP7u2QPwS9Is5JBLojuOWrcUVEWqEibhNriImwHzDq0jlaUf3aAppNMjkqgEGmpGxN_NtEpphbAwNh4KdOVB/s640/Shogun%252BMarco.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Marco and Shogun. Credit Marco Adda</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Today we are joined by <a href="http://marcoadda.com/about-marco/" target="_blank">Marco Adda</a> as he describes <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0197354" target="_blank">his recent publication</a> exploring Bali dogs — those living in a free-ranging state and those living in human homes as pets. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Do you know that free-ranging dogs are one of the most widely distributed carnivore in the world? Or, perhaps I should begin by asking: have you considered, or even ever heard about, free-ranging dogs? In case yes, I can imagine what you are (maybe) thinking: feral dogs. Am I right? Are you picturing dogs living wild and uncontrolled in a “developing country”? Dogs carrying diseases and people avoiding them at all cost? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In some cases, this may be the case, but framing free-ranging dogs this way is not actually correct. In fact, free-ranging dogs, also called Village Dogs (rather than “feral dogs”) do not always carry diseases, they often interact with humans, and they may be wonderful companions too! They also represent an excellent opportunity to study and understand dog-human interactions and dog behaviour.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Most people in places like Europe, North America, and Australia think about dogs as companion animals living with a human family. Thus, when those people happen to spend time in places where free-ranging dogs are present, they often want to adopt dogs and restrict them to their homes. This is what I witnessed in places such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, India, and Mexico, among others. And this is what we have been observing in Bali, Indonesia. Bali dogs are shifting from a free-ranging lifestyle to a Westernised style of restricted pet companionship.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bali dogs are a unique canine population. They have been <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0028496" target="_blank">free-ranging for thousands of years</a>. And you know what? They are not as wild as you may think. While it is true that they often show a high level of independence, they are also recognised as excellent animal companions. In fact, expatriates populating the island of Bali over the last few decades occasionally adopt these village dogs, and then keep them restricted to their houses and backyards as is typical in their home countries and cultures. This new trend has provided us with the unique opportunity to compare the personality traits of dogs according to their lifestyle: either living as human companions, or living as free-ranging dogs. In addition, we have explored the impact of age, sex, and neuter status (demographic variables) on these dogs’ personality traits. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have been observing Bali dogs since 2012. Bali is not a huge island (5,780 km²), and in 2012 about 300,000 free-ranging dogs were estimated to roam around. When preliminary observations proved novel and exciting, a study was developed in collaboration with the Family Dog Project in 2014. Further observations and questionnaire-collection were planned and carried out over the next few years. Dog “carers/owners” filled out a validated dog behavior and personality questionnaire for their pet companion Bali dog. Caretakers completed the same questionnaire for the free-ranging Bali dogs. In total, we had 75 adult dogs in the study. The questionnaire included many questions about how the dog behaves under different circumstances.</span></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWePPq2KAQcS7GK-q1Tk7awDnxlGX_lQFbBJcB9B-VlC9rjUdeNOxdGSZRoWZQEGdYT4BSJ0OdMscBTNw6Yc4YynJjPFydwOo3YCKnQiOCAppg88B3uLgUwe2X_U93x75Bci62Fp_5xghW/s1600/Bali+Dogs+Study+Sample+-+Photo+Credit+Marco+Adda.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="989" data-original-width="1400" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWePPq2KAQcS7GK-q1Tk7awDnxlGX_lQFbBJcB9B-VlC9rjUdeNOxdGSZRoWZQEGdYT4BSJ0OdMscBTNw6Yc4YynJjPFydwOo3YCKnQiOCAppg88B3uLgUwe2X_U93x75Bci62Fp_5xghW/s640/Bali+Dogs+Study+Sample+-+Photo+Credit+Marco+Adda.tiff" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Dogs in the study. Credit: Marco Adda</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What we found</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Observations and analyses revealed that Bali dogs living as human companions in a typical domestic setting (house, fenced backyard, etc.) are more active, excitable, and aggressive towards animals, and are also more inclined to chase animals or humans than Bali dogs that live free-ranging. Looking closer, females were found to be more excitable and fearful of people. In other words, being restricted within a household could potentially make free-ranging Bali dogs more reactive than those dogs living free-ranging. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">These results raise some important considerations. One may assume that a free-ranging dog lives unhappily without a human family. In some instances, this may be the case. But we need to also remember that free-ranging dogs have a lot of freedom that dogs living as pets or companions do not necessarily have. Consider the privilege of deciding daily actions and habits. Free-ranging dogs can display behaviour according to their personality. Their sociality, and in some cases sexual conduct, are not, or are minimally, conditioned by humans.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_zXDcG9zWRw?rel=0&controls=0" width="560"></iframe><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While we love our pets and we include them as part of our families, we need to remember that, to some degree, we are limiting their freedom and this may impact their behaviour. This study on Bali dogs, then, shows how some dogs, shifting from a free-roaming to a pet/home context, may become more reactive to some solicitations. Does that mean we shouldn't have dogs in our houses? I don't think so. However, we need to remind that when dogs live as restrained "pets", the lack of some freedoms may affect dogs' behavior and even prompt some behavioural issues. Therefore, we may need to adjust something in our human behavior or habits to provide an adequate environment for our dogs.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We know that this study is just preliminary, but we consider these results relevant. They suggest that a change in lifestyle, i.e. being adopted and living in a confined environment, may have negative consequences on some canine personality traits in this population of dogs.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Bali dogs matter</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A notable aspect of this study is that our dog population is really unique. Most well-known dog breeds (such as Golden Retrievers or German Shephards) are the result of relatively recent and deliberate human selection. The Bali dogs have not been deliberately selected by humans in this way. Instead, they have roamed the island for at least 3,300 years. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To better grasp the history of Bali dogs, we need to look at the main religion of Bali. The Hindu Bali religion traditionally respects the street dog. Dogs can be seen as sacred creatures or manifestations of spirits. Bali dogs have been allowed to behave as dogs would and roam and reproduce freely on the island. In my ethnographic research around Bali, I gathered stories from the 1970s-1980s describing how large packs of free-ranging dogs (10-25 individuals) would roam the streets. Some dogs were referred to as aggressive and the packs described as scary, and yet dogs were left to roam, consistent with religious traditions. This suggests that Bali dogs have potentially had little behavioural selection, at least until the 1970s-1980s, when the scene dramatically changed due to major economic, environmental, and cultural shifts.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We cannot entirely exclude the possibility that particular dogs may have been eliminated due to their behaviour, or that humans preferred — and therefore selected — some dogs over others. However, Bali dogs have not experienced artificial selection for morphology or behaviour as seen in Western dog breeds. This is something that makes the Bali dog population unique. It is also one of those cases where we can see the flaw in calling a 100-year-old artificially selected breed "pure," while a 3,300-year-old canine population is considered a "non-breed." </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And Bali dogs deserve particular attention. Their numbers have declined from some 800,000 individuals in 2008 to no more than 150,000 individuals in 2018. This is a dramatic drop of 81% of the entire population in just the last ten years. The main reasons are the massive culling plans, the dog meat trade, as well as other causes like disease or car accidents. While neutering programs are in place for the welfare of dogs, they also contribute to the decline in numbers. Furthermore, the interbreeding of Bali dogs with international dog breed is also impacting the historical Bali dog population. Finally, studies on the personality of free-ranging dogs are rare, which adds to the value of this research.</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYDk0FkJXCdnTJ8PwTdq1mAsYL5Y9z8v_su0p9PGMdg7CrV5qJR2bAv1I7Erwm0W3m1TSVx9tvop8CB-0aioLc0umwJ93zMg0437xGP3NFU1JVQAEgETtsWc8GnvK1Am-PNG3LDiLdJS7/s1600/BaliDogs+%252B+Marco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="973" data-original-width="1600" height="387" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYDk0FkJXCdnTJ8PwTdq1mAsYL5Y9z8v_su0p9PGMdg7CrV5qJR2bAv1I7Erwm0W3m1TSVx9tvop8CB-0aioLc0umwJ93zMg0437xGP3NFU1JVQAEgETtsWc8GnvK1Am-PNG3LDiLdJS7/s640/BaliDogs+%252B+Marco.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Bali dogs and Marco</span></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Acknowledgements</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We would like to thank all the dog “owners” and the caretakers who participated in our study by completing the questionnaires and providing relevant information about companion and free-ranging Bali dogs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Marco Adda</span></span></span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(35, 35, 35);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://marcoadda.com/" target="_blank">MarcoAdda.com</a> and on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Marco-Adda-Anthrozoology-Education-and-Canines-537490186297659/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></span></span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(35, 35, 35);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://familydogproject.elte.hu/" target="_blank">Family Dog Project</a> and on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FamilyDogProject/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Reference</i></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Corrieri L, Adda M, Miklósi Á, Kubinyi E (2018) <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0197354" target="_blank">Companion and free-ranging Bali dogs: Environmental links with personality traits in an endemic dog population of South East Asia.</a> PLOS ONE 13(6): e0197354.</span></span></div>
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</style><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-38153643933880001232018-06-14T19:53:00.003-07:002018-06-28T18:29:04.520-07:00Not one way to do it. The ‘Do You Believe in Dog’ learning & training roundup #Train4Rewards<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5yV3O2fSbU5mlr9P8z-Sz-fUATdIyVQ4glHyOID5Z9Cn7zGkeS-j7Sq9MNZAEGzurmOUGipnmz6Bgv2gje3SEb1ix31q4KcusGkfQf7LLcYmKbvTUaGDGU-HKzxs42x4hvM2xD75-KsDE/s1600/adorable-animal-animal-photography-612813.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1018" data-original-width="1600" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5yV3O2fSbU5mlr9P8z-Sz-fUATdIyVQ4glHyOID5Z9Cn7zGkeS-j7Sq9MNZAEGzurmOUGipnmz6Bgv2gje3SEb1ix31q4KcusGkfQf7LLcYmKbvTUaGDGU-HKzxs42x4hvM2xD75-KsDE/s400/adorable-animal-animal-photography-612813.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/adorable-animal-animal-photography-canine-612813/" target="_blank">Source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hey dog lover! What’s hidden behind most everything?</span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why, it’s learning and training!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While this probably sounds like a grand overstatement, it really isn’t. Here at <i>Do You Believe in Dog</i>, we’ve seen learning and training sneak into practically every nook and cranny of our relationship with dogs. But not all learning (or training) is the same.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today, we’re participating in <a href="https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2018/06/the-train-for-rewards-blog-party-2018.html" target="_blank">Companion Animal Psychology’s #Train4Rewards blog party 2018</a> by highlighting <i>DYBID</i> posts which taught us about reward-based training, often with the help of an excellent video! While we (Julie and Mia) write many of the posts here at <i>DYBID</i>, other canine science researchers <a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com/p/contributors.html#.WyMma1Mvw_U" target="_blank">have contributed</a> to share their own research and findings. The posts below are relevant to all dogs and also explore where a dog lover can access good information on learning and training.</span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisySRaO4etsFZvjFTIKqByNKXIR955nwqYupxPKVNqGFdENlaOQQ2U_RKM0iBvFdhaivGuFM1TfMsFBDRKhp92K1urTnMCmVomI5vwcQWyxOB9N71w57CIMj9HuJvlyssglk60t8yAA1Zj/s1600/2018-train-for-rewards-b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisySRaO4etsFZvjFTIKqByNKXIR955nwqYupxPKVNqGFdENlaOQQ2U_RKM0iBvFdhaivGuFM1TfMsFBDRKhp92K1urTnMCmVomI5vwcQWyxOB9N71w57CIMj9HuJvlyssglk60t8yAA1Zj/s320/2018-train-for-rewards-b.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2018/06/the-train-for-rewards-blog-party-2018.html" target="_blank">Check out the entire 2018 #Train4Rewards Blog Party</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com/2013/07/dog-training-do-you-get-timing-right.html#.WyMjdlMvw_U" target="_blank">Dog training: Do you get the timing right?</a></span></b></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What a difference a second can make! Clare Browne discusses her research on the effect of a 0 or 1 second reinforcement delay. [VIDEO INCLUDED]</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com/2014/09/cat-and-dogs-seeking-solutions.html#.WyML81Mvw_U" target="_blank">Diabetic alert dogs: Seeking solutions with sniffing canines and science</a></span></b></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cat Reeve shares her work with diabetic alert dogs (DADs). How do dogs learn to alert when a person has a hypoglycemic event (low blood sugar)? What samples should we use to teach them? [VIDEO INCLUDED]</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com/2014/03/do-as-i-do-copy-cat-social-imitation-in.html#.WyMPA1Mvw_U" target="_blank">Copy dogs?</a></span></b></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Claudia Fugazza reminds us that reward-based training can, and should, get social. Claudia explains how dogs can learn new behaviors by observing and copying their handler. Dogs are the new copycats. [VIDEO INCLUDED]</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-to-make-fireworks-less-upsetting.html#.WyMVg1Mvw_U" target="_blank">How to make fireworks less upsetting for dogs</a></span></b></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When something scary comes along, there’s something you should know. We can help our dogs. Veterinarian Sophia Yin shows us how. [VIDEO INCLUDED]</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com/2015/04/51-shades-of-grey-misuse.html#.WyMkYFMvw_V" target="_blank">51 Shades of Grey: Misuse, misunderstanding and misinformation of the concepts of “dominance” and “punishment”</a></span></b></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Simon Gadbois looks at science as a method of inquiry, and explores its purpose and applications in the real world.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-science-of-carrots-and-sticks.html#.WyMO6FMvw_U" target="_blank">The science of carrots and sticks</a></span></b></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mia reflects on a training day the the Melbourne Aquarium and highlights a great book by McGreevy and Boakes called ‘Carrots and Sticks: Principles of Animal Training.’</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com/2013/07/dog-eared-books.html#.WyMeVlMvw_V" target="_blank">Dog-eared books</a></span></b></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Guess what? Our recommended book list from 2013 is still relevant today!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Be sure to check out other posts participating in the <a href="https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2018/06/the-train-for-rewards-blog-party-2018.html" target="_blank">Train for Rewards Blog Party 2018</a>.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Julie Hecht & Mia Cobb</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Do You Believe in Dog</i> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DoYouBelieveInDog/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/DoUBelieveInDog" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div><br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-77331726385663211772018-05-30T07:58:00.000-07:002018-06-28T18:30:02.692-07:00Free canine science event, June 1-3: Live streaming world wide! #SPARCS18 <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKKdBLlNtpF1wjas7sYXzW9plEOTMvWPElGqp5VIn3qG_MHqsPR-RpAk8op_pHK0iXwq8aDxt7UOYWlh4MSJavV22EPchcMps3t-8Gj2vhl3TuHHvOJUjJKY-msuwwt3mIvtTD7ILGpV8e/s1600/FREE+CANINE+SCIENCE+EVENT+1-3+JUNE+LIVE+STREAMING+WORLDWIDE.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"></span></a></div><div class="p2"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79clU2EjKZoyko3-bAgEOSRaV41t_9c5r2TXGudsh6NlbuN3DMMWDQv6WownH4M4T6ex9sFnhFLOpm1ZnN_zZ6DD-G4cHcA5x60wfGdko7FCYC8pRGcZldX3aVsTMUJF8EIM2swFZ2N-X/s1600/SPARCS_18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79clU2EjKZoyko3-bAgEOSRaV41t_9c5r2TXGudsh6NlbuN3DMMWDQv6WownH4M4T6ex9sFnhFLOpm1ZnN_zZ6DD-G4cHcA5x60wfGdko7FCYC8pRGcZldX3aVsTMUJF8EIM2swFZ2N-X/s400/SPARCS_18.png" title="SPARCS18" width="400" /></a></div><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It’s Baaack!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">You may remember us talking about the SPARCS conference in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com/2013/07/sparcs2013-aftermath.html#.Ww6pnVMvw_U" target="_blank">2013</a>, <a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com/2014/06/sparcs2014-is-now-you-can-be-here-too.html#.Ww6pq1Mvw_U" target="_blank">2014</a>, and <a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com/2015/06/sparcs2015-canine-science-for-everyone.html#.Ww6p2VMvw_U" target="_blank">2015</a>. After a 2-year hiatus, it’s baaack! And people who care about dogs all around the world are pretty much losing it with excitement (like on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CanineScience/" target="_blank">SPARCS Facebook page</a>!).</span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">SPARCS, which stands for the <a href="http://sparcsinitiative.org/our-mission/" target="_blank">Society for the Promotion of Applied Research in Canine Science</a>, has been at the forefront of connecting dog lovers to canine science via a free, live streaming conference that actively brings dog people into the conversation <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23SPARCS18&src=tyah" target="_blank">#SPARCS18</a>!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://sparcsinitiative.org/events/sparcs-2018/" target="_blank">SPARCS returns for 2018</a>, this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 1 - 3. This time, it’s all about what’s underneath: canine behavioral genetics. Six canine researchers, behavioral veterinarians, and geneticists bring us ‘The Real Dog: What We Know & What We Don’t (Yet).’</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-D6pNTOVs1tCWaeT-iv3zJtz7g2TZAs5sAWCq7_Mib7lV0geUjESmso1Es8Kj8XH1YG0JxkeHYKiQlY6fBf0uZ44Qqcc-pd_Fp8XCC7Z9e7cxrbfKlPGb2_gbBQbewu7uiXk2f_IqnrAs/s1600/SPARCS+2018+Speakers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="661" data-original-width="1296" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-D6pNTOVs1tCWaeT-iv3zJtz7g2TZAs5sAWCq7_Mib7lV0geUjESmso1Es8Kj8XH1YG0JxkeHYKiQlY6fBf0uZ44Qqcc-pd_Fp8XCC7Z9e7cxrbfKlPGb2_gbBQbewu7uiXk2f_IqnrAs/s400/SPARCS+2018+Speakers.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">#SPARCS18 speakers and science hosts!</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We’re incredibly excited to join SPARCS for the third year as science hosts. The conferences is live streaming from New York's Hudson Valley (EDT), and is now<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>presented by <a href="https://www.nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com/" target="_blank">The National Canine Research Council</a>. As we prepare for the conference, here’s what you should know about watching and engaging live, and even how to watch later.</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMJWctNYwLj9h8Yt7rgheC9Tk_Xr9EnmawBhcLchK6Uw28y5PoVwVH_-KNseC16IG7pBt8XmLyNYTFgzoqvfQNQdjUA5Qciz37DIPYQ1xDwgsVXDrUAYqDDKZY8h0XgnKsRo6gbZ55652U/s1600/SPARCS+2018+DYBID.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="1052" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMJWctNYwLj9h8Yt7rgheC9Tk_Xr9EnmawBhcLchK6Uw28y5PoVwVH_-KNseC16IG7pBt8XmLyNYTFgzoqvfQNQdjUA5Qciz37DIPYQ1xDwgsVXDrUAYqDDKZY8h0XgnKsRo6gbZ55652U/s400/SPARCS+2018+DYBID.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><a href="http://sparcsinitiative.org/events/sparcs-2018/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Watch live:</b> <b>4th SPARCS conference website</b></span></a></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">June 1 - 3, 2018</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">9:30am - 5:15pm (EDT)</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Each day features two speakers, post-talk Q&A, and an end-of-day group panel discussion 4:30pm - 5:15pm</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Friday, June 1</span></b></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ádám Miklósi and Kristopher Irizarry kick us off with the evolution of dogs’ close relationship with humans.</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhII6Ebgo8mwp9tXE6mE6GR2x7ERNFIw9ocdk1PsvAY7jsZwE6mz1GNobxj-SBMgzLYYzBQrTHVFG4kdcRGOj2KLRHeQxmRZww2IHzH1hiAZY2oyo9hTGmLZiEDJvlkY_ZrXU5hZyMJOpeQ/s1600/June+1st+Schedule+Updated.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhII6Ebgo8mwp9tXE6mE6GR2x7ERNFIw9ocdk1PsvAY7jsZwE6mz1GNobxj-SBMgzLYYzBQrTHVFG4kdcRGOj2KLRHeQxmRZww2IHzH1hiAZY2oyo9hTGmLZiEDJvlkY_ZrXU5hZyMJOpeQ/s400/June+1st+Schedule+Updated.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="p2"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Saturday, June 2</span></b></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Claire Wade and Elinor Karlsson introduce the amazingly complex relationship between genomics and behavior, which in recent years has been clarified with the help of citizen science.</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8MawK0LeRjwP8YK7TC0Uwn_OfsmXrHX8tM8-n_9tUTIj4LYaailxMTandaV9QBd0iWUBXhUd8Od8UdAZRQprDWrkNIy29ASuo6wzMD_gL5wlU-Agk4au2qf7IA1SPhINomZ1LCDnbM-o1/s1600/June+2nd+Schedule+Updated.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8MawK0LeRjwP8YK7TC0Uwn_OfsmXrHX8tM8-n_9tUTIj4LYaailxMTandaV9QBd0iWUBXhUd8Od8UdAZRQprDWrkNIy29ASuo6wzMD_gL5wlU-Agk4au2qf7IA1SPhINomZ1LCDnbM-o1/s400/June+2nd+Schedule+Updated.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="p2"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sunday, June 3</span></b></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Kelly Ballantyne and Jessica Hekman wrap it up and get really real about the impact of behavioral genetics on dog relationships with humans and the important recognition that genetics don’t necessarily mean predestination.</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh69aFHvrLenmClMsSXSJiE67PDhOzWeJVug4s4Ktf2OqNydIDMBTNeezsYoNIHQZKs5IKZA-VJGcm7hVWdQJPDRnA7_bDcXG52Ke4nMSxluj9dNzTxar4Rwj-4QYaTbCjydKp3Z-NS14Rx/s1600/June+3rd+Schedule+Updated.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh69aFHvrLenmClMsSXSJiE67PDhOzWeJVug4s4Ktf2OqNydIDMBTNeezsYoNIHQZKs5IKZA-VJGcm7hVWdQJPDRnA7_bDcXG52Ke4nMSxluj9dNzTxar4Rwj-4QYaTbCjydKp3Z-NS14Rx/s400/June+3rd+Schedule+Updated.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Get social: </b>Pose questions and comments for speaker Q&As and daily panel discussions. This live streaming conference is anything but passive — unless that’s what you want, in which case sit back in your pajamas and relax! After each talk, we (Mia and Julie of Do You Believe in Dog?) will hold speaker Q&A sessions, and our questions (we hope!) will be your questions! </span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Share questions or comments over Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/DoUBelieveInDog" target="_blank">DYBID</a> using <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SPARCS18?src=hash" target="_blank">#SPARCS18</a>, and feel free to post on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DoYouBelieveInDog/" target="_blank">Do You Believe in Dog Facebook page</a> too. Remember, SPARCS is also on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CanineScience/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/CanineScience" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. </span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Watch later:</b> All presentations and panel discussions will be recorded and posted to the SPARCS website following the conference.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Watch the past:</b> As mentioned, this is the 4th SPARCS conference, and past presentations, speaker interviews, and panel discussions <a href="http://sparcsinitiative.org/watch/" target="_blank">are available, right now, for free</a>, on the SPARCS website. Hear from Marc Bekoff, Michael Fox, Clive Wynne, Ádám Miklósi, Ray Coppinger, James Serpell, Simon Gadbois, Monique Udell, Alexandra Horowitz, Kathryn Lord, Patricia McConnell, Stephen Zawistowski, Michael Hennessey, Bonne Beerda, James Ha, Hal Herzog, Márta Gácsi and others anytime you like.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-80218658410968683542018-03-13T12:48:00.001-07:002021-08-27T00:47:00.744-07:00Do Dogs Just Want To Have Fun?<div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #666666; font-size: large;">Please welcome <a href="https://twitter.com/BeccaSomm" target="_blank">Rebecca Sommerville</a>, today’s guest contributor. Rebecca joins us to discuss her <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159117302575" target="_blank">recent review</a> on the function and welfare of dog play with co-authors Drs. <a href="https://twitter.com/asherblab" target="_blank">Lucy Asher</a> and Emily O’Connor.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuLrqZXB1SKZbGnoy8MQkk34j5CZHs8sEB863eNgnOvTnwlzgxARNSoDb2vcYS-0j4uoo_UyddE2qoaW3TNoIzLeSHS0yZy_srWuiU-c0lGHUX8gq6qCZtGznbmh-Z2NmPABy9gKKyh61B/s1600/matt-jones-67226-unsplash.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuLrqZXB1SKZbGnoy8MQkk34j5CZHs8sEB863eNgnOvTnwlzgxARNSoDb2vcYS-0j4uoo_UyddE2qoaW3TNoIzLeSHS0yZy_srWuiU-c0lGHUX8gq6qCZtGznbmh-Z2NmPABy9gKKyh61B/s400/matt-jones-67226-unsplash.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by <a href="https://jennichen.fi/" target="_blank"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: small;">Jenni Chen</span></a>, license CC BY</td></tr>
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</span></div><div class="p1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><span class="s1">The sight of a dog playing, whether tearing around a park after another dog, or throwing their favourite toy in the air, rarely fails to draw a smile. It seems like dogs just want to have fun. Yet all of that playing uses a lot of energy and puts them at more risk of getting hurt. There must be a good reason they play, but it’s hard to see an obvious one. In the modern world all of their needs should be provided for – food, water, shelter, companionship. So why would dogs do <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201709/its-ok-dogs-engage-in-zoomies-and-enjoy-fraps" target="_blank">zoomies</a>,</span><span class="s1"> if not for fun?</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: black;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: black;">In our recent </span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159117302575" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" target="_blank">review paper</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: black;">, we explored research on animal play to help answer this question. Dogs and modern-day wolves share a common ancestor, but during the last 10,000 years, their bodies and minds have been shaped by living with us. They can live harmoniously alongside people and be very attentive to us, and their behaviour is affected by these influences, including play. Our paper looked at the main reasons why animals play and put those reasons to the test with dogs.</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: black;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: black;">The first reason was</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: black;"> playing to get stronger</b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: black;">, or to develop ‘motor skills’.</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: black;"> </b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: black;">Dogs play the most when they are young, which suggests that play could strengthen their bones and tissues while they are growing. Many types of movement are seen during play, from fighting to biting, mounting to chasing and manipulating objects – which could all be practice for doing these for real as an adult. However, play is not the best practice, or the best way to get fitter, so it doesn’t make sense why it would exist for this reason alone. It is not the best practice for the muscles and bones because it is sporadic and it doesn’t truly represent the later serious behaviour, only parts of it and in different ways.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">The second reason was <b>playing to be prepared</b>, or ‘training for the unexpected’. Play can be quite unpredictable, especially when it is social, and it could prove useful practice for future situations when dogs need to think flexibly and be able to cope. Another interesting aspect is ‘self-handicapping’, where dogs deliberately put themselves at a disadvantage during play, such as to play with a smaller dog. This gives them skills in showing flexible behaviour, for example to signal that they want to back down to avoid a fight if another dog is aggressive towards them, which is particularly important for young dogs to learn. But again, this can’t explain all types of play that dogs do.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">The third reason was <b>making friends through play</b>, or ‘social cohesion’. Through play, dogs build their social skills and bonds with others. Dogs prefer to play with someone they know and play can also be used to get to know a new person or dog. There was quite a lot of evidence for this in dogs because the games they play, who they choose to play with, and how they play all revolve around improving their social relationships.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">The final reason was <b>play by accident</b>, or a ‘by-product of biological processes’. As play appears to not have a function, it could be a by-product of something else. For example, play may simply occur because the dog has too much energy, or wants something to do in boring surroundings. It may make up for a lack of contact with other dogs, which is why they play a lot when they meet up with them during walks. Play could also be a learned response, either because it feels good, or because someone taught them to do it, it happens more over time. Through selective breeding, dogs have many qualities of young animals, and play may be one of these. We were not convinced that these are the only reasons play exists though, because there are so many types of play and each dog has their own level of playfulness, which is stable over time.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
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</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">We also considered what play means for animal welfare. Most people believe that dogs have fun when they play and many scientists think that play is a sign that animals feel healthy and happy. Yet ‘play’ is not one thing. Play can be done alone, with a person, or with other dogs.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><span class="s1">When play is done alone, it is often with a toy or another object. This could improve their physical skills, but be caused by a lack of other stimulation in their surroundings. In some cases <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0026553" target="_blank">tail chasing</a>,</span><span class="s1"> that looks like play, can be a sign that something might be wrong.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">Play with other dogs is good for welfare as it improves their physical skills, social skills, and coping abilities. However, if play is one-sided, not evenly matched, or turns into aggression (owners aren’t always able to tell the difference), this would not be good for welfare. Some dog breeds are less capable of showing other dogs that they want to be playful, because they have features such as shorter legs, longer bodies, or docked tails. It’s important that dogs have access to other dogs (of various shapes and sizes) from a young age so they can learn how to communicate properly in social situations.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">Finally, most dogs prefer to play with their owner than another person. They can play with them as a play partner, or the person can move toys for the dog in a way that acts as a substitute for prey. It’s worth noting that play might not always be fun for the dog if it involves too many commands rather than being spontaneous. There are other ways play between people and dogs could improve dog welfare, such as using play as a way to positively reward training or to improve adoption from shelters by having dog play with prospective owners. Contact with dogs has been shown to make people feel better too!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">Take-aways for dog lovers:</span></b></span></div><div class="p1"></div><ul><li><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">There are many types of play and each type builds different skills in a dog.</span></li>
<li><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">Play is self-rewarding (fun) for dogs.</span></li>
<li><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">Play is not always a positive sign of a dog’s wellbeing.<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></span></li>
<ul><li><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">Play with other dogs and games with people build their social skills, but take care if play partners are not evenly matched.</span></li>
<li><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">Excessively playing alone or tail chasing may indicate a lack of stimulation in their surroundings or another problem.<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></span></li>
</ul><li><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">Playing with a dog is good for bonding and consider including play that does not revolve around commands.</span></li>
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</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">Rebecca Sommerville</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">Animal Welfare Advisor</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><a href="https://twitter.com/BeccaSomm" target="_blank">@BeccaSomm</a></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">Reference<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">Sommerville, R., O’Connor, E. A., & Asher, L. (2017). <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159117302575" target="_blank">Why do dogs play? Function and welfare implications of play in the domestic dog</a>. <i>Applied Animal Behaviour Science</i>, 197, 1-8.</span></span></div><br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-22522083059936678902018-02-27T13:40:00.000-08:002018-06-28T18:36:27.713-07:00Early bird tickets through February 28th! Canine Science Symposium April 14-15, 2018 in San Fransisco<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih_hl0jRt-7_PEW8dqcr3oHd3Gb0R9HR0oahMtUnJNYNDd5aVdPrmiH6hi9GzgQW6KJnE7apxZmY4-sLX_O2T2hSQF9BzByiHwT42Heh6jYQ2vWfjJ_bJH_bWXO_bGm7ZkpMmfirIF5rXy/s1600/CSS+2018+Header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="679" data-original-width="756" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih_hl0jRt-7_PEW8dqcr3oHd3Gb0R9HR0oahMtUnJNYNDd5aVdPrmiH6hi9GzgQW6KJnE7apxZmY4-sLX_O2T2hSQF9BzByiHwT42Heh6jYQ2vWfjJ_bJH_bWXO_bGm7ZkpMmfirIF5rXy/s400/CSS+2018+Header.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In its 6th year running, the <a href="http://events.sfspca.org/css2018" target="_blank">Canine Science Symposium</a> returns year after year to the San Francisco SPCA because nothing about the dog is stagnant. Not only do itty bitty puppies inevitably grow, but so does our understanding of dog behavior and cognition. This, in turn, can affect their welfare and wellbeing -- how we care for and interact with them.</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As a past and present conference participant, I (this is Julie) always look forward to the Canine Science Symposium for two simple reasons: I learn from my colleagues, and I learn from audience participants. It's that simple. I can't think of a better way to serve dogs. </span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Also, this year I hope to meet <a href="https://twitter.com/OfficerEdith" target="_blank">Officer Edith</a> -- who I follow closely on Twitter (you should too!). She's next door at <a href="http://www.sfanimalcare.org/" target="_blank">San Francisco Animal Care and Control</a>; so many dog people in one spot!</span></div><div class="p2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Canine Science Symposium was recently featured among the <a href="http://www.themoderndogtrainer.net/top-10-animal-behavior-conferences-2018/" target="_blank">Top 10 Animal Behavior Conferences for 2018</a>, and here’s why. This year’s two-day conference features 15 speakers and 2 tracks (<a href="http://events.sfspca.org/css2018agenda" target="_blank">view speakers, abstracts, and symposium agenda</a>). Themes include dog behavior, shelter enrichment and adoption, training, working dogs, play, and the dog-human bond, and more.<br />
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</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">More specifically, talks focus on the efficacy of clickers and other reinforcement methods, offer a constructional approach to playgroups, explore the effect of temporary fostering on shelter dog welfare, dive into K9 scent work and its applications, look into dogs in animal-assisted interventions, consider behavior-based euthanasia decisions, explore the role of neuropeptides in mammalian emotions, social behavior, and cognition, detail adoption and enrichment interventions, and take on the art and science of the shelter meet-and-greet, among other topics!<br />
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</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Clive Wynne and I kick off and close out the conference, respectively (we’re not giving the same talk, promise. We checked). Clive argues, “that how people care for their dogs is not keeping up with the best practices that science is developing,” and I wonder whether more research is really needed. Yes, scientific question begets scientific question, but does this suggest we’re entirely in the dark about dogs What do we know now?<br />
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</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Participants can receive continuing education units, and the early bird special is through Wednesday, February 28:<br />
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</span></b></div><div class="p1" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">See you in San Francisco?</span></div><div class="p2" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://events.sfspca.org/css2018" target="_blank">Canine Science Symposium ticket and conference info</a>. </span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Follow on social media: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/css2018?src=hash" target="_blank">#CSS2018</a></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Conference dates: April 14-15, 2018</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Conference location: </span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">SF SPCA's Education & Training Center</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">243 Alabama Street</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">San Francisco, CA 94103</span></div><br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-75156498846786723202018-02-06T10:33:00.003-08:002018-06-29T00:07:40.253-07:00Is Your Dog a Social Butterfly? <div class="p1"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Please welcome today’s guest contributor, <a href="http://erica-feuerbacher.squarespace.com/" target="_blank">Dr. Erica Feuerbacher</a>, an Assistant Professor of Companion Animal Behavior and Welfare at Virginia Polytechnic and State University. And check out Erica’s earlier DYBID post, </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/less-talk-more-touch-whats-your-dog.html#.WnnmRJM-c_V" target="_blank">Less Talk More Touch: What's Your Dog Saying to You?</a></i></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/m58kXBFB8BY" target="_blank">Sandra Tilkeridisová, Unsplash</a></td></tr>
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</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hello Dog Believers!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We dog devotees have an abundance of tales about our special relationship with our dogs. These anecdotes seem backed by the fact that dog lovers often can’t use the bathroom alone, and our dogs are incredibly excited when we come home. The good news is that science backs this up: owners do have a special relationship with their dogs.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In my own research, I have asked dogs simple questions about their preferences. For example, I present them with two alternatives and ask, “Which do you like better?” The answer is given by the dog’s behavior—which alternative do they spend more time with, and how much more time do they spend with it? <a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/less-talk-more-touch-whats-your-dog.html#.WnnmRJM-c_V" target="_blank">I have investigated</a> dogs’ preferences for petting compared to food delivery, and petting compared to vocal praise. In some of this research, we observed effects of the presence of the owner, but I hadn’t looked directly into dog preference for their owners.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To explore whether dogs display a preference for their owner, <a href="https://psychology.clas.asu.edu/research/labs/canine-science-collaboratory-wynne" target="_blank">Clive Wynne</a> and I gave dogs a similar choice: do you want petting from your owner or petting from a stranger? And does this choice differ if we ask the question in an unfamiliar setting<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(an unknown laboratory room) or in a familiar setting (the dog’s home)?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For 10 minutes each dog was free to interact with either owner or stranger (both of whom were seated), or neither. Dogs spent about 80% of the session near a person, but with whom they spent the most time differed by location: in an <i>unfamiliar</i> <i>location</i>, dogs spent significantly more time with their owner (by a 4 to 1 advantage), but in the <i>familiar setting</i>, they spent more time with the stranger (by a 2 to 1 advantage). Interestingly, dogs tested in the <i>familiar location</i> (the home) still approached their owners first—nearly 70% of the time—before then going to chill with the stranger for the rest of the session. And dogs tested in the <i>unfamiliar location</i> approached their owner first at an even higher rate!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='420' height='366' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyI8VZJAmrtLoxee7xN9FmxbhVMcwR_MEd61TC7cwIzMQlGCdmkKZjZRH7xBofRJAw2wFT7CzFyGnLvLA1cNQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="p2"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">These results points to two takeaways: first, in a stressful situation—like being in a new, unfamiliar place—you are likely a comfort for your dog, and your dog would prefer to be with you over a stranger or anywhere else in the new place. Second, your dog, while certainly having a special relationship with you, is still a social butterfly and interested in meeting new people, particularly when in a comfortable setting. The suggestion of dogs’ social butterfly-ness aligns with other <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700398" target="_blank">recent research</a> by vonHoldt and colleagues (2017) which </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">suggests </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">dogs are hypersocial</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> an</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">d that this has a genetic component.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But what about shelter dogs who don’t have an owner? Are dogs in shelters equal opportunists, splitting their time evenly between two strangers? Or, do they prefer one stranger over another? We investigated this too! Shelter dogs did show a preference for one stranger over another, and even more interestingly, the degree to which they preferred that stranger was similar in magnitude to the preference that owned dogs had showed for their owners in an unfamiliar setting! <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2001-10046-012" target="_blank">Other research</a> has demonstrated that shelter dogs start to show attachment behaviors toward a stranger after spending just three, short 10-minute sessions together. Our data suggest this attachment might start to form even faster than that. We also tested owned dogs with two strangers and they behaved just like shelter dogs.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><br />
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</span></span></span> <span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">Here's Sugar in the shelter at the beginning of the session... </span></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br />
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</span></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">and Sugar later in the session... </span></span></span><br />
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</span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In these experiments, we did not explore on what basis dogs made their choice. Why did dogs prefer one stranger over another? Now that we know how quickly dogs can show a preference for one person over another we can start to explore why—is their preference based on olfactory, tactile, or physical characteristics of the person?</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It’s also useful to remember that we tested socialized dogs. The shelter dogs were up for adoption, and the owned dogs were, we hoped, not dogs likely to aggress towards a stranger. We don’t know whether these results apply to dogs with more stranger-directed issues.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the end, though, our results bring up a few points: You <i>do</i> have a special relationship with your dog. This is especially evident when the dog is stressed. Understanding this has potential welfare implications for some of our practices, such as taking the dog in the back at veterinary clinics and separating the dog from the owner. Is this useful or harmful to the dog? Or are the effects of these separations owner- and dog-dependent? But we ought to start asking these questions for our dogs’ sakes. Our results also demonstrate dog hypersociability and that dogs’ can be quite socially fluid, forming many different human-dog relationships. So whether you are on the more introverted side, like yours truly, remember that you might just have to up your social game to keep up with your dog.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><br />
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</div></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://erica-feuerbacher.squarespace.com/" target="_blank">Dr. Erica Feuerbacher</a></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Assistant Professor of Companion Animal Behavior and Welfare</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Virginia Polytechnic and State University<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><br />
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</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u>Reference</u></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> <style type="text/css">
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</style> </span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Feuerbacher, E. N., & Wynne, C. D. L. (2017). <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jeab.280/full" target="_blank">Dogs don't always prefer their owners and can quickly form strong preferences for certain strangers over others</a>. <i>Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior</i>, <i>108</i>(3), 305–317.</span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-55152366613922493312018-01-08T19:54:00.002-08:002018-01-08T19:54:44.468-08:00 The owner’s behavior: The elusive puzzle piece in dog-human relationships<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Please welcome today’s guest contributor, Giulia Cimarelli, a researcher at the Unit of Comparative Cognition and at the <a href="https://twitter.com/wolfscience?lang=en" target="_blank">Wolf Science Center</a> of the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_310734026"></span>Messerli Research Institute<span id="goog_310734027"></span></a> (Vienna, Austria).</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/sWkkIiTJMYc" target="_blank">Adam Griffith, Unsplash</a></td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When considering the dog-human bond, it’s pretty easy to agree that how we behave can influence dogs. We influence how they <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-011-0443-0" target="_blank">perceive and respond to situations</a> and this can inform what they might expect from us in the future. This, of course, goes both ways. For example, if a dog is supported by an owner <a href="http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/you-cant-reinforce-fear-dogs-and-thunderstorms" target="_blank">during a stressful situation</a>, the dog could feel less stressed in a similar situation in the future.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But of course, social relationships are complicated. Many factors are involved, like the personality and upbringing of both individuals and the social context in which the relationship develops. For decades, scientists from different disciplines have tried to understand and describe the relationships that humans and non-human animals build with one another. Today, there is general agreement that both parties influence one another.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When I first became interested in how human behavior influences dogs, I found that most existing research was based on questionnaires. Being an ethologist (a scientist who studies animal behavior), I wanted to examine owner behavior as I saw it, not just as people reported it. Professionals who work with dogs and their people probably know that people are not always aware of how they behave with their dogs, even though most people seem aware that dogs can <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963721416656329" target="_blank">respond to subtle human behaviors</a>.</span></span><br />
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Giulia and dog friend</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIWUy9h7t3_SYzPYhEliqZr6nWf_UwynZfSPqTaJ808U6idGGylRb2tkIvyiA8aYAAj4AFiauA5IJgPKumYB5QmoJObb4qutD4KHsxVJXBeOIa-Ijoyo-Jtc-28ktqXGzt-FygtPpkzu5r/s1600/image2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To understand how owners influence their dogs, we need to see what owners really do. And not only during training sessions. Life is so much more than training! I wanted to see how owners interact with their dogs in everyday situations, both positive and possibly negative. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFK4XRTLRK8qeKAnfkbfkd0p5YCPWYdYFm-auwTum0vJp2NiA_r5B9JAk0phQmkCk1zNlnV3ZSMw6_f_0iADVLodbfsyUg2-DsfGkimBOhhbMus-DhFKQJBp3ukhhve5PY4JDF7LavmnKx/s1600/image2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="393" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFK4XRTLRK8qeKAnfkbfkd0p5YCPWYdYFm-auwTum0vJp2NiA_r5B9JAk0phQmkCk1zNlnV3ZSMw6_f_0iADVLodbfsyUg2-DsfGkimBOhhbMus-DhFKQJBp3ukhhve5PY4JDF7LavmnKx/s200/image2.jpeg" width="181" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With this aim in mind, my colleagues and I at the <a href="http://www.vetmeduni.ac.at/en/messerli/science/cognition/canines/dogs-clever-dog-lab/" target="_blank">Clever Dog Lab</a> (Vienna, Austria) invited owners and their pet dogs to our lab to participate in a test that we called the “Owner Interaction Style test”. <span style="text-align: center;">The experiment consisted of 8 different scenarios where we let the owner and their dog interact with one another. These scenarios were meant to recreate real life situations, but in a controlled environment. </span><span style="text-align: center;">For example, we asked owners to leave the dog alone for a few minutes, and then we analyzed how they would greet their dog when they returned. We also asked owners to play “fetch” and “tug-of-war” with their dog, to teach them how to open a bin to retrieve food, and to perform basic obedience behaviors (i.e. sit, lay down, and stay) while an unfamiliar person attempted to distract the dog (i.e. by pretending to look for something in a box full of crumbled newspapers). We also saw how owners behaved when their dog was dealing with a potentially stressful situation (i.e. if the dog’s movements were restricted like during a vet examination).</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="text-align: center;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In each test we kept track of how many times the owner gave commands, praised, petted, clapped, or whistled to the dog. We also assessed how warm, enthusiastic, and supportive owners were, or if they were cold, authoritarian, or avoidant when interacting with their dog.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We found that owner behavior varies across 3 factors: 1) warmth in positive situations like play, teaching, and greeting, 2) social support in potentially stressful situations, and 3) behavioral control. </span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Interestingly, these factors are very similar to those observed in human psychology studies when describing how parents interact with their children, possibly because humans have a general way of interacting with individuals they are caring for.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">Below is a short video of the study in action.</span></span></span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" allowtransparency="true" border="0" frameborder="0" height="415" marginwheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.jove.com/embed/player?id=56233&t=1&s=1" width="460">&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a title="The Other End of the Leash: An Experimental Test to Analyze How Owners Interact with Their Pet Dogs" href="https://www.jove.com/video/56233/the-other-end-leash-an-experimental-test-to-analyze-how-owners"&amp;gt;The Other End of the Leash: An Experimental Test to Analyze How Owners Interact with Their Pet Dogs&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</iframe><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We also wanted to see if <i>the way</i> owners generally behaved with their dog would influence their dog's behavior in a stressful situation. Would dogs behave similar to children? Research has shown that when the parent is helpful and supportive, the child will trust and seek help and support from the parent in the future.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To answer to this question, we conducted a test that you should NOT try at home: owner and dog participants were approached by an unfamiliar person in a threatening way (i.e. stepping slowly toward the dog, with the upper torso bent forward, and staring into the dog’s eyes). In this test, the owner was told not to interact with their dog so that the dog’s reaction would not be influenced by the owner’s <i>current response</i>. Instead, we wanted to see whether the dog’s reaction related to how the owner <i>had previously</i> interacted with the dog, as analyzed in the previous study (warmth, social support, or control). We assumed that because of previous experiences, dogs will know how their owner will behave.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Indeed, we found that dogs’ reactions, either approaching the unfamiliar person independently or remaining close to their owner, depended on how warm the owner had been during the interaction style test described earlier. In particular, dogs who stayed close to their owner had warmer owners than those dogs who reacted more independently.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our study suggests that dogs are influenced by how their owner interacts with them outside of training situations. How enthusiastic, warm, and present we are in the everyday lives of our dogs can influence how our four-legged companions rely on us in stressful situations.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is important because sometimes people focus too much on training and forget that everything we do can matter. Whenever we interact with our dogs, we are telling them who we are, what we are for them, and whether they can count on us. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Giulia Cimarelli, researcher at the Unit of Comparative Cognition and at the <a href="http://www.wolfscience.at/en/" target="_blank">Wolf Science Center</a> of the <a href="http://www.vetmeduni.ac.at/en/messerli/" target="_blank">Messerli Research Institute</a> (Vienna, Austria).</span></span></div>
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<span class="s2"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">E-mail: giulia.cimarelli@vetmeduni.ac.at</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">References</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cimarelli, G., Turcsán, B., Bánlaki, Z., Range, F., and Virányi, Z. (2016). <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5168437/" target="_blank">Dog Owners’ Interaction Styles: Their Components and Associations with Reactions of Pet Dogs to a Social Threat</a>. Front. Psychol. 7, 1979.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cimarelli, G., Turcsán, B., Range, F., and Virányi, Z. (2017). <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29053669" target="_blank">The Other End of the Leash: An Experimental Test to Analyze How Owners Interact with Their Pet Dogs</a>. J. Vis. Exp., 1–11.</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-40110468833990293182017-12-26T08:34:00.003-08:002018-06-29T00:11:07.444-07:00Dogs recognize our emotions, and they don’t like it when they see angry<div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Please welcome today's guest contributor, <a href="https://twitter.com/nsalbuquerq" target="_blank">Natalia de Souza Albuquerque</a>, a PhD Student at the University of São Paulo, Brazil and the University of Lincoln, UK.</b></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVsmSIQVYhvXnzkOYNHMPuvAV-ViBaVGUsJbmemzwE_umRkJ9eJyiDlkSx68TGJxDZsmU_QRwV1o2HkLw4YbCH5SBtw-yUJObLJtCvQHdxV4cQBog7ilZXitdgWeuswmSwZ4QY34baEWu7/s1600/Polly+%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVsmSIQVYhvXnzkOYNHMPuvAV-ViBaVGUsJbmemzwE_umRkJ9eJyiDlkSx68TGJxDZsmU_QRwV1o2HkLw4YbCH5SBtw-yUJObLJtCvQHdxV4cQBog7ilZXitdgWeuswmSwZ4QY34baEWu7/s320/Polly+%25281%2529.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
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<div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Natalia's wonderful dog, Polly.</span></span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hello Dog Believers!</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The title of this post might seem obvious to dog owners, but it turns out there’s a lot more to the emotional world of dogs than most people expected. That’s what I want to share here today.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">You will probably agree with me that the relationship between dogs and people is quite unique. In fact, dogs seem especially connected to human beings, in a way that no other two animal species are. And the secret of this fascinating relationship may rely on a very important ability: to read and respond to our emotions.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Emotions are a very interesting (and complex!) research topic. They encompass the mechanisms we have to assess our physical and social surroundings, and they are also linked to how we perceive and respond to different stimuli.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Recent studies have shown dogs are very sensitive to our emotional expressions: they can discriminate between happy, neutral and angry faces. They look at facial expressions in different ways depending on the content of the image, and they can link together different parts of a face that are expressing the same emotion (e.g. happy mouth with happy eyes).</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
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</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But do dogs actually recognise the information conveyed in certain facial expressions or vocalisations? Do dogs understand that angry facial expressions mean ‘angry’ and respond to them accordingly? Aiming to answer these questions, we (Dr. Briseida Resende from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Prof. Daniel Mills, Dr. Kun Guo, and Dr. Anna Wilkinson from the University of Lincoln, UK and I) decided to run a broad, non-invasive study.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We showed domestic dogs pairs of facial expressions on a screen: one angry and one happy (images were of the same individual, which could be a dog or a human—either female or male). At the same time they saw the facial expressions, dogs also heard a happy, angry, or neutral sound. In this type of set up, if an individual recognises the emotional content of the faces and voices, they will look longer towards the positive face when listening to the positive sound and look longer towards the negative face when listening to the negative sound. Essentially, recognition is indicated by "matching" what they see with what they hear.</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
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</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The first step was to do a thorough analysis of the looking behaviour of each dog. What we found was fascinating! Dogs were really good at linking sound and image of the same emotion, regardless of species (dog or human), gender (female or male), content (positive or negative), or side of presentation (on the left or on the right-side of the screen). This means that dogs have a cognitive representation of positive and negative emotions.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br />
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<div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dog looking at screen and hearing auditory stimuli.</span></span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="p1"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To clarify what happened, picture this: let’s say you are in a room all by yourself, and you hear someone laughing outside. What would you expect to see? Someone happy or someone angry? Happy, right? This is because we have stored in our memory several features of a “happy emotion” (visual, auditory, etc.) and we use this in our day-to-day lives. The ability to recognise emotions of one’s own species had previously only been shown in humans and other primates, and the ability to recognise emotions of another species was thought to be unique to humans… until dogs showed us they are way more complex than we imagined!</span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The second step was to undertake a detailed examination of dogs’ mouth-licking behaviour (the behaviour to lick around one’s own “mouth area”). We were particularly interested whether dogs in the study mouth-licked when they saw the different facial expressions and heard the different sounds. Although there is a quite extensive body of literature that uses mouth-licking as a stress response in dogs, no study had systematically investigated its association with the actual perception of negative emotions in dogs. And what we found was that this display has a lot more to tell us than we thought.</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9-DdVBVSI6xmzvxBSZ9GQEZOzJKI_W3ebnOou9652hcWw1wMvF6RUIdeUnZCdqETglBxWCIxwBhoRfc6gMrSufzsMn3W-hi_jWp11anjbPRSTZluG-6_5Q9DmgBfIrbeu-w96QxUT5ZVj/s1600/MAIN+IMAGE_Mouth-licking+in+dogs+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9-DdVBVSI6xmzvxBSZ9GQEZOzJKI_W3ebnOou9652hcWw1wMvF6RUIdeUnZCdqETglBxWCIxwBhoRfc6gMrSufzsMn3W-hi_jWp11anjbPRSTZluG-6_5Q9DmgBfIrbeu-w96QxUT5ZVj/s320/MAIN+IMAGE_Mouth-licking+in+dogs+%25281%2529.jpg" width="253" /></a></td></tr>
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<div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The behavior of interest.</span></span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="p1"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mouth-licking in dogs is more than the expression of a desire to be fed or a simple response to uncertainties and general discomfort. In fact, the occurrence of this display was dependent on (a) the emotion: dogs licked more often when they saw negative faces; (b) the sensory modality: dogs mouth-licked more often when seeing negative emotions, but not when hearing negative emotions and (c) the species of the stimulus: dogs licked more often when they saw angry humans in comparison with angry dogs.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In other words, dogs seem to have perceived our angry faces as unpleasant, which changed their own emotional state and triggered mouth-licking. Since we found that dogs responded to angry human faces especially, and that only the visual cues influenced the occurrence of the display, we believe that mouth-licking in dogs may be a cue that signals a dog’s perception of negative information. These abilities may have been selected for (probably unintentionally) during domestication, a</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">s they facilitate dog-human communication. </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Want to see the study in action? Here is a short video clip:</span><br />
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</span> <span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" scrolling="‘no" src="//assets.nationalgeographic.com/modules-video/latest/assets/ngsEmbeddedVideo.html?guid=00000160-13cf-d4ef-afe9-d7cf71f20000" width="500"></iframe><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dogs are multi-faceted animals and they possess very complex cognitive abilities. Our research findings lead to the idea that dogs are not only able to recognise and respond to emotions of humans, but also may be capable of understanding them at some level.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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</span> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTEvLZZJOsC8NURNk0WFRaWS_exoKUvRAIHXVQJPTAWfJkgvasKPBfXSnE0YJ3lAPvSEZjg2JJhKwTAM0FDMnSJRhWvxwuvZ09qqjW7nO1e3TZqKfCHqfyt8A9ngp_ckmZeStKuAK2Is0H/s1600/NATALIA2+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTEvLZZJOsC8NURNk0WFRaWS_exoKUvRAIHXVQJPTAWfJkgvasKPBfXSnE0YJ3lAPvSEZjg2JJhKwTAM0FDMnSJRhWvxwuvZ09qqjW7nO1e3TZqKfCHqfyt8A9ngp_ckmZeStKuAK2Is0H/s400/NATALIA2+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Natalia de Souza Albuquerque</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">~ Stay in touch with Natalia on <a href="https://twitter.com/nsalbuquerq" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/natalia.salbuquerque" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, & <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Natalia_De_Souza_Albuquerque" target="_blank">ResearchGate</a></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u>References</u></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Albuquerque N., Guo K., Wilkinson A., Savalli C., Otta E., Mills D. (2016). Dogs recognize dog and humans emotions. Biology Letters, 12.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Albuquerque N., Guo K., Wilkinson A., Resende B., Mills D.S. (2017). Mouth-licking by dogs as a response to emotional stimuli. Behavioural Processes.</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
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<div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>All images copyright Albuquerque.</i></span></span></div><style type="text/css">
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</style><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-17456654079815002152017-12-01T08:28:00.002-08:002018-06-29T00:13:42.573-07:00What Do You Get When You Cross an Anthropologist and a Zoologist? <div class="p1"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="s1" style="background-color: white;">Please welcome today's guest contributor, </span>Molly Crossman, MS, MPhil, (<a href="https://twitter.com/mollycrossman?lang=en" target="_blank">Twitter</a>) for a brief introduction to the science of Anthrozoology. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After reading this post, you'll hopefully add </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://isazstudent.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><i>Becoming an Anthrozoologist</i></a></span><span class="s1"><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to your reading list! This new blog is put out by the student committee of the</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> International Society for Anthrozoology (<a href="http://www.isaz.net/isaz/" target="_blank">ISAZ website</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ISAZOfficial/" target="_blank">FB</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/ISAZOfficial" target="_blank">Twitter</a>),</span></span></span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and they're seeking contributions (details below).</span></span><br />
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<div class="p1"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Naruto’s Selfie. Credit: David Slater, Wikimedia Commons </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1">If you like animals*</span><span class="s2"><sup></sup></span><span class="s1"> (and I’m guessing you do if you’re reading this), you probably know the story of <a href="http://www.akc.org/content/akc-history-archive/articles/balto/" target="_blank"><span class="s3">Balto</span></a>, the heroic sled dog who saved an Alaskan city from a diphtheria epidemic. Or maybe you remember <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3921203/" target="_blank"><span class="s3">Clever Hans</span></a>, the horse who could apparently do arithmetic, but was really just reading unconscious nonverbal cues from the people around him (and taught us all a lot about expectancy effects as a result). More recently, you may have heard about <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animals-and-us/201604/why-do-animal-tragedies-go-viral" target="_blank"><span class="s3">Cecil the lion</span></a>, who galvanized public interest in wildlife welfare after being shot and killed by big game hunters. The list of infamous animals goes on, from <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/12/550417823/-animal-rights-advocates-photographer-compromise-over-ownership-of-monkey-selfie" target="_blank"><span class="s3">Naruto</span></a>, the monkey who took one of the most famous selfies of all time, to <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dog-mayor-duke_us_57bbebf5e4b00d9c3a19cb19" target="_blank"><span class="s3">Duke</span></a>, the dog who was elected mayor of a Minnesota town three times in a row. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">These stories about animals get widespread attention, capture our hearts, and often lead to changes not only in our attitudes towards animals, but in how we treat and protect them. But these stories aren’t really just about animals. These are stories about human interactions<i> with</i> animals. These stories are about the roles that animals play in our lives, and the roles that we play in theirs’. And there is an entire field of study devoted to understanding these kinds of interactions between people and animals.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><a href="http://www.isaz.net/isaz/" target="_blank"><b>Anthrozoology</b></a></i> is the multidisciplinary study of interactions between people and animals. </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Anthrozoologists come from a wide range of disciplines including ethology, biology, education, environmental science, history, literature, neuroscience, nursing, occupational therapy, psychology, sociology, and veterinary medicine (to name just a few examples). </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What anthrozoologists all have in common is that they apply their diverse expertise to ask and answer questions about human-animal relationships.</span></span><br />
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<div class="p1"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anthrozoologists are the folks who brought us the revelation that </span><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08927936.2015.1064216" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span class="s3">dogs are more important than cats when it comes to online dating</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, showed that dogs </span><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00223980.1988.10542941?tab=permissions&scroll=top" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span class="s3">facilitate social interactions</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> for individuals with physical disabilities, revealed serious </span><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2752/089279307X224782" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span class="s3">ethical issues with dolphin-assisted therapy</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, demonstrated why people think </span><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08927936.2017.1310986" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span class="s3">happier chickens lay tastier eggs</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, helped us understand </span><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/089279389787058262" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span class="s3">who owns pets</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (and who doesn’t), and explained why people are compelled to (illegally) keep </span><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08927936.2017.1270589" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span class="s3">primates as pets</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. In other words, anthrozoologists do some really cool science.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, now that I’ve (hopefully) piqued your interest, where should you go to keep up with the latest in anthrozoology? I’m so glad you asked!</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our <a href="https://isazstudent.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><span class="s3">first post</span></a> came out in October, and I think it will be of interest to DYBID readers. The post was written by <a href="https://twitter.com/lynnafeng" target="_blank">Lynna Feng</a>, of the <a href="http://www.anthrozoologyresearchgroup.com/" target="_blank"><span class="s3">Anthrozoology Research Group</span></a> at La Trobe University. In it, Lynna discusses a topic that is as personal, controversial, and polarizing as parenting techniques, and that’s dog training methods.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><br />
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</tbody></table><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You are probably already familiar with the ongoing debate around positive, reward-based training methods versus dominance-based methods (if you aren’t familiar with the debate, Dr. Sophia Yin, an advocate for positive training techniques, has a helpful description on her <a href="https://drsophiayin.com/philosophy/dominance/" target="_blank">website</a>). </span></span>But, did you know that there’s controversy even among those who agree about the importance of using positive approaches?</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In her post, Lynna addresses the debate surrounding clicker training. She discusses a recent study, in which she and her supervisors evaluated what clicker training is, and why it’s controversial. Lynna gets into why people use clicker training, and what trainers’ think are best practices. For details about what she found, be sure to <a href="https://isazstudent.wordpress.com/2017/10/19/the-clicker-training-controversy/" target="_blank">read the post</a><span class="s2">!</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We plan to publish the blog quarterly, so look for the next edition in January and be sure to <a href="https://isazstudent.wordpress.com/2017/10/19/the-clicker-training-controversy/" target="_blank">follow the ISAZ Student Blog</a>. If you are not already a member of ISAZ, we also hope you will consider joining. Check out the <a href="http://www.isaz.net/isaz/membership/" target="_blank">ISAZ website</a> for more information on becoming a member, and be sure to visit the<a href="http://www.isaz2018.com/" target="_blank"> 2018 conference</a> website for information on the upcoming conference in Sydney, Australia. The deadline for <a href="http://www.isaz2018.com/abstracts/" target="_blank">conference submissions</a> is January 18, 2018.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
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</style> </span></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">P.S., If you’re a student member of ISAZ, we hope you will consider <a href="https://isazstudent.wordpress.com/submissions/" target="_blank">submitting</a> something to the blog!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-converted-space">*</span></span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Humans are, of course, a type of animal. However, for the sake of clarity and consistency with linguistic norms, I use the term “animal” here to refer to specifically to nonhuman animals.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span></span><br />
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<div class="p1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="s1"><a href="http://campuspress.yale.edu/mollycrossman/" style="color: #f69800;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Molly K. Crossman</span></a></span></div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Grad Student & Co-Director of Innovative Interactions Lab </span></span></div><div class="p1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Department of Psychology, Yale University </span></span></div><div class="p3" style="background-color: white;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Email: <span class="s3">molly.crossman@yale.edu</span></span></span></div><div class="p3" style="background-color: white;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s3">Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/mollycrossman" target="_blank">@mollycrossman</a></span></span></span></div><div class="p3" style="background-color: white;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s3">Web: <a href="http://iilab.yale.edu/" target="_blank">iilab.yale.edu</a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><i><span class="s1" style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">DYBID here! Did you know that Molly first contributed to DYBID with a post about her research: <a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/can-therapy-dogs-help-students-handle.html#.Wh4qRLQ-c_V" target="_blank">"</a></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"><a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/can-therapy-dogs-help-students-handle.html#.Wh4qRLQ-c_V" target="_blank">Can Therapy Dogs Help Students Handle Stress?"</a> Thanks very much for joining us again, Molly!</span></i></span></span><br />
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</style><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-76551173346380772912017-08-15T11:24:00.001-07:002017-08-15T11:24:49.917-07:00Breed specific legislation (BSL) is BS when it comes to dog bites: A case study in Ireland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1" style="color: #444444;"><span style="background-color: white;">Please welcome today's guest contributor, </span></span><span style="color: #444444;">Nanci Creedon</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">, </span><span style="color: #444444;">Certified Dog Behaviour Consultant (IAABC), director and dog behaviour tutor at Creedons College and graduate of Newcastle University Animal Behaviour and Welfare masters degree programme. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/ocZ-_Y7-Ptg?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" style="background-color: #f2f2f2; box-sizing: border-box; transition: 0.2s ease-in-out, 0.2s ease-in-out; white-space: nowrap;">Christopher Ayme</a><span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; white-space: nowrap;"> on </span><a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" style="background-color: #f2f2f2; box-sizing: border-box; transition: 0.2s ease-in-out, 0.2s ease-in-out; white-space: nowrap;">Unsplash</a></span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJCJ0kJVUJU1U0n5aTQRNh_J8Tn35kbH05RwoLhaqR3aPx8XrRc8EtfMhAZb5P5kGfkkV-i4Yu4DG1BsAJx2kBfHZBLEJmCfoo3wxIm-avEk_qVh5DKIUkuM-Oy9luiXeamuj3CIWjN8z0/s1600/277207152_a6c530ec66_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"></span></span>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ah, dog bites! Love dogs or hate them, everyone has an opinion, and dog bites are a highly emotive topic. While everyone is entitled to an opinion, when it comes to dog bites, and dog bite prevention, it is vitally important that we attempt to fully understand the characteristics of dog bites to maximise bite prevention.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">While people may have an opinion on how to minimise dog bites, the buck usually stops with local governments to put legislation in place to protect the general public from the risk of dog bites. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1">Here in Ireland, our government established a ‘restricted breed list’.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>The <a href="http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/animal_welfare_and_control/control_of_dogs.html" target="_blank">Control of Dogs Regulations 1998</a> impose the below rules in regard to the following breeds (and strains/cross-breeds): American pit bull terrier, English bull terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, Bull mastiff, Dobermann pinscher, German shepherd, Rhodesian ridgeback, Rottweiler, Japanese akita, Japanese tosa and Bandog.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The rules state that these dogs (or strains and crosses) must:</span></span></div>
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<li class="li1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s2"></span><span class="s1">Be kept on a short strong lead by a person over 16 years who is capable of controlling them.</span></span></li>
<li class="li1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s2"></span><span class="s1">Be muzzled whenever they are in a public place.</span></span></li>
<li class="li1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s2"></span><span class="s1">Wear a collar bearing the name and address of their owner at all times.</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Breed specific legislation (BSL) is becoming more and more of a hot topic. Many claim that assuming one dog is more dangerous than another because of its breed (or appearing to look like a particular breed) is not the appropriate way to prevent bites, and there are </span><a href="http://www.nancicreedon.ie/nancis-blog/what-should-be-done-to-avoid-dog-bite-fatalities-in-ireland" target="_blank">numerous alternatives to BSL</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlpAQRhamK2HJwx1hgHwwgHpgpL52kPUjqUC5xQ1PEerokSgNpx0fJjdwn14th6zCQlMzS08CD_iLX__zpzBGPnb2SdgLpOjbfzmG4yLkSTeLNXPoON1ckZkRI15ETZ3phnKcLyTM9xDe6/s1600/277207152_a6c530ec66_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="771" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlpAQRhamK2HJwx1hgHwwgHpgpL52kPUjqUC5xQ1PEerokSgNpx0fJjdwn14th6zCQlMzS08CD_iLX__zpzBGPnb2SdgLpOjbfzmG4yLkSTeLNXPoON1ckZkRI15ETZ3phnKcLyTM9xDe6/s400/277207152_a6c530ec66_b.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Image via Nanci Creedon</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In Ireland, calls have been made to the Irish government to review and modify the legislation, with the latest call coming from Veterinary Ireland, the representative body for veterinary surgeons in Ireland. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">However, the government has regularly replied with a similar answer: while they are not claiming that restricted breeds are more likely to bite, if they do bite, the government suggests, these dogs are likely to do significantly more damage than other dogs.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Until now, this claim has not been supported, or discredited, by peer reviewed data.</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In 2015, I conducted a widespread anonymous research survey, calling on victims of dog bites to participate in a voluntary survey about the details of the bite incident (at the time of the research we had not had a recorded dog bite fatality).</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As the data was examined, we looked for any significant difference between dog bites by dogs on the restricted list and dog bites by non-restricted breeds. We found no difference in bites between dogs on or off the restricted list for the following categories: bite level (depth and type of bite), medical treatment, relationship with the victim, part of body bitten, or whether or not the dog went on to bite again. Our finding discredits the belief that if a dog from the restricted breed list bites, it would cause significantly more damage than other dogs.</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The study did, however, find a significant difference between the two groups when it came to whether or not the dog had been reported for being aggressive <i>prior</i> to the bite incident, and whether or not the bite incident was reported to local authorities. In these instances, a dog on the restricted breed list was significantly more likely to be reported than a dog not on the restricted breed list.</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This may be due to the public perceiving that a biting dog on the restricted breed list is a greater threat than a biting dog that is not on the restricted breed list, despite the study showing that there is no difference in the bites between the groups.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This also suggests that the public perceive a biting dog who is not restricted to be of minimal threat to the general public, allowing that bite to possibly go unreported and allowing that dog to potentially go on to bite again.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Since this study was conducted, Ireland had the first recorded fatality from a dog bite in June of 2017. The incident occurred on private property where legislation would not have put safety provisions in place, and regardless of the location, the dog breed involved in the incident was not one of the 12 restricted breeds.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This research supports the review of current legislation to develop appropriate dog bite prevention strategies to minimise the risk of further fatalities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1">Creedon, N., & Ó’Súilleabháin, P.S. (2017). Dog bite injuries to humans and the use of breed-specific legislation: A comparison of bites from legislated and non-legislated dog breeds. <i>Irish Veterinary Journal</i>, </span>70:23</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318612983_Dog_bite_injuries_to_humans_and_the_use_of_breed-specific_legislation_A_comparison_of_bites_from_legislated_and_non-legislated_dog_breeds" target="_blank">Open Access: Download PDF of full article here</a></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nanci Creedon M.Sc</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Graduate of Newcastle University (Animal Behaviour and Welfare) and University College Cork (Zoology)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Tutor at Creedons College</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Email: nancicreedon@creedonscollege.ie</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Facebook: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/nancicreedondogbehaviourist" target="_blank">Nanci Creedon Dog Behaviourist</a> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Twitter: <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><a href="https://twitter.com/nancicreedon_DB" target="_blank">@NanciCreedon_DB</a></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Web: </span><a href="http://www.nancicreedon.ie/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">http://www.nancicreedon.ie/</a></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0Ireland53.1423672 -7.692053600000008448.292207700000006 -18.019202100000008 57.9925267 2.6350948999999915tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-88784659865526714192016-11-28T13:54:00.001-08:002018-06-29T00:15:55.890-07:00Do Dogs Synchronize Their Behavior with People? Researcher Seeks Participation in Online Study <br />
<div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Please welcome today's guest contributor, <a href="http://charlotteduranton.com/" target="_blank">Charlotte Duranton</a>, a PhD student at the University Aix-Marseille – Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology. For this online study, Charlotte is seeking participants who own dogs as well as those who do not. <a href="http://www.dog2human-synchrony.fr/" target="_blank">Please share the study far and wide</a>!</span></span></div><div class="p1"><br />
</div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our dogs are not only our best friends, they are even our shadows. When you are tired and just want to hang out at home, many dogs will lay down and sleep at your feet. And when you are full of energy and ready to go out, your companion dog is ready to go, waiting to get out, and full of enthusiasm. In both, the dog is a reflection of your own state.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg837TidG_wRRnm64v-1OxeLu_ipIRBKRib9J1ZHITKnVLNkJbnxwVkMjOmYkuOLlFbJyVmW2shzTQb6ip-To4X63C7clDMdZSsAKVrvguiIJitaXJ3eCd8TWFlBxyv3Jn70kqbqCUQpKht/s1600/Synchro2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg837TidG_wRRnm64v-1OxeLu_ipIRBKRib9J1ZHITKnVLNkJbnxwVkMjOmYkuOLlFbJyVmW2shzTQb6ip-To4X63C7clDMdZSsAKVrvguiIJitaXJ3eCd8TWFlBxyv3Jn70kqbqCUQpKht/s400/Synchro2.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">While these behaviors are typically accepted by the general public, they lack extensive scientific study. This is the topic I am investigating for my PhD project: Do dogs display behavioral synchronization with their humans?</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Non-conscious synchronized behaviors are found in various species and among all taxa of live beings. Synchronization is observed within intraspecific groups and dyads and has various adaptive values. Being synchronized with others helps: <i>i</i>. decrease the pressure of predation on offspring, <i>ii</i>. increase the effectiveness of anti-predation strategies, and <i>iii</i>. increase social cohesion (see Duranton & Gaunet 2016 for a review). </span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This last point is essential when thinking about dog-human groups and dyads. In humans, synchronization helps foster relationships and social bonds between individuals. The more affiliated individuals are, the more behaviorally synchronized they will be (Duranton & Gaunet, 2016).</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When considering the dog-human relationship, we know that dogs are very sensitive to our body movements, and such a sensitivity is proposed to be the basis for behavioral synchronization between dogs and humans (Duranton & Gaunet, 2015). </span></span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhihO3bxBBzuleND-MfEeeIA8q4W0gw0s5TBWw7mSrtnzCCJNWBAZGZVe2U4-fZH0bt2LJQnJu7CZtZCVoxW8OaV701_-yyATRdoJuB3BYhmFg21b7s4IBMM19GAj4QHGAwZbkkzC6xoyLU/s1600/Synchro1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhihO3bxBBzuleND-MfEeeIA8q4W0gw0s5TBWw7mSrtnzCCJNWBAZGZVe2U4-fZH0bt2LJQnJu7CZtZCVoxW8OaV701_-yyATRdoJuB3BYhmFg21b7s4IBMM19GAj4QHGAwZbkkzC6xoyLU/s400/Synchro1.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="p2"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Social referencing is a type of behavioral synchronization that has recently been identified between dogs and their owners. When confronted with an unfamiliar stimulus, dogs looked at their owners to see their reactions, and then the dogs reacted accordingly. Dogs used their owner’s reaction as a guide when reacting to an unknown object (Merola et al., 2012) and an unknown person (Duranton et al., 2016). Movement alone was sufficient for the dogs to synchronize with the human’s reaction (Duranton et al., 2016).</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span> <span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><u>The scientific question...</u></b></span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We now want to investigate the existence of behavioral synchrony from the dog towards the human when they are alone together <i>without</i> any external stimuli. Do dogs, in a quiet place, with no external events or stimuli, synchronize their behavior with the behavior of their owners?</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u>Get involved!</u></span></b></span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Help us investigate this question by participating in our online citizen project: <span class="s2"><a href="http://www.dog2human-synchrony.fr/" target="_blank">www.dog2human-synchrony.fr</a></span></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Study participants will watch a few short videos and report back on what you observe. The study takes approximately 10-15 minutes.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF7vK4DCuDB_8zxsIfNYTollm3YnT2xlE2z1ZPR9I30eBi2pzbe6ikZa3tRWIWJC7u2Ql5Qb1RLcGZOROqtDcMdJr-i5A6saW6cRKOxzxiuGUJ88dClrDoVQ8ChSuiu93UZyHi1j4oYPm-/s1600/Videosynchro.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF7vK4DCuDB_8zxsIfNYTollm3YnT2xlE2z1ZPR9I30eBi2pzbe6ikZa3tRWIWJC7u2Ql5Qb1RLcGZOROqtDcMdJr-i5A6saW6cRKOxzxiuGUJ88dClrDoVQ8ChSuiu93UZyHi1j4oYPm-/s400/Videosynchro.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="p1"><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u>Study participants</u></span></b></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We seek participants who own dogs as well as those who do not own dogs, so please share the study widely!</span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u>French or English, your pick!</u></span></b></span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The study is available in both French and English! </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Access the study here: </b><a href="http://www.dog2human-synchrony.fr/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;" target="_blank"><b>www.dog2human-synchrony.fr</b></a></div></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Please don't hesitate to contact me should you have any questions: <a href="mailto:charlotte.duranton@cegetel.net"><span class="s2"><i>charlotte.duranton@cegetel.net</i></span></a></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><i></i></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thank you for considering contributing to this study!</span></span><br />
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</div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Charlotte Duranton,</b></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.charlotteduranton.com/" target="_blank">www.charlotteduranton.com</a></b></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>University Aix-Marseille – Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology – CNRS</b></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Association AVA</b></span></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">References</span></b></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1558787815001501" target="_blank">Duranton & Gaunet, 2015. Canis sensitivus: Affiliation and dogs' sensitivity to others' behavior as the basis for synchronization with humans? <i>Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research</i>, 10, 513—524.</a></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://adb.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/05/03/1059712316644966.abstract" target="_blank">Duranton & Gaunet. 2016. Behavioural synchronization from an ethological perspective: overview of its adaptive value. <i>International Society for Adaptive Behavior</i>.</a></span></span></div><div class="p2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347216000051" target="_blank">Duranton, Bedossa, & Gaunet. 2016. When facing an unfamiliar person, pet dogs present social referencing based on their owners' direction of movement alone.<i> Animal Behaviour</i>, 113, 147—156.</a></span></span><br />
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</style> </div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-011-0443-0" target="_blank">Merola et al. 2012. Social referencing in dog-owner dyads? <i>Animal Cognition</i>, 15, 175–185.</a></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-1155388261653215622016-09-26T09:41:00.003-07:002016-09-26T12:05:40.723-07:00What’s Behind Our Lasting Relationships with Dogs? Researcher Seeks Help<div class="p1">
<b style="color: #444444; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Please welcome today's guest contributor, <a href="http://staff.lincoln.ac.uk/kgriffin" target="_blank">Karen Griffin</a>, a PhD student at the University of Lincoln who is trying to figure what makes relationships with dogs work. Please read on, as she is hoping for your help!</b></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hi Mia & Julie,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am currently working on a study to examine factors that affect successful dog relationships and placements. I am using a new approach to do this, which involves dog owners and shelter/rescue staff assessing dogs using a set of game-like tests.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What makes some relationships work? <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tudor/2585957466/in/photolist-4WvH4y-5GzNPJ-5d262J-bEaz5X-dj7rkT-vwYNfU-aL55G-66cu9Q-zC1up-owDmUk-6GaFej-bv95fn-4BuwA-ncK8E-9RvhW5-23vUhe-5k9fHu-9vCSXL-5QQqj9-pBFBrV-zdST8B-dX66Ex-89kZa3-dRir7B-ehHzam-4uq8o2-2ftRWN-6aqbD6-3p26aP-5brsGi-amKRbS-sxNY-4BQo47-eZAWD9-e8GMrS-c85ZGY-r8UKj3-4XBVRM-aX48m6-cpXrA-dyt117-aDxJhe-c3BYJs-jmQPpK-7ZMiXS-9Dkghc-rgiQ4N-xTDqP-kLuxcc-XRrG" target="_blank">Flickr Creative Commons</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The abandonment of dogs is a problem that affects much of the world. In the UK between 2014 and 2015, local authorities handled over 100,000 stray dogs. In the US, the problem is even more monumental; recent estimates suggest that nearly four million dogs enter shelters nationally </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">per year</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, and over one million of those are euthanized. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These are frightening statistics, and science has taken notice in recent years, aiming to understand and help reduce this epidemic. However, much of this research is narrow in focus and scope, by relying on the analysis of retrospective data, that’s collected by shelters when dogs are relinquished, or in the way it conceptualizes the dog-owner relationship. In the case of the latter, the dog-human relationship is traditionally understood as a static, unchanging one (e.g. Prato-Previde et al., 2003; Marston et al., 2005). At the same time, there are indications that our lifestyles and relationships with dogs are not fixed, but dynamic. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Credit: <a href="http://www.stevebenisty.com/" target="_blank">Steve Benisty</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is where my PhD research steps in. I have applied a very different approach, and have redefined the dog-owner relationship as a dynamic entity that changes over time. Over the course of the relationship, conflict will inevitably arise, as it does in any close personal relationship, and it is the ability of one member of the party (i.e., the dog or the owner) to resolve the conflict. It is this conflict resolution that will determine if the relationship will continue and be successful or not. The inability to resolve conflict could lead to the relationship failing and the dog being relinquished. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So now the question is, what do we do about this? How can we understand or predict which dogs and owners will be able to resolve conflict and thus which relationships will succeed? My research has hypothesized that behavioural flexibility (i.e., adaptability) is central to this, so I am assessing this in both humans (i.e., long-term dog owners, dog adopters, and dog relinquishers) as well as dogs. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Game time</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is where I need help! I created a citizen science study that dog lovers worldwide can join. I have developed a set of four game-like tests that assess behavioural flexibility in dogs:</span></span></div>
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<li class="li1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">L-Shaped Food Finding Test</span></span></li>
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<li class="li1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Time Alone Test</span></span></li>
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<li class="li1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Three-Toy Test</span></span></li>
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<li class="li1"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pointing Test</span></span></li>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>About you</b></span></span><br />
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am seeking help from people in these two groups: </span></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Long-term dog owners to participate with their own dog(s) (i.e. people who have owned their dog for at least three years)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Animal shelters, rescue centres, rehoming organizations to participate with dogs without a current home</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="s2" style="color: blue;"><b>Time commitment</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="s1">The study should take approximately 10 minutes per test plus 10 minutes for set-up and background survey completion. A</span><span class="s1">n hour should be sufficient for everything. <i>Please note, you </i></span><i><span class="s4">do not</span><span class="s1"> have to complete all four tests to participate.</span></i></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Study website:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.thedogrehomingproject.org/" target="_blank">http://www.thedogrehomingproject.org</a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Dog owners link for questionnaire and games: </b></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.thedogrehomingproject.org/want-to-get-your-dog-in-on-the-fun/" target="_blank">http://www.thedogrehomingproject.org/want-to-get-your-dog-in-on-the-fun/</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Participate with a shelter or rescue dog (dog without a current home): </b></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.thedogrehomingproject.org/get-involved-contribute-to-the-science/work-or-volunteer-in-an-animal-shelter-or-for-a-dog-rescue/" target="_blank">http://www.thedogrehomingproject.org/get-involved-contribute-to-the-science/work-or-volunteer-in-an-animal-shelter-or-for-a-dog-rescue/</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please don't hesitate to contact me should you have any questions: <i>kgriffin@lincoln.ac.uk </i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thank you for consid</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ering contributing to this study of what makes relationships stick!</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://staff.lincoln.ac.uk/kgriffin" target="_blank">Karen Griffin, BA, MA, MPhil</a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">University of Lincoln</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">School of Life Sciences</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-70589800829108090012016-07-21T10:16:00.001-07:002016-07-21T11:08:48.758-07:00The Dog Aging Project<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 18.2px;"><span class="s1"><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">Please welcome today's guest contributor, <a href="http://kaeberleinlab.org/people/silvan-urfer" target="_blank">Dr. Silvan Urfer</a></span></span></b><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 18.2px;"><span class="s1"><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">, a veterinarian with a background in population genetics. He is based at the University of Washington and currently working on the Dog Aging Project.</span></span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As a researcher working on the </span><a href="http://dogagingproject.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span class="s2">Dog Aging Project</span></a><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">, I am glad to share some of our current work and results with the readers of this blog. Our project is based at the University of Washington in Seattle under the direction of Drs. Daniel Promislow and Matt Kaeberlein, and we are interested in studying aging in privately owned dogs – both descriptively and by testing interventions that we expect to increase healthy longevity in our four-legged friends. By following 10,000 companion dogs from homes throughout the United States over their lifetime, the Dog Aging Project aims to discover the genetic and environmental factors that determine whether a dog will live a long and healthy life. Moreover, through an intervention study we describe here, we will explore the potential to actually increase the likelihood that a dog will live a healthy long life. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF29vIe_jo4raxAVtkSHTRIL_E-56J7ccvLwFclqJchEJXMn2JU-WIlO8-uQ4O-uPRXsj9wKFJ1VBGeDXn4eBa1QWpTMIyZnYipf-wC06YPuPqAA5PGwVacuOOtEg2lLzxbriv_P6qnRrK/s1600/Zeke_Dog+Aging+Project.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF29vIe_jo4raxAVtkSHTRIL_E-56J7ccvLwFclqJchEJXMn2JU-WIlO8-uQ4O-uPRXsj9wKFJ1VBGeDXn4eBa1QWpTMIyZnYipf-wC06YPuPqAA5PGwVacuOOtEg2lLzxbriv_P6qnRrK/s400/Zeke_Dog+Aging+Project.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dogagingproject.com/zeke/" target="_blank">Meet Zeke, a canine citizen scientist in the Dog Aging Project</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Aging is the single most important risk factor for a variety of diseases that affect both dogs and humans, such as cancer, heart disease, cognitive decline, arthritis, or kidney failure. Thus, addressing aging can be expected to result in a wide variety of potential health benefits: In fact, the potential benefits of targeting aging lead us to believe that this approach can be called “The Ultimate Preventive Medicine”, as it would have beneficial effects across the wide spectrum of otherwise unrelated diseases that share aging as their common risk factor.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Interestingly, the basic mechanisms of aging appear to be very similar across species, which has allowed scientists to identify risk factors and interventions in species with very short life spans, which can then be translated to longer-lived species. Thus far, this process has led from yeast through worms and flies to mice. We now argue that establishing the privately owned domestic dog as a model for human aging is the logical next step to take.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dogs are a very interesting model in that they share our human environment, develop many of the same age-related diseases that we develop ourselves, and also receive comparable medical care, which we argue makes them an ideal model for aging in humans. In addition, the dog’s comparably shorter life span also means that it is better suited as a model for evaluating genetic and environmental risk factors as well as potentially beneficial interventions on healthy aging, seeing as the results will become apparent much more quickly than they would if such studies were to be performed in humans. With this in mind, our goal is to establish a generally accepted definition of what constitutes an aged dog, and then investigate the factors that contribute to that phenotype – be they genetic, epigenetic, metabolic, or environmental.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Apart from their usefulness as a model for human health, identifying interventions that have the potential to make our dogs live and stay healthy for longer would be a highly desirable goal all in itself, and there is also the aspect of keeping service and other working dogs healthy for longer, which has the potential to generate substantial financial savings.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinNDBrwo5Hk6SEEdNk6o2dcQ0ITBk0iAssFiaAl7_se1Oc949C4UDxY66SBlJ1R0UqfmFwiEVQJP8LDVrQNuy-qq2xAFJDA7xI14a6-uufKM8oWH8Xz8uNkXUWajK1l2PuTjVtYGaEcVmK/s1600/Shadow_Dog+Aging+Project.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinNDBrwo5Hk6SEEdNk6o2dcQ0ITBk0iAssFiaAl7_se1Oc949C4UDxY66SBlJ1R0UqfmFwiEVQJP8LDVrQNuy-qq2xAFJDA7xI14a6-uufKM8oWH8Xz8uNkXUWajK1l2PuTjVtYGaEcVmK/s400/Shadow_Dog+Aging+Project.png" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dogagingproject.com/shadow/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">Shadow, of the Dog Aging Project</span></a></td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One such potential intervention is a drug called rapamycin: It is the product of <i>Streptomyces hygroscopicus</i>, a bacterium that was originally discovered in the soil of Easter Island/Rapa Nui in the 70’s. Rapamycin has been FDA approved as an immune modulator since 1999 and has more recently been shown to increase longevity by 30% when given to mice that were biologically about as old as a 60-year-old human. We know that it achieves this effect by activating some of the same metabolic pathways that are activated by eating a low calorie diet, and we also know that feeding dogs a low calorie diet makes them live and stay healthy for longer. Based on this, it follows that giving rapamycin to dogs could be an interesting and potentially very valuable intervention to increase healthy lifespan in our dogs.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We recently completed a double-blind placebo-controlled pilot study on 24 privately owned middle-aged medium size dogs that received either rapamycin or placebo for 10 weeks. This being a pilot study, our main goal was to make sure there were no side effects at the doses we used. In addition to clinical evaluation, we also did bloodwork before, during and after the study, as well as heart ultrasound before and after because rapamycin has been reported to have positive effects on heart function in aging mice.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The results are now in, and we are pleased to report that rapamycin did not cause any clinical side effects in our study population at the doses we used. The bloodwork showed some changes that may indicate longer red blood cell survival and some changes in metabolism, but all blood parameters remained within normal limits in our population.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, the most interesting part of our results – especially considering our relatively small sample size – is that rapamycin seems to have significant beneficial effects on heart function. Even more interestingly, those beneficial effects seem to be highly specific to the measures of heart function that we know are deteriorating with age, and they seem to apply to both the contraction (systole) and the relaxation (diastole) phases of heart function (Fractional Shortening and E/A Ratio). In short, rapamycin seems to be able to reverse some of the changes that are characteristic of an aging heart when given to dogs for 10 weeks, which is certainly encouraging within the context of improving healthy aging in our dogs.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We are currently seeking funding for a larger, longer term trial of rapamycin in privately owned dogs, which will allow us to determine whether it has a beneficial effect on life expectancy and healthy aging in them. We predict that rapamycin will not only allow the dogs to live longer, but will reduce their risk for several types of cancer, cognitive decline, kidney disease, and other age-associated disorders. For this study, we are planning to recruit several hundred dogs to study over a period of several years, which will allow us to collect more extensive data on health and mortality. More information on the project and how you can help can be found at our web site at <a href="http://dogagingproject.com/"><span class="s2">http://dogagingproject.com</span></a>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="s1"><b><a href="http://kaeberleinlab.org/people/silvan-urfer" target="_blank">Silvan Urfer, Dr. med. vet.</a>, </b>with contributions<b> </b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">by <a href="http://dogagingproject.com/about-us/" target="_blank">Matt Kaeberlein and Daniel Promislow</a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dog Aging Project</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">University of Washington Medicine Pathology</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1959 NE Pacific Street</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Box 357705</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Seattle, WA 98195</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpT_AE9tCkKOBt-RMbVOOTgCYL9eAdNY0EL6qgxLVO_4m7GXl89vETeQ9GRPNhJzCDen5O38jY-Us46DIS5CjperjXMtuakku7x3VcG3NfXKX-rCrC6XH_WY78zWsN772XcnilIzQp2gAF/s1600/4+hounds+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpT_AE9tCkKOBt-RMbVOOTgCYL9eAdNY0EL6qgxLVO_4m7GXl89vETeQ9GRPNhJzCDen5O38jY-Us46DIS5CjperjXMtuakku7x3VcG3NfXKX-rCrC6XH_WY78zWsN772XcnilIzQp2gAF/s400/4+hounds+copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waiting Wolfhounds. Credit: Silvan Urfer</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Further Reading</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26325590" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Gilmore, K. M. and K. A. Greer (2015). "Why is the dog an ideal model for aging research?" </span><span class="s3">Exp Gerontol</span><span class="s1"> <b>71</b>: 14-20.</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00335-016-9638-7" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Kaeberlein, M., K. E. Creevy and D. E. Promislow (2016). "The dog aging project: translational geroscience in companion animals." </span><span class="s3">Mamm Genome</span><span class="s1">.</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/350/6265/1191" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Kaeberlein, M., P. S. Rabinovitch and G. M. Martin (2015). "Healthy aging: The ultimate preventative medicine." </span><span class="s3">Science</span><span class="s1"> <b>350</b>(6265): 1191-1193.</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304555702_The_Dog_Aging_Project_Rapamycin_as_a_Potential_Aging_Modulator_in_Dogs?channel=doi&linkId=57735bbd08aeef01a0b666e9&showFulltext=true" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Urfer, S. R., K. E. Creevy, T. Kaeberlein, D. E. Promislow and M. Kaeberlein (2016). The Dog Aging Project: Rapamycin as a Potential Aging Modulator in Dogs. </span><span class="s3">5th Canine Science Forum</span><span class="s1">. Padua, Italy. DOI: </span><span class="s4">10.13140/RG.2.1.1979.0326 </span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002131" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Pitt, J. N. and M. Kaeberlein (2015). "Why is aging conserved and what can we do about it?" </span><span class="s3">PLoS Biol</span><span class="s1"> 13(4): e1002131.</span></a> <b><i>OPEN ACCESS</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v460/n7253/full/nature08221.html" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Harrison, D. E., R. Strong, Z. D. Sharp, J. F. Nelson, C. M. Astle, K. Flurkey, N. L. Nadon, J. E. Wilkinson, K. Frenkel, C. S. Carter, M. Pahor, M. A. Javors, E. Fernandez and R. A. Miller (2009). "Rapamycin fed late in life extends lifespan in genetically heterogeneous mice." </span><span class="s3">Nature</span><span class="s1"> 460(7253): 392-395.</span></a></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11991408" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Kealy, R. D., D. F. Lawler, J. M. Ballam, S. L. Mantz, D. N. Biery, E. H. Greeley, G. Lust, M. Segre, G. K. Smith and H. D. Stowe (2002). "Effects of diet restriction on life span and age-related changes in dogs." </span><span class="s3">JAVMA</span><span class="s1"> 220(9): 1315-1320.</span><span class="s5"> </span></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acel.12109/abstract" target="_blank">Flynn, J. M., M. N. O'Leary, C. A. Zambataro, E. C. Academia, M. P. Presley, B. J. Garrett, A. Zykovich, S. D. Mooney, R. Strong, C. J. Rosen, P. Kapahi, M. D. Nelson, B. K. Kennedy and S. Melov (2014). "Late-life rapamycin treatment reverses age-related heart dysfunction." Aging Cell 12(5): 851-862.</a></span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0Seattle, WA, USA47.6062095 -122.332070847.2636815 -122.9775178 47.9487375 -121.68662379999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-23437510993180501842016-06-30T15:28:00.003-07:002016-06-30T15:59:46.511-07:00Italy: The Fifth Canine Science Forum is Here<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hello world! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You know when you come across a headline, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Study finds dogs do X!!” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Canine Science Forum (CSF) is where researchers behind the headlines come together to share and discuss their latest studies and theories about dogs, wolves and related canines. It’s a place to get a pulse on the field -- what’s going on, and what’s to come. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: small; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Out poster about Science Communication! </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: small; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email if you want a copy: DoYouBelieveInDog @ gmail.com</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 17.664px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The conference began earlier this week on Tuesday and concludes tomorrow (here is the entire program). Anyone can follow all conference-based tweets on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23CSFPadova&src=typd" target="_blank">#CSFPadova</a> as well as <a href="https://twitter.com/DoUBelieveInDog" target="_blank">@DoUBelieveInDog</a>. We of course want to tell you about talk after talk after talk, but space, time, you get the picture... so here are a few highlights:
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www5.unitn.it/People/en/Web/Persona/PER0033020#INFO" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Giorgio Vallortigara</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> began the conference looking at brain asymmetry. The dog’s tail offers a pretty nifty insight into the brain — dogs </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/does-your-dog-wag-left-or-right-it-matters/2013/11/04/3e0d6b94-426f-11e3-a751-f032898f2dbc_story.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">wag more</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to the right when seeing an owner (associated with left hemisphere activation which is historically associated with approach-type behaviors), whereas seeing a strange person or strange dog prompts more wagging to the left (i.e., right hemisphere activation typically associated with more retreat behavior). Vallortigara also explored why brain symmetry evolved looking at both benefits to the individual as well as on the population level. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Márta Gácsi did not discuss why dog feet sometimes smell like Fritos (maybe next time, Márta!). Instead, Gácsi and colleagues from the </span><a href="https://familydogproject.elte.hu/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Family Dog Project</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> devised a simple, new procedure — that requires no pre-training — to test </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; line-height: 20.24px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Natural detection task </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 22.08px; white-space: pre-wrap;">olfaction in canids, both hand-raised wolves and dogs.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the study, they placed food in a plastic box with a lid to control the amount of smell released, and then placed the container under a ceramic pot to avoid visual cues. They wondered whether dogs would attend to the location of the hidden food, even when the access to the food was made increasingly difficult (see picture above). They found this was a good way to identify dogs who were both motivated and good at scent detection. Scent breeds and wolves were generally better at finding the food then non-scent breeds and short-nosed dogs. But hey, on an individual level, a Hungarian greyhound and Whippet (non-scent breeds), scored very very high, as did a Boston terrier (short-nosed dog). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Friederike Range of the <a href="http://www.vetmeduni.ac.at/en/messerli/science/cognition/canines/dogs-clever-dog-lab/" target="_blank">Clever Dog Lab</a>, Messerli - Research Institute University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna and Wolf Science Center reminded us that as dogs entered the human environment, it wasn't initially because they wanted to spend time with us, cuddle all night long, look into our eyes, and follow our gaze and gestures. Dogs entered the human environment for food and to scavenge and exploit our fabulous resources. She reminds researchers that dogs are adapted to the human environment as scavengers and this should be considered in terms of its consequences for dog behavior. Check out the Open Access article, </span><a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01582/full" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tracking the evolutionary origins of dog-human cooperation: the "Canine Cooperation Hypothesis"</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Range & Virányi, 2015) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oxytocin. Don’t oversimplify me</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Love? Affection? Come on, Anna Kis of the Family Dog Project would say. It’s way more complicated than that. Kis won the Early Career Scientist Award, and she discussed how oxytocin is being investigated in terms of human-directed social behaviors in dogs. She covered three main areas of research: measuring peripheral oxytocin levels using blood or urine, exploring single nucleotide polymorphisms in regulatory regions of the oxytocin receptor gene, and administering intranasal oxytocin. Julie covered her research on the oxytocin receptor gene in dogs </span><a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/dog-spies/mane28099s-best-friend-the-mysterious-role-of-oxytocin-revealed/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stay in touch with the conference this week on Twitter at </span><a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=CSFPadova&src=typd" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#CSFPadova</span></a></span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-38719286768918294382016-05-24T08:49:00.000-07:002016-05-24T09:01:54.954-07:00Can Therapy Dogs Help Students Handle Stress?<div class="p1">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span class="s1"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="color: #444444;">Please welcome today's guest contributor, Molly Crossman, a </span></span></span>Graduate Student & Co-Director of the Innovative Interactions Lab in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. </b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More than 925 colleges and universities have therapy animal programs for their students. The idea is that playing with a dog (or a cat, rabbit, bird, guinea pig, actual pig, llama, or rat—to name a few of the available options,) will help students cope with stress. But with record-high rates of anxiety and depression among students, can a few minutes with an animal really help? </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To answer this question, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08927936.2015.1070008" target="_blank">we did</a> a randomized controlled trial (the gold standard for testing out new medical and psychological treatments). We randomly assigned 67 students and medical residents (who have especially high rates of distress), to either: </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our participants ranged in age from 22 to 37 years old, and the majority (55%) were female. We used the State portion of the State/Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule to assess participants’ subjective experiences of anxiety and mood before and after participating. Both questionnaires ask respondents to rate how they are feeling at the moment, and both are well-validated for this purpose. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"> Photo: John Curtis/Yale Medicine</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Dog: Finn (DYBID has to add that he's just the cutest! Look at those eyebrows!)</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We found that interaction with the dog did reduce anxiety and improve mood for our participants. Participants who spent their time with the dog improved more than those who viewed (but did not interact with) the dog, and more than those who waited. In other words, as important as it is to take breaks, and as great as cute animal pictures make us feel, getting to interact with an animal is even better. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our study corroborates what many dog owners experience—playing with a dog really can improve mental health. But this evidence gives us something that our own experiences cannot. Our findings show that it is not just our high expectations that make therapy animals seem effective. In our study, less than 10 minutes with a therapy dog produced improvement on measures of real clinical symptoms, and that change was not just about taking a break from work. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The Role of Therapy Animals in Combating Student Stress </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our findings are important because student stress has reached a crisis point. Over 50% of college students have symptoms of depression, and 11% have thoughts of suicide. Of course, I am not suggesting that therapy animals will ever replace counseling centers on college campuses. On the contrary, therapy animals have already carved out a niche all their own. Therapy animals are appealing and students expect that they will help, therapy animals do not require appointments or commitments, and therapy animals can help many students in a small amount of time at little to no financial cost. In other words, even though therapy animals do not necessarily have a huge impact on every student, they are exceptionally well suited to make some difference for an enormous number of students. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://campuspress.yale.edu/mollycrossman/" target="_blank">Molly K. Crossman</a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Graduate Student & Co-Director of the Innovative Interactions Lab </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Department of Psychology, Yale University </span></span></div>
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<span class="s2"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Email: <span class="s3">molly.crossman@yale.edu</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/mollycrossman" target="_blank">@mollycrossman</a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Web: <a href="http://iilab.yale.edu/">iilab.yale.edu</a> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Reference</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Crossman, M.K., Kazdin, A.E. & Knudson, K. (2015). <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08927936.2015.1070008" target="_blank">Brief unstructured interaction with a dog reduces stress</a>. <i>Anthrozoös</i>, 28, 649—659.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For more coverage of this research, check out the <i>Psychology Today </i>post by Hal Herzog, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animals-and-us/201511/stress-relief-in-seven-minutes-doggie-style" target="_blank">‘Stress Relief in Seven Minutes: Doggie Style. Do programs using dogs to relieve anxiety in university students really work?’</a> Nov 19, 2015</span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0New Haven, CT, USA41.308274 -72.92788350000000741.212838999999995 -73.089245 41.403709 -72.766522000000009tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-28894704711274526392016-05-17T20:36:00.000-07:002016-05-18T17:55:30.247-07:00What happens to your heart when you share time with dogs? #HeartsAligned<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Most dog owners will tell you that their dogs are good for them. They don't need a scientist to tell them that. But if you ask those same owners "How is your dog good for you?", they might struggle to find the words to describe what underlies the feelings they have about their animal companions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I recently helped out with a demonstration (organised by Pedigree) that measured the heart rates of dogs and their owners, while separated and when reunited. The idea was prompted by <a href="https://www.heartmath.org/articles-of-the-heart/social-connections/pets-making-a-connection-thats-healthy-for-humans/" target="_blank">an observation made by Dr Rollin McCraty</a>, who monitored his son and their dog. We used non-invasive heart rate monitors on three dogs and their owners, to measure their heart rate rhythms in real time. We set the owner up on a couch, in front of cameras and lights in a studio, and kept their dog on the other side of a screen, out of sight, for less than two minutes. We then reunited the dogs and owners and encouraged the owner to relax with their dog on the couch, as they would usually do at home. The results? Well - see for yourself, here:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you had asked me before the demonstration, what to expect, I would have told you "a reduction in heart rates for both dogs and owners over time (maybe 3-5min or so), perhaps after an slight initial increase of reunion excitement". I would not have predicted the close coherence in patterns that we observed within 1min of the reunion. Even as a dog owner and canine science researcher, who knows my dog helps me lead a healthier, happier life, I was astonished!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I genuinely hope this phenomenon is an area of human-animal interaction that attracts more research attention.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>So how do dogs help our health?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's currently unclear what processes underlie the coherence of heart rate patterns we observed between dogs and their owners during the Hearts Aligned demonstration. It's fascinating and something I'd love to research further. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although this was a small case study of just three dogs, the results were striking. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These Australian dogs and their owners were randomly recruited through a routine casting call to the general public. The data are authentic.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> It was a delight to witness the beautiful relationship that Glenn, Alice and Sienna enjoyed with their dogs, Lyric, Juno and Jake. It would be interesting to explore the closeness of pattern alignment with other validated measures such as </span><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/089279306785415592#.VzvYIJF96wU" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">attachment</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (a term used in psychology that describes the strength of the emotional bond) between people and their dogs.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Glenn & Lyric, Alice & Juno, Sienna & Jake</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Existing research suggests that pet owners exercise more, which of course is beneficial for our health. Pets have also been shown to improve cardiovascular health in other ways. For example, patting your dog can release oxytocin that acts to reduce levels of stress hormones, resulting in lower blood pressure and heart rate. Additionally, research shows us that heart attack survivors and people with serious heart related abnormalities who own dogs may live longer than people with the same problems who don't have pets. There are also many studies suggesting animal companions are good for boosting our social resilience and mental health too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Hearts Aligned demonstration shows us that perhaps something as simple as relaxing in the company of our dogs at the end of a day of work or school, might also help to reduce our heart rate and offer our bodies a break from the stresses of everyday life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Speaking for myself, I feel more light-hearted when in the company of my dog. He distracts me from every day stresses, promotes me to get outside and exercise, makes me laugh every day with his antics and gives me company, even when other family members are away. I think I'm a fairly typical dog owner and that others share these feelings. Physically, these things probably result in a lower heart rate and blood pressure than I'd otherwise experience, and I suspect I feel less stressed than I otherwise would.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Luckily, I was able to enjoy the relaxing effect of patting the beautiful <a href="https://www.instagram.com/millie_thebionicgreyhound/" target="_blank">Millie</a> when I was invited onto the Studio 10 program to talk about how dogs can help us stress less on national TV:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hearts Aligned is also fundraising for the national rescue organisation, <a href="https://www.petrescue.com.au/" target="_blank">Pet Rescue</a>, who support over 950 shelters across Australia. We hope the video inspires people to share their own dog photos using the official hashtag #HeartsAligned. Each post on Facebook will trigger a $1 donation from <a href="http://pedigree.com.au/heartsaligned" target="_blank">Pedigree</a> to Pet Rescue, up to $20,000. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That's certainly enough evidence to make my heart feel good!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mia</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Further reading:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Cutt, HE, Knuiman, MW, Giles-Corti, B, 2008, ‘<a href="http://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1479-5868-5-17" target="_blank">Does getting a dog increase recreational walking</a>?’, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, vol. 5. pp. 17-27.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">McConnell, AR, Brown, CM, Shoda, TM, Stayton, LE, Martin, CE, 2011, ‘<a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2011-13783-001/" target="_blank">Friends with benefits: on the positive consequences of pet ownership</a>’, Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, vol.101, no.6, pp.1239-1252</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Headey, B, Na, F, Grabka, M, & Zheung, R, ‘Pets and human health in Australia, China and Germany: Evidence from three continents’, 2004, International Association of Human Animal Interaction Organisations Conference, Glasgow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Nagengast, SL, Baun, MM, Megel, M, and Leibowitz, JM, 1997,‘<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0882596397800589" target="_blank">The effects of the presence of a companion animal on physiological arousal and behavioural distress in children</a>, Journal of Pediatric Nursing, vol. 12, pp. 323-330.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Thompson, KL, & Gullone, E, ‘<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175303708X305774#.Vzvif5F96wU" target="_blank">Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviours in Adolescents: An Investigation into Associations with Attachment and Empathy</a>’, Anthrozoos, vol.21, no. 2, pp. 123-137.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wood L, Martin K, Christian H, Nathan A, Lauritsen C, Houghton S, et al. (2015) <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0122085" target="_blank">The Pet Factor - Companion Animals as a Conduit for Getting to Know People, Friendship Formation and Social Support</a>. PLoS ONE 10(4): e0122085. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0122085</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">© Mia Cobb || Do You Believe in Dog? 2016</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0Melbourne VIC, Australia-37.814107 144.96327999999994-38.6164245 143.67238649999993 -37.0117895 146.25417349999995tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-22199999728530615622016-02-23T19:24:00.000-08:002016-02-23T19:51:20.407-08:00Dog Researchers Head to the City by the Bay: The Canine Science Symposium in San Francisco, CA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hi Julie & Mia,</div>
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I wanted to write to the two of you about the <b><a href="https://www.sfspca.org/get-involved/events/CSS2016" target="_blank">Canine Science Symposium</a></b>. It's happening this <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_463154214" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">April 16 & 17</span></span> in San Francisco, and I thought you might be interested to hear all about it. I bet <a href="http://www.tailsfromthelab.com/2014/03/03/the-canine-science-symposium-returns-to-san-francisco-pet-photographer/" target="_blank">Julie remembers</a> speaking about anthropomorphism at the very first CSS. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get her back to San Francisco for the next one!</div>
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This year's Symposium promises to be bigger and better with an extra half day of presentations, more speakers and new breakout sessions to dig deeper into the research. <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_463154215" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Three years later</span></span> since that inaugural Symposium at <a href="http://www.sfpawsitivetails.com/#home-1" target="_blank">Pawsitive Tails</a>, we're now at the <a href="https://www.sfspca.org/" target="_blank">San Francisco SPCA</a> where we’ve partnered with the organization’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SFSPCASquareOne" target="_blank">Behavior & Training Department</a>, brought on sponsors (such as the <a href="https://www.karenpryoracademy.com/" target="_blank">Karen Pyror Academy</a>) and in all, expect well over 100 shelter staff and volunteers, trainers and dog enthusiasts to join us for this day and a half of canine science. We love coming to San Francisco in part because of the vibrant dog community there!</div>
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While many Symposium speakers continue to return each year to share their research, we ensure that the topics are new – and we’re real sticklers on the “applied” part of the research. We want those that come out to learn with us to be able to walk away with new techniques and approaches to try in their interactions with shelter dogs, dogs that they train and the dogs they live with. </div>
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This year’s addition of breakout sessions will provide more advanced content (something we think the Symposium crowd is eager for) and live opportunities to discuss research and training ideas (and in some cases, as they’re happening!). We like sharing our enthusiasm for dogs, and the Symposium is our opportunity to make our research accessible.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Xephos running the maze at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/caninesciencecollaboratory/" target="_blank">ASU</a>.</i></td></tr>
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<b>Our CSS speakers for 2016 include</b> Drs. Clive Wynne (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/caninesciencecollaboratory/" target="_blank">Arizona State University</a>), Erica Feuerbacher (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Carroll-College-Anthrozoology-Department-210561259037063/" target="_blank">Carroll College</a>), Lindsay Mehrkam (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/osuanrs" target="_blank">Oregon State University</a>), Sasha Protopopova (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/humananimalinteractionlab" target="_blank">Texas Tech University</a>) and myself. This year, we have new additions to our speaking roster including Dr. Monique Udell from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/osuanrs" target="_blank">Oregon State University</a> and post-doctoral scholar Dr. Nathan Hall from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/caninesciencecollaboratory/" target="_blank">Arizona State University</a>. Dr. Jeannine Berger, who heads up the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SFSPCASquareOne" target="_blank">SF/SPCA’s Behavior Resources</a>, will be speaking too (in the past, she’s led our roundtable, but now she’s joining us at the podium).</div>
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While many of us are former or current students of Clive’s, our research interests are diverse as evidenced by this year’s topics. Our presentations include decoding dominance in dogs; canine sociability and attachment; using advanced behavioral principles in dog training; applying cognitive, behavioral and physiological measures to improve shelter dog welfare; using play as training and enrichment; understanding visitor behavior in shelters to increase adoptions; exploring canine olfaction and interpreting canine body language.</div>
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We’re excited to return to San Francisco this April and hope to see many in the dog training and behavior community at the Symposium! </div>
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For those folks that are interested in attending, head on over to <a href="https://www.sfspca.org/get-involved/events/CSS2016" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.sfspca.org/get-<wbr></wbr>involved/events/CSS2016</a> for all the details including speaker bios and presentation descriptions, and online registration (registration is at the waaaay <a href="https://www.sfspca.org/get-involved/events/CSS2016" target="_blank">bottom of the page</a>).</div>
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Our <b>early-bird registration ends March 2<sup>nd</sup></b>, so those that want to attend should sign up soon! </div>
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Lisa Gunter </div>
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MA, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA</div>
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<a href="https://psychology.clas.asu.edu/research/labs/canine-science-collaboratory-wynne" target="_blank">Canine Science Collaboratory, Arizona State University</a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373501499999996 -123.06486250000002 38.1763575 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-27387883017254726242015-10-25T20:07:00.002-07:002015-10-27T07:43:27.377-07:00Understanding the Tame Fox: The Hunt for the Genetic Mechanisms of Fearfulness<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Jessica Hekman meets friendly fox.</span></td></tr>
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.2px;">Guest post by: <a href="http://www.dogzombie.com/" target="_blank">Dr Jessica Perry Hekman DVM MS</a></b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hi Mia and Julie,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">One of the things I love most about dogs is how friendly they are. What's the biggest difference between a dog and a wolf? The dog probably wants to come say hi to you. The wolf is scared of you, and may demonstrate that fear through aggression if you get too close. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But not ALL dogs are friendly, right? If “friendliness” versus “fear” was on a spectrum, most dogs would be on the “friendly” end, but some would be down towards the “fear” end with the wolves. This is what I study: what is going on in the brain of fearful dogs to make them scared of things? What are the mechanisms that are different? I'm interested in the wiring in the brain, hormone differences, neurotransmitter differences, and more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Right now, the way I'm studying fear in dogs is by studying fear in foxes. I know you know about the <a href="http://russian_domesticated_red_fox/" target="_blank">famous population of tame foxes</a> at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk, Russia. I got to <a href="http://dogzombie.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-week-of-tame-foxes.html" target="_blank">go meet</a> these foxes recently! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">They have been bred for tameness for more than forty generations, and are a lot like dogs in their friendliness and lack of fear. In the lab where I work, we compare these foxes to another group of foxes that have been selected for fearfulness/aggression. Through comparing these very different groups, we to try to understand the biological mechanisms behind their personality differences. Foxes are evolutionarily close to dogs, and because these foxes have carefully controlled genetics and environments, they are easier to study than pet dogs are. (I still hope to transition to working directly with pet dogs some day, though.)</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hekman with friendly fox.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Over the years, much has been learned about the tame foxes: their stress response is very different from that of the aggressive foxes <span style="color: #666666;">[1]</span>; they have different levels of various neurotransmitters in their brains <span style="color: #666666;">[1]</span>, and they even have differences in brain structure <span style="color: #666666;">[2]</span>. In the lab where I work, <a href="http://ansci.illinois.edu/labs/kukekova-lab" target="_blank">Kukekova Lab</a> at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, we study the genetic differences between these groups of foxes. We hope that finding differences in their genes will help us learn more about mechanistic differences in their brains. Our lab <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0127013" target="_blank">recently published</a> a new paper in PLoSONE <span style="color: #666666;">[3]</span> about some of our findings.<br /><br />We are still very much at the stage of just trying to figure out where in the enormous genome (3.3 billion nucleotides!) the personality differences between tame and aggressive foxes come from. (By the way, various efforts looking at personality differences in humans are at the same stage.)</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-nucleotide_polymorphism" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Our lab's approach in this paper was to look at the entire genomes of 40 foxes, 20 tame and 20 aggressive. First we found the places in their genomes in which at least one fox was different at the level of just one nucleotide. A single nucleotide differences is known as a single nucleotide polymorphism, or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-nucleotide_polymorphism" target="_blank">SNP</a>. Unfortunately, while a SNP might be a pointer to an important difference, most SNPs mean absolutely nothing. The problem is telling which is which. And we found thousands of them – more than 100,000 of them, which we filtered down to 8,437 of them that we actually wanted to use. So how would we figure out which ones were pointing at real and important differences in the tame fox genome?<br /><br />To answer this question, we looked for differences not just between individual foxes, but between the group of 20 tame foxes and the group of 20 aggressive foxes. With 8,437 SNPs you had better bet we used computers for this. It was a surprise to me when I got into modern genomics just how much of the work deals with complex computer algorithms to process the massive amounts of data we're dealing with!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hekman with fox at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We found several areas of the fox genome in which tame foxes tended to have one version of some SNPs, while aggressive foxes tended to have another version. To understand this, it can help to think of the genome as a big instruction manual, a book called “How to Build a Fox.” Mostly the instruction manuals for tame and aggressive foxes would be the same, but in a few cases single letters would be different. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Imagine that the tame foxes all had, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” in their version of chapter two, but the aggressive foxes all had, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy doc” in their version. Basically, by finding places where the tame foxes all had one version, and the aggressive foxes all had a different version, we were finding places in the genome where we hoped to find important differences, changes that help cause the tame fox personality phenotype. We found 28 regions like this, but focused on three of them as the most interesting.<br /><br />Next we looked at the genes that these changes might affect, because finding gene differences was the point of the whole exercise. Remember, we still don't know most of what most of the genes out there do! This is really dark side of the moon stuff, and everyone is still guessing about what's going on in the genome, human or fox. But here are some interesting genes we found. I'm including a “wild hypothesis” with some of them. These hypotheses are probably wrong, but I hope they help to show why these genes are so interesting to us...</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hand sniffing.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>GRIN2B:</b> this gene codes for a receptor for one of the major neurotransmitters in the brain, glutamate. Glutamate is involved in learning and memory. <b>Wild hypothesis:</b> maybe tame foxes are less afraid because of a difference in how they learn about what to fear.<br /><br /><b>GABARAPL1 (GEC1):</b> this gene is involved with opioids, molecules in the brain that help us feel good. <b>Wild hypothesis:</b> maybe tame foxes are more friendly because social interactions feel different (better) to them.<br /><br /><b>COUP-TFII (NR2F2):</b> this gene is important during embryonic brain development, especially in the amygdala, a part of the brain that tells us when to be afraid. This gene also influences expression of oxytocin, a neurotransmitter which functions in social bonding.<br /><br />These genes are extremely interesting, but even more than that, this work helped our lab implicate specific regions of the genome in the differences between tame and aggressive foxes. That list of regions will prove invaluable as we do more work in the future, using different tools to examine the tame fox genome and seeing which tools point at the same regions.<br /><br />Tame fox kisses to you both!<br /><br />Jessica</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.dogzombie.com/" target="_blank">Dr. Jessica Perry Hekman</a> graduated Tufts
Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2012, where in
addition to her DVM she received an MS for <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3817620/" target="_blank">work on</a> stress
behavior and cortisol levels in hospitalized dogs. She
completed a shelter medicine internship at the University of
Florida in 2013, and is now a PhD student at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she works at <a href="http://ansci.illinois.edu/labs/kukekova-lab" target="_blank">Kukekova Lab</a>. Her
research interests are in the biological mechanisms behind
fearfulness in dogs. You can follow her at <a href="https://twitter.com/dogzombieblog" target="_blank">@dogzombieblog</a>.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Images copyright Jessica Hekman. </i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[1] Trut, Lyudmila N., I. Z. Plyusnina, and I. N. Oskina. <a href="http://cbsu.tc.cornell.edu/ccgr/behaviour/04_Recent_Publications/Trut_genetika04.pdf" target="_blank">"An experiment on fox domestication and debatable issues of evolution of the dog."</a> Russian Journal of Genetics 40.6 (2004): 644-655. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />[2] Huang, Shihhui, et al. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hipo.22420%20%5Bpaywall%5D" target="_blank">"Selection for tameness, a key behavioral trait of domestication, increases adult hippocampal neurogenesis in foxes."</a> Hippocampus (March 2015). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />[3] Johnson, Jennifer L. et al. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127013" target="_blank">"Genotyping-By-Sequencing (GBS) Detects Genetic Structure and Confirms Behavioral QTL in Tame and Aggressive Foxes (Vulpes vulpes)."</a> PLoSONE (2015). </span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">© 2015 Jessica Perry Hekman </span></b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">| Do You Believe in Dog?</span></b><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0Urbana, IL, USA40.1105875 -88.20726969999998340.013442 -88.368631199999982 40.207733000000005 -88.045908199999985tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-67368163965193069892015-10-13T16:48:00.000-07:002015-10-14T05:12:20.247-07:00What can a DNA test tell you about your mixed breed dog?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The results are IN!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rudy's DNA test results have come back.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9BLN2r2c3VdUAZR-DZ1fk4q2GgFiujFeZAhYpSM40x9jXkQjq3BUGFaSbkvMUx2flaGFuPAEFrVQnEX1v3vIIZaXXx_AYjzE7rk2-qeks-I7I1JityshrbbcQ91tuWrtmbs5fBi-4MJhK/s1600/FullSizeRender+%25287%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9BLN2r2c3VdUAZR-DZ1fk4q2GgFiujFeZAhYpSM40x9jXkQjq3BUGFaSbkvMUx2flaGFuPAEFrVQnEX1v3vIIZaXXx_AYjzE7rk2-qeks-I7I1JityshrbbcQ91tuWrtmbs5fBi-4MJhK/s400/FullSizeRender+%25287%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Let's see what a DNA test can tell us about this mixed breed dog.</i></span></td></tr>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />What you thought he was</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We asked you all to place your bets on what mix of breeds he might contains, and boy did you come to the party! Here's what the poll results say YOU think he is:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6vmQQByHLjs5CCtv-ZWyES3mnd8gUpMR3exCalhQrHkbfWSlNmESP3UIZbTtdCMJYLefL2ePkgYSAXXEmqdSh6Z_cXHxj2KEVFDuSrNXoe58VfaYCvo-yk07y8xnVx7jnBjXnlBFdX8L2/s1600/RudyPoll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6vmQQByHLjs5CCtv-ZWyES3mnd8gUpMR3exCalhQrHkbfWSlNmESP3UIZbTtdCMJYLefL2ePkgYSAXXEmqdSh6Z_cXHxj2KEVFDuSrNXoe58VfaYCvo-yk07y8xnVx7jnBjXnlBFdX8L2/s400/RudyPoll.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The 'Other' category included suggestions of: Collie, English Foxhound, Irish Setter, Galgo, Super cute curly tail hound (!), Glamour dog(!), Borzoi, Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pomeranian and German Shepherd.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What the DNA test says he is</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not surprisingly, Rudy has been identified as having come from a line of mixed breed dogs. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We know that he was picked up as a stray in a very rural/bush area as a four month old puppy. In that location, it's likely he was bred to be a hunting dog, and was bred from a line of dogs very similar to him. Both of Rudy's parent have been identified as being mixed breeds. This has meant the DNA test is not just a clear cut simple cross between two breeds, but a bit murkier to decipher. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What we expected</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We always knew there would be sighthound in the mix! Fortunately, one grandparent on each side (e.g. his mother's mother and his father's father) have been identified as being a single breed. So the test says that Rudy is identified as one-quarter <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Deerhound" target="_blank">Scottish Deerhound</a> and one-quarter <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyhound" target="_blank">Greyhound</a>. This makes sense and fits with his physical appearance.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbWCEiwmB3vXravG70wYHCA1PvPx4cVDyseAwd2jHjMSTR1iABrfEGi_VXiAReEg3LBgM79tCU_zaxiZCmoYa6SCKACgIYc1XF-z0hi2x__7xQA6OdYJb6vdTVSuM9gM2esnElaqUKeNOx/s1600/Scottish-Deerhound-dog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbWCEiwmB3vXravG70wYHCA1PvPx4cVDyseAwd2jHjMSTR1iABrfEGi_VXiAReEg3LBgM79tCU_zaxiZCmoYa6SCKACgIYc1XF-z0hi2x__7xQA6OdYJb6vdTVSuM9gM2esnElaqUKeNOx/s400/Scottish-Deerhound-dog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">(Photo: <a href="http://favoritedogbreed.com/scottish-deerhound/" target="_blank">source</a>)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">(Photo: <a href="http://greyhoundscansit.com/" target="_blank">Sue Muir</a>)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiPP3V00U0m9SNo16BiORaSgygtaDsVN_OdBkgFm387TRjeM-BprRx1bHp-qIuDXW-AcUzbg-1sLwPvy4LKFknTCGY6wIwZe0adLL7d19H80bivGs976fVFhp60cMz5d_XguLG8NA7GobD/s1600/RudyDNA1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiPP3V00U0m9SNo16BiORaSgygtaDsVN_OdBkgFm387TRjeM-BprRx1bHp-qIuDXW-AcUzbg-1sLwPvy4LKFknTCGY6wIwZe0adLL7d19H80bivGs976fVFhp60cMz5d_XguLG8NA7GobD/s400/RudyDNA1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Part of Rudy's DNA test results report</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What we weren't expecting</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because of Rudy's muddled up mixed breed lineage, the DNA test results offer us a further five breeds that have been identified as <i>"the 5 next best breed matches which appeared in the analysis of your dog's DNA.
One or more of these breeds could have contributed to the genetic makeup of the ancestors indicated by
the mixed breed icon. The breeds are listed by the relative strength of each result in our analysis with the most
likely at the top of the list". </i>This is definitely where the fun starts!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*Drumroll*</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the highest 'relative strength' (<i>undefined and unclear if this is supposed to be % of total dog, or % of the 50% unaccounted for, or some other strength</i>) of 10.86 (<i>again, 10.86 units of what, or out to a total available number of ##, is unclear</i>) - is... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Dobermann! I find this plausible. Dobermanns are certainly not unusual in Australia and I can see inclusion in a line of hunting-purpose dogs making sense to someone at some point, way back when. Rudy also has a wonderful mate who's a Dobe, so now they're totes cousins.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHraFsIaP9MfDWDskF2QvCHQ7zFbIkwks7YsXjArOe_nKNexxTjQToBkzeAIj52uWBm0-ZBrZn2asXcp3beTZ_yDNKeA2xEjyvnZ16nCCA4cV-wfctw_5jJlMW0v6PUMBQTKs_fFq52LuX/s1600/Dobe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHraFsIaP9MfDWDskF2QvCHQ7zFbIkwks7YsXjArOe_nKNexxTjQToBkzeAIj52uWBm0-ZBrZn2asXcp3beTZ_yDNKeA2xEjyvnZ16nCCA4cV-wfctw_5jJlMW0v6PUMBQTKs_fFq52LuX/s400/Dobe.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Dobermann reportedly represented in Rudy with strength of 10.86</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, our first surprise... coming in with <i>strength</i> of 10.55 - the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_Sheepdog" target="_blank">Shetland Sheepdog</a>! Ha! I would have been more convinced by a Rough Collie I think, but who knows, maybe Rudy's great great grandma was a house dog sheltie? It <i>would</i> explain those neck flares... This is nothing compared to the next couple!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd4yMcBc79VDFEZcoh-yuvm40MGAbSCdtK6R4jaQ_H1i5wBWjL5Pm47fUUsdfuE2eN05YOPs4T3J-y4PGJ9053CUL0M7A3WyL79JapavZ7yRXsllqZnjhGgDBBUcTb_79SrywMtSym0RtA/s1600/Shetland-Sheepdog1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd4yMcBc79VDFEZcoh-yuvm40MGAbSCdtK6R4jaQ_H1i5wBWjL5Pm47fUUsdfuE2eN05YOPs4T3J-y4PGJ9053CUL0M7A3WyL79JapavZ7yRXsllqZnjhGgDBBUcTb_79SrywMtSym0RtA/s400/Shetland-Sheepdog1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Shetland sheepdog reportedly in Rudy with a strength of 10.55</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh hi there <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puli" target="_blank">Puli</a>, with a <i>strength</i> of 6.64. In a million blue moons, I would never have picked you in this line up! There are not that many Puli breeders in Australia, and to think that one was used to contribute to a farmer's hunting line seems... odd. But then, my personal favourite is still to come....</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT9qiyJL7WYFbfg_qFpHWZg0jgDAmpONXb6TYPVUPyCWX4_h4xw0JCB9ZHdwSmuHnL1P6nQoKVWe_X1exNezs4hSQUiBSwFDEM9_-gGS9QylvdE_uoCsGVbx1jDhxZvU-OumAhyphenhyphenCAyLTFG/s1600/puli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT9qiyJL7WYFbfg_qFpHWZg0jgDAmpONXb6TYPVUPyCWX4_h4xw0JCB9ZHdwSmuHnL1P6nQoKVWe_X1exNezs4hSQUiBSwFDEM9_-gGS9QylvdE_uoCsGVbx1jDhxZvU-OumAhyphenhyphenCAyLTFG/s400/puli.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Puli reportedly in Rudy with strength of 6.64</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...but we'll save it for last. Coming in with the second lowest </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">strength </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of the five mixed breed contributors identified, we have the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Wolfhound" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Irish Wolfhound</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. I know most of you thought this was going to be a leading contributor to Rudy's make up, but whatever </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">strength</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> represents, 3.28 doesn't seem like much of it. So now my favourite....</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Irish Wolfhound identified in Rudy with a strength of 3.28</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basset_Hound" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Basset Hound</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. I guess Rudy gets his leg from the other side of the family, right?! With a </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">strength </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of 1.63, it's the final and lowest reported <i>strength </i>identified in Rudy's report.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Basset Hound reportedly in Rudy with a strength of 1.63</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6r3G7X145FwgUe28qMOdohEXAV8FO0ssZakF39C-1Nj1blUBab0-wIABJ-jHenkhKSdtdmLa9YBZxU88gqweXh8uNqQV6n3eJOjnWGM4Lw6xdB1HSWph6vouHy6oIZ5Uxem_TaWLOJteb/s1600/MixedBreedExtras.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6r3G7X145FwgUe28qMOdohEXAV8FO0ssZakF39C-1Nj1blUBab0-wIABJ-jHenkhKSdtdmLa9YBZxU88gqweXh8uNqQV6n3eJOjnWGM4Lw6xdB1HSWph6vouHy6oIZ5Uxem_TaWLOJteb/s400/MixedBreedExtras.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Part of Rudy's DNA test results report</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The science behind mixed breed DNA tests</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So how did the results end up like this? DNA tests for mixed breed dogs vary between providers. We used the Australian Advance/Waltham test which is 'powered by Wisdom Panel', validated against Australian dog populations. This test examines the 321 markers from the DNA against a database of DNA markers for over 200 representative (NB: not comprehensive!) breeds of dogs and a computer program evaluates and returns a probable 'pedigree tree' reaching back three generations. Every possible combination the computer program arrives at is scored and the tree with the highest score is deemed most probable and presented in the report.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An important note about this kind of test is that 321 markers are not that many. Other canine research (<a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/2052-6687-1-7.pdf" target="_blank">genotyping for whole genome analysis</a>) can use 170,000 markers. Human <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogical_DNA_test" target="_blank">ethinicity testing</a> relies on 20,000 (to determine caucasian/non-caucasian) -700,000 markers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">321 markers provide a reduced scope of DNA marker testing, and they are comparing an unknown dog against a bank of typical groups of alleles that representatives for breeds, so the robustness of the test results should definitely be considered as a suggestion, more than an absolute truth. </span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another way to think of it</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The best analogy (that may be over simplified, but I think is still useful) that I have been able to come up with to help explain this test in relation to mixed breed dogs is to think of dogs as colours. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By this, I mean there is a broad spectrum and range, all able to be mixed together in various combinations, over time. We've applied some values to the range (such as when blue becomes green, or orange moves into red) which we can think of as breeds. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7TOlRLzIThcmOpsdbJKhrvrVGChFX-ScbW6y4F9pM0I-HZLW5Z74QI8zKZw_DEVYaVsCLam9oI07urCGYUnqyQC5IpDbl929ZnhCITGM3cjWN6VA6RXeIWZ65h_83f1TTT08MzTTaRFE/s1600/irish-wolfhound-dean-russo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7TOlRLzIThcmOpsdbJKhrvrVGChFX-ScbW6y4F9pM0I-HZLW5Z74QI8zKZw_DEVYaVsCLam9oI07urCGYUnqyQC5IpDbl929ZnhCITGM3cjWN6VA6RXeIWZ65h_83f1TTT08MzTTaRFE/s400/irish-wolfhound-dean-russo.jpg" width="317" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Image: <a href="http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/dean-russo.html" target="_blank">Dean Russo</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So consider Rudy as being a light brown colour. The DNA test is essentially trying to determine the combination of colours that arrived at that shade of light brown. It's pretty sure there's some red and green in there, perhaps some yellow too. But because he's such a mixed up colour, it's harder to work out if there's also been orange (or was it a certain shade of red with a different shade of yellow?), white, a darker brown or even some bright blue included, and when they might have been mixed into him. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The computer program has presented his report with one possible combination of colours that arrived at his shade of light brown, but it's not the only possible combination to get there. And when I consider where he came from and the likely uses and sources of his forebears, I can be fairly sceptical about some of the results (I'm looking at YOU mop dog!).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For example, I would probably have believed fox hound over basset hound. Or rough collie over sheltie, and I'm not confident how well 321 markers can discriminate between low levels of these breeds in comparison to each other by using the database of 'typical representatives'. As time goes by and the databases are expanded, these tests become more reliable. For example, the test conducted this year is likely more correct than one done five years ago. If they extend the number of markers examined to 1,000 in the future, this would improve the accuracy again.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So - what is Rudy?</span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_LAwGl3oXEIeehHY302xXqTxaFWs_FYEVIxtMlz4ByUgN4xpyH1XGoIrcVfqs6PM93yBMlcQyPL48xhI6V3gclHrz9OtFpfIyUJHFdcjRBlgxHLNkZHMFT_SIXGTinWd1Fkaf0lID7lGD/s1600/FullSizeRender+%25288%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_LAwGl3oXEIeehHY302xXqTxaFWs_FYEVIxtMlz4ByUgN4xpyH1XGoIrcVfqs6PM93yBMlcQyPL48xhI6V3gclHrz9OtFpfIyUJHFdcjRBlgxHLNkZHMFT_SIXGTinWd1Fkaf0lID7lGD/s400/FullSizeRender+%25288%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He is our dog. Much-loved family member, silly goose, and constant source of delight to our family. His breed heritage is not so important to us. We knew he was sighthound mix type of dog <a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com.au/2015_01_01_archive.html#.Vhw67fmqqko" target="_blank">when we adopted him</a>, and he still is. When I next get asked (as I always do!) "What IS HE?", I can now reply with a slightly more informed "He's a mix, mostly deerhound and greyhound, with little bits of a few other things in there too".</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He is certainly a dog.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Look forward to any comments and questions you might have,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mia</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Further reading:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br /></u></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">van Rooy, D., Arnott, E. R., Early, J. B., McGreevy, P., & Wade, C. M. (2014). <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/2052-6687-1-7.pdf" target="_blank">Holding back the genes: limitations of research into canine behavioural genetics</a>. </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">Canine Genetics and Epidemiology</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">1</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">(1), 7.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.12px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">Hedrick, P. W., & Andersson, L. (2011). <a href="http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v106/n5/full/hdy201098a.html" target="_blank">Are dogs genetically special?</a>.</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">Heredity</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">106</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">(5), 712.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">McPhee, C. G. (2011). <a href="http://veterinarymedicine.dvm360.com/advances-canine-genetic-testing-and-what-these-tests-mean-you?rel=canonical" target="_blank">Advances in canine genetic testing—And what these tests mean for you</a>. </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">Veterinary Medicine</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">106</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.12px;">(12), 608.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.12px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">© 2015 Mia Cobb</span></b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> | Do You Believe in Dog?</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.12px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com3Yarra Valley, VIC, Australia-37.6568122 145.44716130000006-38.0590987 144.80171430000007 -37.254525699999995 146.09260830000005tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-4916539561120454692015-08-31T03:10:00.000-07:002015-08-31T03:10:39.350-07:00Science wants to know about the dog in your bed<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">Guest post by: </b><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.howlingdingo.com.au/" target="_blank">Dr <span class="il">Bradley</span> <span class="il">Smith</span> BPsych(Hons) PhD</a></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hi Mia and Julie,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Out of all the potential sleeping places in the house, I’m
pretty sure your four-legged companion would prefer to sleep in your bed! Does yours?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
decision to let your pet into your bed is a topic that often divides owners,
but it might just be more common than you think. Around half of pet owners
sleep alongside their pets. The luckiest seem to be dogs (although Great Danes
probably miss out here) and cats. It is believed that around 40-50% of pet
owners sleep alongside their pets - many of whom, go to extreme lengths to
accommodate them (like the guy below). </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVGidVvPy_viQjVRBJav0EJH7SuFgK0VqFm0uA_BLbdacJWojIPl16LYnkzWzhwjVNZxc-qHtm_vOmkFWE24ijn2wQI9keOy1JEl0xru8ptalyiSKvp54ZG5R54a69Ug0o3Ya5OF39VRr5/s1600/Brad1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVGidVvPy_viQjVRBJav0EJH7SuFgK0VqFm0uA_BLbdacJWojIPl16LYnkzWzhwjVNZxc-qHtm_vOmkFWE24ijn2wQI9keOy1JEl0xru8ptalyiSKvp54ZG5R54a69Ug0o3Ya5OF39VRr5/s1600/Brad1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet for such a common practice, we know relatively little
about how and why people do it, or the implications. Do dog and cat owners
jeopardise their sleep quality to accommodate their animal companions in their bed or bedroom? Think about
when your dog needs to go out for a pee at 2am, or wakes you before your alarm goes
off in the morning because they are ready to play, or hungry for breakfast. Or
what about the point in the night when the cat decides your face is the most
comfortable place to sleep? After all, dogs and cat have completely different
sleep needs and circadian rhythms to humans, and are much more sensitive to
stimuli, even when asleep. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAasiIO0SKby0d5FqnGXlrC5ZBFQppbgiWf3AMofFECIsL75RBgDg5aKnh7xQDrYqz3naU6ksp0ZzbCjeiWOOAul6-tj_p-TxxahKZ3wF7Zxl44d3K6KcU3hWeF5nxpv-vvGJxHNbw0ngm/s1600/Brad2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAasiIO0SKby0d5FqnGXlrC5ZBFQppbgiWf3AMofFECIsL75RBgDg5aKnh7xQDrYqz3naU6ksp0ZzbCjeiWOOAul6-tj_p-TxxahKZ3wF7Zxl44d3K6KcU3hWeF5nxpv-vvGJxHNbw0ngm/s400/Brad2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A lot of the information that exists on this topic tends to
focus on the health and hygiene implications (e.g. transfer of diseases, asthma
and allergies). This is something I can related to. The day my wife and I watched
our border collie roll around in fresh poo was the day we knew she was never going to
join us in our bed…ever! But in reality, there is no real health risks, so long
as you keep your pet clean and healthy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been involved in several studies with </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">colleague of mine, <a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/facebook-depression-dogs-send-me-angel.html#.VePzcPmqqko" target="_blank">Dr Kirrilly Thompson</a>, seeking to gain an understanding of this topic. First, in a survey
of the sleep behaviours of 10,000 Australians, we gained some preliminary
insight. We found that around 1 in 10 Australians bed-shared with their pet
(this excluded those that allow their animals to sleep on the bedroom floor). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>We found 3 ways that
human sleep practices were impacted:</b></span></div>
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<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>It took pet bed-sharers longer than
non-pet bed-sharers to get to sleep </b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pet bed-sharers woke up more tired, and </b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pet bed-sharers were more likely to be woken during the night from dogs barking and animal noises.</b></span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It seems that there is a lot to this relationship,
and many people are willing to make sacrifices to their own sleep. Maybe its because our pets provide us with a sense of security and comfort, or perhaps it’s the only way to keep
the animal from causing more problems!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a follow-up study, with our honours student Peta
Hazelton, we conducted the first in-depth look into human-dog co-sleeping. The
study, which included an Australian only sample, revealed the rate of human-dog
co-sleeping was high (69%) amongst the 1,328 dog owners we sampled. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most common dog sleeping location was in the bedroom, on
top of the covers (34%), followed by in the bedroom on the floor (22%), in the
house but not in the bedroom (21%), in the bed and under the covers (13%), and
10% of dogs slept outside. Heat map images revealed when two people are in a
double (or larger) bed, dogs frequently slept between, or at the feet of
couple. When one person is in a double (or larger) bed, dogs generally slept at
chest level, presumably opposite participants. For those in a single bed, the
dog often slept on the floor beside the bed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>So why do dog owners choose to bed share? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The study revealed that people's motivations to co-sleep are diverse, with responses including for dog
behavioural issues (barking or destructive behaviours if not in the bedroom),
health reasons (needed to keep seizure alert dog nearby), owner’s attitude
(viewing the dog as a family member or ‘pack’), factors out of their control
(participant’s human sleeping partner or the dog made the decision), logistics
(nowhere else for the dog to sleep), routine or habit (not wanting to disrupt
the dog’s nightly routine), and becoming dependant on the dog’s presence to
sleep (as well as feeling the dog did not disrupt sleep, therefore no need to
alter the arrangement). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But not all dog owners felt the same, with many reasons given
as to why they chose not to co-sleep with their dog. These included, dog
behavioural issues (wanting to avoid the dog developing dominant or dependent
behaviour), health (co-sleeping would provoke allergies or is unhygienic),
disruptive behaviours (the dog is too restless), interpersonal relationships
(human sleeping partner would not allow it or it would impede intimacy), dog
characteristics (size of the dog), owner’s attitude (the dog doesn’t belong in
the house), and logistics (owning too many dogs to co-sleep). </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR4NYitb3OZ-pIt1du5RU0nUhlRZHbNzlVHsAtGmed2dsVx4N9cFfJogW5F790PZ4nxqgwejAl1vrnGH9EC0UgNvCVxqke7UbYgzg6pd_OhkEuiHAEL7Nxdo-qRe9do_rpnbYEruAbhDOu/s1600/Brad3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR4NYitb3OZ-pIt1du5RU0nUhlRZHbNzlVHsAtGmed2dsVx4N9cFfJogW5F790PZ4nxqgwejAl1vrnGH9EC0UgNvCVxqke7UbYgzg6pd_OhkEuiHAEL7Nxdo-qRe9do_rpnbYEruAbhDOu/s400/Brad3.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Location of dog’s sleeping position
(chest) for participants that slept on a double, queen or king size bed and two
people in the bed, n = 517</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the end, co-sleeping (with whatever species) naturally
disturbs our sleep, yet people continue to do it. But given all the health
benefits of pet ownership, the good certainly outweighs the bad. It’s up to the
individual owner whether they choose to co-sleep with their animal/s, or not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are currently in the process of conducting another study
(with our honours student Jessica Mack), this time focussing on the impact of
co-sleeping on sleep quality and quantity. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>If you are one of the many dog
owners that bed-share with your dog, we would love if you could complete our
online survey and share it with others who might be interested.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Access the survey here:</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://tinyurl.com/humandogcosleeping" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">tinyurl.com/humandogcosleeping</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tell us - where did your dog sleep last night?</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Dr <span class="il">Bradley</span> <span class="il">Smith</span> BPsych(Hons) PhD</span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal;">Lecturer & </span><span style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Senior Post-doctoral Research Fellow</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal;">Appleton Institute, School of Human Health & Social Sciences </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">CQUniversity Adelaide, Australia</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>Email: </b><a href="mailto:x.xxxxx@cqu.edu.au" style="color: blue;" target="_blank">b.p.<span class="il">smith</span>@<span class="il">cqu</span>.edu.au</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal;"><b>Twitter:</b> <a href="https://twitter.com/howlingdingo" target="_blank">@howlingdingo</a><br /><b>Web: </b> <a href="http://www.howlingdingo.com.au/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">ww<wbr></wbr>w.howlingdingo.com.au</a> </span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>If you found this interesting, you may also enjoy our previous guest post by Bradley Smith: </i></span></span><a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/take-walk-on-wild-side-dingo-science.html#.U_LTL_mSxDw" style="background-color: white; color: #e69138; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Take a walk on the wild side: Dingo science</a><i style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, or see <a href="http://doyoubelieveindog.blogspot.com.au/p/contributors.html" style="color: #e69138; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">all of our guest contributors</a>.</span></i></span></o:p></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Further information:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Thompson, K., & Smith, B. (2014). <a href="http://www.depauw.edu/humanimalia/issue%2011/thompson-smith.html" target="_blank">Should we let sleeping dogs lie…with us? Synthesizing the literature and setting the agenda for research on human-animalco-sleeping practices</a>. Humanimalia, 6 (1), 114-127. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Smith, B.,
Thompson, K., Clarkson, L., Dawson, D. (2014). <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bloomsbury/azoos/pre-prints/content-274_anthrozoos_fte" target="_blank">The prevalence and implicationsof human-animal co-sleeping in an Australian sample</a>. Anthrozoös, 27
(4), 543–551.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a </span><a href="https://youtu.be/TjWqElVXFMk" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Channel 7 Today Tonight segment</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> relating to human-animal co-sleeping that aired on Jan 29, 2015:</span></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">© 2015 Bradley Smith</span></b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> | Do You Believe in Dog?</span></b></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0Appleton Institute, CQUniversity Australia, 44 Greenhill Road, Wayville SA 5034, Australia-34.941942 138.59084889999997-60.4639765 97.28225489999997 -9.4199074999999972 179.89944289999997tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-5447411480023024002015-08-25T03:24:00.000-07:002015-08-25T17:41:40.695-07:00People keep asking me: What is he? Place your bets... #RaisingRudy<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm0T9Dmm3u6xfkAgGNcnPXGTiPvs9NyhaVRPQZ1U0fSEdUaIas0MyTvywYp1LhUb117BmaEuz5peYgZyMTpzGbU5HEDJECvXz4z5OxkQ4R7XuRRliwaAX6XBX8iMZVc8l9CVA70VymOj60/s1600/IMG_9751.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm0T9Dmm3u6xfkAgGNcnPXGTiPvs9NyhaVRPQZ1U0fSEdUaIas0MyTvywYp1LhUb117BmaEuz5peYgZyMTpzGbU5HEDJECvXz4z5OxkQ4R7XuRRliwaAX6XBX8iMZVc8l9CVA70VymOj60/s400/IMG_9751.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Rudy on adoption day, and turning 1yr old</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rudy turned 1 year old this month. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a day to reflect on how he's grown over the seven months we've shared with him, while we've been <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23RaisingRudy&src=typd" target="_blank">#RaisingRudy</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>(If you haven't heard of Rudy - <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2015/02/10/rudy-science-dog_n_6652562.html" target="_blank">catch up here</a>)</i></span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He's still quite a goose of a puppy on most days, but we can see more of the dog he is becoming and, put simply, we adore him. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To think back to the pup we took from the regional shelter who was very nervous about traffic and reconcile it with the 42kg (92lb) canine we share our days with, who shares the trampoline with my daughter, enjoys quiet moring river walks with me, will lie down and relax at cafes, play with every dog and greet every person at the dog park... Well, it's something! </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWD1iBn8trp8zIWY2MDotsNEnUVm_8CIlVqquddZ94O5H9uEw5DTST9r-Z3iG-HfwgtTDJR8pstZHxkFpyD1KU-TkRzaqoMDeFbIOzvwCbEeMYfsJXNZKg6f_clHRYTM3Bz8fy1rJ8ApXo/s1600/11752521_10152832234136525_643064149975267591_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWD1iBn8trp8zIWY2MDotsNEnUVm_8CIlVqquddZ94O5H9uEw5DTST9r-Z3iG-HfwgtTDJR8pstZHxkFpyD1KU-TkRzaqoMDeFbIOzvwCbEeMYfsJXNZKg6f_clHRYTM3Bz8fy1rJ8ApXo/s320/11752521_10152832234136525_643064149975267591_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Do other people wonder if their dog should be a unicorn?!</i></span></td></tr>
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</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whenever we take Rudy out in public, he attracts comment.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"What IS HE?"</b></span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My answers have varied from sensible (a mix of sight hound breeds, like an English lurcher), to ludicrous (Muppet crossed with a Bunyip). But given the frequency of this question and my own curiosity, I decided to celebrate Rudy's first birthday with a visit to our lovely local vet for a small blood sample (no problem at all, we'd prepared by practising voluntary leg holds at home with food reinforcement) and a <b>Mixed Breed Identification DNA test</b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We'll have the results within a couple of weeks, but while we wait, I thought it might be fun for all of us to place bets on what you think Rudy's got in him. </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHtlA1ZsbEt_hKrehDz0B-HkaR8Lzc-Npbk_3G5T7kS5VECdIM2v-53Fu01XK_X_gd3lJnc95vVpQtiD29SYW_L3UYc_QtSJ8gh0Dj2iYvKm8npYv8PfNTh9vrWVSRv0ng6dbjPtPSGfIa/s1600/RudyMeasures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHtlA1ZsbEt_hKrehDz0B-HkaR8Lzc-Npbk_3G5T7kS5VECdIM2v-53Fu01XK_X_gd3lJnc95vVpQtiD29SYW_L3UYc_QtSJ8gh0Dj2iYvKm8npYv8PfNTh9vrWVSRv0ng6dbjPtPSGfIa/s320/RudyMeasures.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've tried to include photos here that show you all his body parts that might help with identification. And also, you know, my dog is cute, so there's that.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll be back in a couple of weeks with the full low down on the science of DNA tests, what they can tell us about mixed breed dogs and Rudy's results. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you can't see the poll below the photos, just </span><a href="http://www.poll-maker.com/poll396407x73a2c914-15" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">click here</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to participate.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Look forward to seeing your guesses!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Mia</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></b></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">p.s. You can catch Julie and I joining Caren Cooper and Brian Hare for <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23citscichat&src=typd" target="_blank">#citscichat</a> on Twitter later this week. <a href="http://blogs.plos.org/citizensci/2015/08/23/coops-scoop-citizen-science-to-study-your-dog-because-your-dog-studies-you/" target="_blank">Details are here</a>.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">p.p.s. You can join me for an online lecture about 'Why is Animal Welfare Important to Dogs?' later this week too, CEUs available, hosted by E-Training for Dogs. <a href="http://e-trainingfordogs.com/2015/07/dogs-and-animal-welfare/" target="_blank">Details are here</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOrbk_DyK_8faeEoR2RlRTgZICjQAu-6Dg6D-durzPhKDaFQB0ByQodrWYXs_-ItW1qaU1o5COcqqm1aqzcKe2Q08pD2mBO6jTmgH4cCi3XF9dwg89ICO4MED6c0VvewBhJ020LdGLUe2D/s1600/11813453_886284898132911_8486056015022234110_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOrbk_DyK_8faeEoR2RlRTgZICjQAu-6Dg6D-durzPhKDaFQB0ByQodrWYXs_-ItW1qaU1o5COcqqm1aqzcKe2Q08pD2mBO6jTmgH4cCi3XF9dwg89ICO4MED6c0VvewBhJ020LdGLUe2D/s400/11813453_886284898132911_8486056015022234110_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On his first birthday</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLPlGx2noi9hTpjJZneSnMDhclCQgmjKprpkZssmbdyE3nwfoqn7gC37g-lYmd7Lf3t5PPbPkAfFpKHgrQsek3zCOSlnFIQxFjVU2dRAbgRLqDXco54Sla4XKh1sqym_gRU16n4GTUJSlJ/s1600/549292_851013028326765_8880493726022170408_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLPlGx2noi9hTpjJZneSnMDhclCQgmjKprpkZssmbdyE3nwfoqn7gC37g-lYmd7Lf3t5PPbPkAfFpKHgrQsek3zCOSlnFIQxFjVU2dRAbgRLqDXco54Sla4XKh1sqym_gRU16n4GTUJSlJ/s400/549292_851013028326765_8880493726022170408_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">9 mths old</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyh9vbjehMMwNj4VaE80Jp-TVoL3D9asHhFxSKe1ApRKtmxrVa3ATp8Gb2hKHVRMPnDUX-u9MbWg9HnlsFoALv5jVVbSo-x8fxZz46rh6S3-TYLiy8UKPJxV0-7_opD4wzwQ8MhfKh44H1/s1600/11863342_10152863204696525_2617567351263553106_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyh9vbjehMMwNj4VaE80Jp-TVoL3D9asHhFxSKe1ApRKtmxrVa3ATp8Gb2hKHVRMPnDUX-u9MbWg9HnlsFoALv5jVVbSo-x8fxZz46rh6S3-TYLiy8UKPJxV0-7_opD4wzwQ8MhfKh44H1/s400/11863342_10152863204696525_2617567351263553106_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turning 1 is a tough business</td></tr>
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What dog breeds do you think are represented in Rudy?</div>
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<script language="javascript" src="//scripts.poll-maker.com/3012/scpolls.js"></script><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0Yarra Valley, VIC, Australia-37.6568122 145.44716130000006-38.0590987 144.80171430000007 -37.254525699999995 146.09260830000005tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-62889395700666177942015-07-24T15:36:00.000-07:002015-07-24T20:43:14.793-07:00Facebook, depression & dogs: Send me an Angel<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Guest post by:</b> <a href="https://www.cqu.edu.au/about-us/staff-directory/profiles/research-office/human-factors-and-safety-uni-research-centre/thompsk1" target="_blank">Kirrilly Thompson, B.Soc Sci (Hons), PhD</a></span><br>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A few years ago, my life changed. The impact of separating from my partner took me by surprise. For the first time in 12 years, I had to put on my ‘big girl pants’ and do things for myself and by myself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I worked hard. I partied hard. I cried hard. Sometimes at the same time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In the mornings, I would lay in bed waiting for a reason to get out of it. I had moved to the country to be closer to my horses, but I lost all motivation to ride. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I became obsessed with my appearance. Checking it, judging it, trying to improve it, searching for photographic proof that I was OK. I gained a reputation for being a ‘selfie queen’, but the photos were more like doomed ‘self-helpsies’. Each selfie posted to my Facebook page represented another 30 or so that I had discarded, too horrible for anyone to see, let alone myself. I hurriedly untagged myself from photos posted by friends without authorisation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I was exhausted from being stuck in my own head, worrying about myself and why I was like this. My GP wrote a mental health plan and I saw a few different therapists. They introduced me to mindfulness techniques. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Like a curious scientist, I was encouraged to observe my feelings and thereby create some distance between them and myself. Instead of feeling sad, anxious, depressed, scared etc. and trying desperately to rid myself of those feelings, I was encouraged to ‘make space’ for them. This was done by examining them as if they were separate from me: what colour is my anxiety? Is sadness hot or cold... Instead of running from or fighting that emotion, I sat with it. Mindfulness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-DHR23O6HT_4EPGiE8IC8Vs6iCWYa_Z6GI7-4nAzSFtuUj93DBpQWSJ8xNF1UZUJ7ATznVkqbDxDffdhCATXUY8QC2-hKRlDLy06RVblk1SkZkre5H0c8qp-dWUyYlW9pu4Rl-pf8RaiT/s1600/KT2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-DHR23O6HT_4EPGiE8IC8Vs6iCWYa_Z6GI7-4nAzSFtuUj93DBpQWSJ8xNF1UZUJ7ATznVkqbDxDffdhCATXUY8QC2-hKRlDLy06RVblk1SkZkre5H0c8qp-dWUyYlW9pu4Rl-pf8RaiT/s320/KT2.jpg" width="320"></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">I soon adapted mindfulness to suit my own visual preferences and affinity for animals. I turned my feelings into dogs. Even though I </span><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">hadn't</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> lived with a dog since my childhood, I would imagine which breed best represented my feelings and how I would treat it. If I was feeling scared, I would imagine a timid whippet sitting on my lap whilst I reassured it with pats. If I was feeling really angry, I would imagine a growling Doberman. I gave it space in the passenger seat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A couple of Novembers ago, I was at a birthday celebration I had arranged for myself, all by my big self. Unbeknownst to me, a litter of Tenterfield Terriers were born on the same day. One of them was named ‘Angel Eyes’, but the breeders called her “Big Girl”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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I had no idea I would meet her a month or so later. That tiny four-legged scientist fell into my lap, sat down and stared at me. I chose her because she was mindful of me. We made space for one another. I brought Angel home on Christmas Eve. She became my therapist. I spent so much time wondering what was going on in her head that I got out of mine. I had a little thing that needed me to get out of bed each morning. She made me smile and laugh. If I slept in, it was to take photos of her sleeping on my bed. If my make-up-free face was in the photo, I didn’t care. Whilst I would never have made it through my ‘black dog’ patch without love and support from my colleagues, friends and family, we all agree that Angel changed my life forever. She also changed my Facebook page.<br>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><b>Kirrilly is a Senior Researcher at CQUni's Appleton Institute.</b></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">She is a trained anthropologists who uses ethnographic methods to research the cultural dimensions of risk-perception and safety. Kirrilly has particular interests in human-animal interactions, high risk interspecies activities and equestrianism. She has proposed the 'Pets as Protective Factor' principle, based on a DECRA project identifying how animal attachment can be re-considered as a protective factor for human survival of natural disasters. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">She is also a co-investigator on a sister project: 'MAiD Managing Animals in Disasters' with Dr Mel Taylor. This project aims to improve the interface of animal owners and first responders during all hazards. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">For a comprehensive publications list, see <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kirrilly_Thompson">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kirrilly_Thompson</a></span></i></div>
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<u style="color: #45818e; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Further information</span></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">On the human desire to connect:</span><span style="line-height: 36.7999992370606px;"><br>
</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;"> Baumeister, Roy F, and Mark R Leary. 1995. "The need to belong: desire for interpersonal<br>
attachments as a fundamental human motivation." </span><i style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Psychological bulletin</i><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;"> no. 117 (3):497.</span></span></h1>
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">On dogs reducing depression:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Clark Cline, Krista Marie. 2010. "Psychological effects of dog ownership: Role strain, role enhancement, and depression." <i>The Journal of social psychology</i> no. 150 (2):117-131.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">On unhealthy preoccupation with appearance:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Veale, David, and Susan Riley. 2001. "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the ugliest of them all? The psychopathology of mirror gazing in body dysmorphic disorder." <i>Behaviour Research and Therapy</i> no. 39 (12):1381-1393. doi: </span><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(00)00102-9"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(00)00102-9</span></a><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">On what is mindfulness:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU7vKitN4Ro"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU7vKitN4Ro</span></a><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.thehappinesstrap.com/mmindfulness" style="color: blue;">http://www.thehappinesstrap.com/mmindfulness</a><br>
<span style="color: blue;">http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/is-mindfulness-actually-good-for-you/6462670</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Multiple resources on mindfulness with guided meditations which particularly relate to anxiety and depression:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.actmindfully.com.au/free_resources_audio"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.actmindfully.com.au/free_resources_audio</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lots of audio meditations using breath, sounds and body as objects of meditation<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.freemindfulness.org/download"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.freemindfulness.org/download</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Compassion meditation resources:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.self-compassion.org/guided-self-compassion-meditations-mp3.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.self-compassion.org/guided-self-compassion-meditations-mp3.html</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.tarabrach.com/new-to-meditation.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.tarabrach.com/new-to-meditation.html</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://wwwmindfulselfcompassion.org/meditations_downloads.php"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://wwwmindfulselfcompassion.org/meditations_downloads.php</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">On the benefits of mindfulness for treating depression:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hofmann, Stefan G, Alice T Sawyer, Ashley A Witt, and Diana Oh. 2010. "The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: A meta-analytic review." <i>Journal of consulting and clinical psychology</i> no. 78 (2):169.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The idea of self-representation is not new in the social sciences. It is most notably associated with:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Goffman, Erving. 1959. <i>The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life</i>. London: Penguin Books.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Butler, Judith. 1999. "Performativity's Social Magic." In <i>Bourdieu: A Critical Reader</i>, edited by R Shusterman, 113 -128. Great Britain: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But more recently, research has focussed on self-presentation in and through social media:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Siibak, Andra. 2009. "Constructing the self through the photo selection-visual impression management on social networking websites." <i>Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace</i> no. 3 (1):1. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.cyberpsychology.eu/view.php?cisloclanku=2009061501&article=1">http://www.cyberpsychology.eu/view.php?cisloclanku=2009061501&article=1</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Gonzales, Amy L, and Jeffrey T Hancock. 2011. "Mirror, mirror on my Facebook wall: Effects of exposure to Facebook on self-esteem." <i>Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking</i> no. 14 (1-2):79-83. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2009.0411">http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2009.0411</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The ‘selfie phenomenon’ is widely discussed in the popular and academic media, often in pejorative terms of narcissism or vanity. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Kiprin, Borislav. 2013. "Go Selfie Yourself!". </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://borislavkiprin.com/2013/12/13/go-selfie-yourself/">http://borislavkiprin.com/2013/12/13/go-selfie-yourself/</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Buchanan, Kent. 2014. "The wide-screen selfie: Emma Thomson's' take your best shot'." <i>Photofile</i> no. 94 (Autumn/Winter):17-24. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=527807360465638;res=IELAPA">http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=527807360465638;res=IELAPA</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Franco, JAMES. 2013. "The Meanings of the Selfie." <i>The New York Times</i> no. 28.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/arts/the-meanings-of-the-selfie.html?ref=technology&_r=3&">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/arts/the-meanings-of-the-selfie.html?ref=technology&_r=3&</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mehdizadeh, Soraya. 2010. "Self-presentation 2.0: Narcissism and self-esteem on Facebook." <i>Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking</i> no. 13 (4):357-364. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2009.0257">http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2009.0257</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Whilst there is little peer-review social science literature dedicated to the phenomenon, it does seem to be of interest to university students:</span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Montanez, Alexandria Marie. 2014. The Selfie Queen: Sexualisation, Representation, and Implications of Selfies on Women. Paper read at IUURC 20.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Vigliotti, Jeanette C. 2014. "The Double Sighted: Visibility, Identity, and Photographs on Facebook."</span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/506/">http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/506/</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There is a clear need for research on the tension between, on one hand, the selfie as a liberating tool that provides women with control over their self-presentation and positions them as producers of their own image; eg.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ehlin, Lisa. 2014. "The subversive selfie: Redefining the mediated subject." <i>Clothing Cultures</i> no. 2 (1):73-89. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/cc/2014/00000002/00000001/art00005">http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/cc/2014/00000002/00000001/art00005</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">and on the other hand, a disciplining technology that obliges people to produce the best version of themselves against limitless and dynamic criteria. The latter is reinforced by a developing market for selfie enhancing tools.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Kanazir, Marija. 2014. "Sony Unveils the Perfect Tool for Fashionable Selfie Lovers." </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.brandingmagazine.com/2014/08/30/sony-kw1-perfume-camera/">http://www.brandingmagazine.com/2014/08/30/sony-kw1-perfume-camera/</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Van House, Nancy, Marc Davis, Morgan Ames, Megan Finn, and Vijay Viswanathan. 2005. The uses of personal networked digital imaging: an empirical study of cameraphone photos and sharing. Paper read at CHI'05 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1057039">http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1057039</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There is even research on the best selfie angle:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Yeh, Mei-Chen, and Hsiao-Wei Lin. 2014. Virtual portraitist: aesthetic evaluation of selfies based on angle. Paper read at Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Multimedia. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2656401">http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2656401</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And a facebook group for selfie-science:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/664091916962292/">https://www.facebook.com/groups/664091916962292/</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Even animals are getting in on the act:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Schlackman, Steve. 2013. "The Telegraph is Wrong about the Monkey Selfie." <i>Newsletter</i>. </span><a href="http://artlawjournal.com/telegraph-wrong-monkey-selfie/"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://artlawjournal.com/telegraph-wrong-monkey-selfie/</span></a><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0Adelaide SA, Australia-34.928621199999988 138.5999594-36.593689699999985 136.0181724 -33.263552699999991 141.18174639999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670689488430551083.post-24906555790882700922015-07-23T20:43:00.002-07:002015-07-23T20:43:34.151-07:00Stress Down (with a dog!) Day for Lifeline 2015<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">90% of Australians report they need to stress less. That's an alarming statistic! <a href="https://www.lifeline.org.au/" target="_blank">Lifeline</a> Australia set up <a href="http://www.stressdown.org.au/" target="_blank">Stress Down Day</a> this July 24 to help people find ways to reduce the stress in their life.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwrtCWbjAuhzyDniGrF2M8QCME3tstAHEM9QNptdPmtc2HjMSLTF_Ah3S-fnVUDAR4kZX5NIfJwLVvnjnH5QPWU9L_-Nvr83ZBBkx3r_pmVv-5LxX0EFEz5BZAG9a83ZY5fBTkJIQCVj7N/s640/blogger-image--1623048500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwrtCWbjAuhzyDniGrF2M8QCME3tstAHEM9QNptdPmtc2HjMSLTF_Ah3S-fnVUDAR4kZX5NIfJwLVvnjnH5QPWU9L_-Nvr83ZBBkx3r_pmVv-5LxX0EFEz5BZAG9a83ZY5fBTkJIQCVj7N/s400/blogger-image--1623048500.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Rudy and my friend Jenny, to all appearances, sharing a laugh</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been helping share info about the benefits pets can offer our mental and physical health by speaking with some media ahead of Stress Down Day this week. </span></div>
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<a href="http://pickle.ninemsn.com.au/2015/07/22/15/05/pet-owners-stress-less" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">See this piece on ninemsn</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3167821/How-cuddling-cats-playing-puppies-proven-reduce-stress-levels.html" target="_blank">Or this one from the Daily Mail</a></span></div>
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<a href="http://pickle.ninemsn.com.au/2015/07/22/15/05/pet-owners-stress-less" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfXVVfWJFxayoOcrD0J6Do54h48Ov4qIBGASllFmF7gg1XdWpNbb563aL4GUoJLH0BFmDsviLKyfsv7QtGbw4HHbIN3NgX4vMMAX1kbC-yNmidulteXZsFd-eCAHuEHsV9Y__NEW8rWHVC/s400/PicklePets.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Findings from a growing body of research show that when our animal companions fit our lifestyle, and meet our needs, we can enjoy:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">increased self esteem</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">decreased loneliness</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">increased happiness</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">better able to cope with social rejection compared to non-pet owners</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">more physically active</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This meaningful social support we get from our animal companions can vary between animals and also between people (ie.I don't feel the way about your cat that I feel about my dog, and how I feel about my cat might be different again), but when things are optimal, the attachment and benefits to people can be as significant for us as a best friend or close family member. That's AMAZING!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQE2Jz7I6GtYCS5oiJ2gZm4WXX42j6R67a8IKmGEee7DlTsGkrSc8tO0396fVS870KpGQnL8yW1nOzESUPg1ZMoujJfsHt5syoVTNSkLQQcCiRSDnKNw07TRyRRZ4hLc8gckf5Zj25_feV/s1600/IMG_8082.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQE2Jz7I6GtYCS5oiJ2gZm4WXX42j6R67a8IKmGEee7DlTsGkrSc8tO0396fVS870KpGQnL8yW1nOzESUPg1ZMoujJfsHt5syoVTNSkLQQcCiRSDnKNw07TRyRRZ4hLc8gckf5Zj25_feV/s320/IMG_8082.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I decided to take Rudy for a special walk along the river this morning to actively take time out to stress down - partly because it's Stress Down Day today and partly because I would have anyway. It was a quiet morning, we only saw one other person. We saw loads of birds, a small mob of kangaroos, and we stopped several times just to watch the river and share the moment. I spent a lot of the walk thinking about a family member who left us earlier this year, in the saddest of circumstances. I felt sad. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, my 11 month old puppy would go full goose, zooming around the shallow waters and button grasses and despite the significance of the loss I feel, I laughed at him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It felt good. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We both enjoyed the walk. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I returned home feeling more relaxed. Rudy's currently asleep next to me, so I reckon he did too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope you find a way to stress less today too. We'd love to hear about how the animals in your life help - feel free to comment below. If you'd like to share some of my walk - it went a bit like this:</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxOY3P1qsy3cdt-jOef3uMdnBOwW_DumaWlitiBLwq-tLqYGbnqcne8_148vNTRaMsTseLtzvKNSkI5rM_pCA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">If you know someone (maybe you!) thinking of getting an animal companion for the first time, be sure to encourage them to do their research properly. Find an animal that will fit their lifestyle and meet their needs, so they too can reap the benefits of a positive relationship. Once you know what you're looking for, consider offering a home to an animal currently in a pound, shelter or rescue group. </span><a href="http://petrescue.com.au/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;" target="_blank">PetRescue</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> are a wonderful hub resource for Australians, listing animals from many shelters and rescue groups nationally.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you'd like to support the excellent work that Lifeline do, you can <a href="http://stressdown2015.gofundraise.com.au/page/MiaCobb" target="_blank">donate here</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">If you or someone you know is depressed, anxious, or may be at risk of suicide, you can get help and support.<br />Australia: </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><a href="http://www.lifeline.org.au/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Lifeline</a> 13 11 14 </span><span style="line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><a href="http://www.beyondblue.org.au/index.aspx?" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">beyondblue</a> <a href="tel:1300%2022%2046%2036" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0" x-apple-data-detectors-type="telephone" x-apple-data-detectors="true">1300 22 46 36</a></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">USA: <a href="http://www.contact-usa.org/" target="_blank">Contact USA</a> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.lifeline.org.au/About-Lifeline/Lifeline-International/Looking-for-Help/Looking-for-Help" style="background-color: whitesmoke;" target="_blank">Elsewhere</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Take care of yourselves,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mia</span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><u>Further reading:</u></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">McConnell, AR, Brown, CM, Shoda, TM, Stayton, LE, Martin, CE. (2011) ‘</span><a href="http://happierhuman.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/5.-Friends-With-Benefits-On-the-Positive-Consequences-of-Pet-Ownership.pdf" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" target="_blank">Friends with benefits: on the positive consequences of pet ownership</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">’, Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, vol.101, no.6, pp.1239-1252</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Anderson, K. A., Lord, L. K., Hill, L. N., & McCune, S. (2015) <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01924788.2015.994447#.VbGt8Pmqqko">Fostering the Human-Animal Bond for Older Adults: Challenges and Opportunities</a>. Activities, Adaptation & Aging, 39(1), 32-42.<br /></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Do You Believe in Dog? 2020</div>DoYouBelieveInDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374021972252296556noreply@blogger.com0Yarra Valley, VIC, Australia-37.6568122 145.44716130000006-38.0590987 144.80171430000007 -37.254525699999995 146.09260830000005