Family Dog Research Articles

Developmental features of sleep electrophysiology in family dogs

Age-related differences in dog sleep and the age at which dogs reach adulthood as indexed by sleep electrophysiology are unknown. We assessed, in (1) a Juvenile sample (n = 60) of 2–14-month-old dogs (weight range: 4–68 kg), associations between age, sleep macrostructure, and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) EEG power spectrum, whether weight moderates associations, and (2) an extended sample (n = 91) of 2–30-months-old dogs, when sleep parameters stabilise. In Juvenile dogs, age was positively associated with time in drowsiness between 2 and 8 months, and negatively with time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep between 2 and 6 months. Age was negatively associated with delta and positively with theta and alpha power activity, between 8 and 14 months. Older dogs exhibited greater sigma and beta power activity. Larger, > 8-month-old dogs had less delta and more alpha and beta activity. In extended sample, descriptive data suggest age-related power spectrum differences do not stabilise by 14 months. Drowsiness, REM, and delta power findings are consistent with prior results. Sleep electrophysiology is a promising index of dog neurodevelopment; some parameters stabilise in adolescence and some later than one year. Determination of the effect of weight and timing of power spectrum stabilisation needs further inquiry. The dog central nervous system is not fully mature by 12 months of age.

Buccal micronucleus assay as a useful tool to evaluate the stress-associated genomic damage in shelter dogs and cats: new perspectives in animal welfare

Shelters play a key role in saving animals from straying. However, the space restrictions, the lack of resources and the high animal turnover can increase stress levels and the rate of infectious diseases in cats and dogs. The aim of this study is to evaluate, through the buccal micronucleus assay, the level of genomic damage in shelter cats and dogs with respect to that observed in family cats and dogs. The hypothesis is that stressful environmental conditions, such as those potentially present in shelters, can affect the level of genomic damage. Study population included thirty healthy mixed breed cats and dogs with a minimum two-year presence in a shelter. The control group consisted of thirty healthy cats and dogs living in a home environment, using age/sex matching. The micronucleus assay was performed on one thousand exfoliated buccal cells per subject. Significant differences were found between shelter and family cats and dogs in terms of micronuclei frequency, indicating that a condition of stress found in sheltered animals may increase the levels of genomic damage. The ethotest confirms the increased levels of total aberrations in both stressed shelter cats and dogs. Conversely, no significant differences in the level of genomic damage were found between the sexes, as well as no correlation was found between age and the frequencies of micronuclei. In conclusion, we provided evidence of a possible correlation between physiological stress conditions and increased levels of genomic damage in a sample of sheltered cats and dogs. The results of our study also suggest that the buccal micronucleus assay, also considering the relatively low cost of laboratory procedure and its non-invasiveness, could be potential additional tool that, combined with the ethotest, may be able to provide a more comprehensive picture of the health status of animals living in communities.

Interhemispheric asymmetry during NREM sleep in the dog

Functional hemispheric asymmetry was evidenced in many species during sleep. Dogs seem to show hemispheric asymmetry during wakefulness; however, their asymmetric neural activity during sleep was not yet explored. The present study investigated interhemispheric asymmetry in family dogs using non-invasive polysomnography. EEG recordings during 3-h-long afternoon naps were carried out (N = 19) on two occasions at the same location. Hemispheric asymmetry was assessed during NREM sleep, using bilateral EEG channels. To include periods with high homeostatic sleep pressure and to reduce the variance of the time spent in NREM sleep between dogs, the first two sleep cycles were analysed. Left hemispheric predominance of slow frequency range was detected in the first sleep cycle of sleep recording 1, compared to the baseline level of zero asymmetry as well as to the first sleep cycle of sleep recording 2. Regarding the strength of hemispheric asymmetry, we found greater absolute hemispheric asymmetry in the second sleep cycle of sleep recording 1 and 2 in the frequency ranges of alpha, sigma and beta, compared to the first sleep cycle. Differences between sleep recordings and consecutive sleep cycles might be indicative of adaptation-like processes, but do not closely resemble the results described in humans.

If they could choose: How would dogs spend their days? Activity patterns in four populations of domestic dogs

Although free-roaming domestic dogs (FRDD) constitute the majority of the dog population worldwide, many aspects of their ecology across habitats are little known. Activity budgets by these dogs may also inform management decisions for domestic dogs in human hands. Here we collected data on the activity patterns of owned FRDD from Guatemala (n = 58) and Indonesia (n = 37), and of farm dogs (n = 11) and family dogs (n = 20) in Switzerland. The FRDD from the two countries and the Swiss farm dogs shared the similarity that although they had owners, they spent most or all of the day outside without confinement. Conversely, activity in family dogs is largely controlled by their owners. This cross-continental study thus allowed us to tease apart environmental effects on dogs’ activity from effects due to different levels of control by humans. Dogs were collared with FitBark activity trackers, which measure 3D acceleration, for 2.4–7 days. Activity for each dog was defined as the sum of BarkPoints (a continuous activity metric recorded by the FitBark tracker), calculated for each hour in the 24-hour cycle. The proportion of time resting, in ‘moderate’ and ‘high’ activity (defined by fixed thresholds of BarkPoints) over 24 h was calculated for each dog. The activity patterns of all dogs that (partly) roam freely, i.e. owned FRDD in Guatemala and Indonesia and Swiss farm dogs, showed two peaks over 24 h during 5:00–7:00 h and, less pronounced, 16:00–19:00 h. Such a bimodal activity pattern, which is also observed in other canine species, could only be detected in 45% of the family dogs. Their activity is more dependent on the owners’ daily routines and predominantly showed one high mid-day peak that often changes from day to day. Swiss dogs spent significantly more time resting and less time with ‘moderate’ activity than the owned FRDD. However, family dogs were significantly more often highly active than all other dog groups and compensated with longer resting periods. Activity decreased significantly with age, neutering and increased body condition score, whereas sex did not have any significant influence on activity. Within this study, similarities, but also differences of the activity pattern between owned FRDD and pet dogs could be revealed. Although overall activity levels of the pet dog sample fall in the range of those observed in the less controlled FRDD, it would be of interest to investigate the potential benefit of a more structured daily schedule on pet dogs in future studies.

“A Dog Called Neville”: Using Dog Names To Explore Theory And Method In Anthropology

Abstract This paper explores our efforts to capture the imaginations of first-year anthropology students and draw them into a space where they could learn to think anthropologically and experience the insights this perspective provides. Usually, creating field-based opportunities for undergraduate students is difficult, but the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible. Faced with limited opportunities to advance the students’ ethnographic experience and learning, we decided to focus our attentions on a subject that students were very familiar with, and which became almost a symbol of lockdown: the family dog. Through our focus on dogs, we explored key theorists and theoretical concepts, kinship and nonhuman relationships, and the changing construction of the modern family. This paper reports on the exercise and the insights it brought forward in terms of human-dog relationships in contemporary Australia.

Social relationship-dependent neural response to speech in dogs

In humans, social relationship with the speaker affects neural processing of speech, as exemplified by children’s auditory and reward responses to their mother's utterances. Family dogs show human analogue attachment behavior towards the owner, and neuroimaging revealed auditory cortex and reward center sensitivity to verbal praises in dog brains. Combining behavioral and non-invasive fMRI data, we investigated the effect of dogs’ social relationship with the speaker on speech processing. Dogs listened to praising and neutral speech from their owners and a control person. We found positive correlation between dogs’ behaviorally measured attachment scores towards their owners and neural activity increase for the owner’s voice in the caudate nucleus; and activity increase in the secondary auditory caudal ectosylvian gyrus and the caudate nucleus for the owner’s praise. Through identifying social relationship-dependent neural reward responses, our study reveals similarities in neural mechanisms modulated by infant-mother and dog-owner attachment.

Consequences of COVID-19 Lockdown on Children and Their Pets: Dangerous Increase of Dog Bites among the Paediatric Population.

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has not only put our national health systems to the test, but it also notably hit the economy, the society and the psychology of the people. Our pets have been subjected to the pandemic related stress too. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether the stress induced on domestic dogs resulted in an increase of dog bites in the paediatric population. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on all patients admitted to our paediatric emergency department for dog bite from January 2014 and December 2020. We compared the total mean dog bites of the years 2014–2019 and the mean number per single month with the respective 2020 data. The bites were divided between bites from family dogs and bites from stranger dogs. Continuous data were analysed using single sample t test while categorical values with chi-squared test, considering statistically significant a p value < 0.05. Results: From January 2014 to December 2019, we recorded a mean of 41 ± 5.9 dog bites (range: 30–46) of which a mean 13 ± 2.6 (range: 10–17) were due to family dogs (32%) and a mean of 28 ± 2.4 (range: 25–31) were due to stranger dogs (68%); the male-to-female ratio was 3:2 and 43% of the injuries concerned the head and face, 26% the lower limbs, 25% the upper limbs, 3% the genitalia and 3% the torso. From January 2020 to December 2020, 30 children were admitted for dog bites: 22 were from family dogs (73%) and 8 from stranger dogs (27%); the male-to-female ratio was 14:11 and 72% of the injuries concerned the head and face, 16% the upper limbs, 8% the lower limbs and 4% the torso. The 2020 data’s higher number of family dog bites compared with the mean of those in the 2014–2019 period was statistically significant (p < 0.01) such as the 2020 data’s lower number of stranger dog bites when compared with the mean number of stranger dog bites in the 2014–2019 period (p < 0.01). Between 2014 and 2019, a mean of 9 ± 2 (range: 6–12) of the wounds needed to be sutured (22%), while 32 ± 3 (range: 28–35) wounds were discharged after application of Steri Strips (78%). On the other hand, in 2020, 21 wounds needed to be sutured (70%), and 9 received just Steri Strips application (41%). The frequency distribution of the treatments required (stitches vs. Steri Strips) between the 2014 to 2019 period and the 2020 period was statistically significant (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: The number of family dog bites in children increased in 2020, especially during the lockdown period. Paediatricians should pay a lot of attention now more than ever to educate parents on the importance of always supervising children who are playing with dogs.

Word learning dogs (Canis familiaris) provide an animal model for studying exceptional performance

Exceptional performance is present in various human activities but its origins are debated and challenging to study. We report evidence of exceptional performance and qualitative variation in learning object-names in dogs. 34 naïve family dogs and 6 knowledgeable individuals that knew multiple toy names, found in 2 years of search around the Globe, were exposed to 3 months of training to learn two novel toy-names and were tested in two-way choice tests. Only 1 naïve and all 6 knowledgeable dogs passed the tests. Additionally, only these dogs learned at least 10 new toy names over the 3 months, showing qualitative variation in this capacity. Although previous object-name knowledge could provide an explanation for the superior performance of the knowledgeable dogs, their rarity and the absence of previous training of this skill point to exceptional giftedness in these individuals, providing the basis to establish dogs as a model-species for studying talent.

Association between Early Life Child Development and Family Dog Ownership: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study of the Japan Environment and Children’s Study

Pets may play a role in the social-emotional development of children. In particular, some studies have suggested that family dog ownership is associated with better health outcomes. To date, no study has assessed child development in association with dog ownership of different time points. The purpose of the current study was primary to investigate whether “ever” family dog ownership was associated with early child development, and secondary to further examine whether associations between family dog ownership and early child development differ among family dog ownership of status, including “past only”, “current only”, and “always” groups, using the data of family dog ownership obtained at multiple time points. Associations between family dog ownership and infant development at 3 years of age were examined using data from a nationwide prospective birth cohort study, the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (n = 78,941). “Ever” family dog ownership was categorized to “past only”, “current only”, and “always”. We observed that children with “ever” family dog ownership showed a significantly decreased risk of developmental delay in the communication (odds ratio [OR] = 0.87; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.78, 0.96), gross motor (OR = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.76, 0.92), problem-solving (OR = 0.89; 95% CI: 0.83, 0.96) and personal-social (OR = 0.86; 95% CI: 0.72, 0.92) domains compared to children with “never” family dog ownership. Furthermore, a significantly decreased risk of developmental delay in gross motor function was observed in association with living with dogs in the “past only” (OR = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.73, 0.95) and “always” (OR = 0.86; 95% CI: 0.75, 0.98). In addition, a decreased risk of developmental delay in the problem-solving domain was associated with “past” family dog ownership (OR = 0.87; 95% CI: 0.79, 0.97) and in the personal-social domain was associated with “always” family dog ownership (OR = 0.81; 95% CI = 0.68, 0.95). Given the possible positive association between early life child development and family dog ownership, living with dogs may be an important factor to be considered when assessing child development.

How Old Is My Dog? Identification of Rational Age Groupings in Pet Dogs Based Upon Normative Age-Linked Processes.

Behavioral development is a lifelong process where cognitive traits such as learning and memory may be expected to take quadratic or linear trajectories. It is common practice for operational purposes to reduce study subjects into chronological categories when conducting research. However, there are no agreed-upon thresholds for this practice, and the lack of standardization may hinder comparison between studies of normative and pathological aging. In this perspective review, chronological categories have been identified that can be considered to represent normative cognitive and neurological aging in domestic family dogs. These categories work to capture age-related developmental trajectories for the majority of dog breeds. It is encouraged that researchers studying cognition and behavior, pathological cognitive deficits, or welfare of dogs across age categories utilize the categories presented here to best enable comparison between studies. The proposed groups could also support education programs informing owners of what behavioral changes to expect in their dog as they age, but they cannot be used to reflect health-based needs associated with breed-specific morbidity. The use of the age categories proposed here highlights significant welfare issues for breeds with the shortest average lifespans (e.g., the Great Dane). Studies show no evidence of an increased rate of behavioral or cognitive aging in short-lived breeds, and the shortest-lived breeds are most likely to die when classified by the proposed categories as Mature Adults. Adoption of these chronological categories in future research would aid comparison between studies and identification of non-normative age-related pathologies.

Barriers and motivators for preschoolers playing and walking with their dog: Results from qualitative research.

A large proportion of preschoolers do not meet the recommended three hours of daily physical activity. A potential source of daily physical activity could be that provided via the family dog. This qualitative study aimed to explore the barriers and motivators to preschoolers playing with their dog and participating in family dog walks. Twelve in-depth interviews were conducted with parents of preschoolers who owned a dog. A semistructured interview guide was used, and transcripts were analysed thematically. Factors influencing preschoolers playing with their dog and participating in family dog walks included parents' level of attachment to their dog, parental history of dog ownership, parent modelling of safe dog play, type of play the family dog enjoys and proximity to dog- and child-friendly destinations. Other factors such as the size, level of socialisation and perceived exercise requirements of the dog, physical environment factors such as backyard size and individual factors such as time and existing commitments were also reported. A number of dog, individual and physical environment specific factors should be considered when promoting preschooler physical activity through dog walking and play. SO WHAT?: A large proportion of preschoolers do not meet the recommended three hours of daily physical activity. In Australia, 43% of Australian households with children aged four to five own a dog. Dog-facilitated physical activity through family dog walks and active play could be an effective strategy for increasing preschooler physical activity.

Occurrences of non-linear phenomena and vocal harshness in dog whines as indicators of stress and ageing

During social interactions, acoustic parameters of tetrapods’ vocalisations reflect the emotional state of the caller. Higher levels of spectral noise and the occurrence of irregularities (non-linear phenomena NLP) might be negative arousal indicators in alarm calls, although less is known about other distress vocalisations. Family dogs experience different levels of stress during separation from their owner and may vocalise extensively. Analysing their whines can provide evidence for the relationship between arousal and NLP. We recorded 167 family dogs’ separation behaviour including vocalisations, assessed their stress level based on behaviour and tested how these, their individual features, and owner reported separation-related problems (SRP) relate to their whines’ (N = 4086) spectral noise and NLP. Dogs with SRP produced NLP whines more likely. More active dogs and dogs that tried to escape produced noisier whines. Older dogs’ whines were more harmonic than younger ones’, but they also showed a higher NLP ratio. Our results show that vocal harshness and NLP are associated with arousal in contact calls, and thus might function as stress indicators. The higher occurrence of NLP in older dogs irrespective to separation stress suggests loss in precise neural control of the larynx, and hence can be a potential ageing indicator.

Rapid learning of object names in dogs

Learning object names after few exposures, is thought to be a typically human capacity. Previous accounts of similar skills in dogs did not include control testing procedures, leaving unanswered the question whether this ability is uniquely human. To investigate the presence of the capacity to rapidly learn words in dogs, we tested object-name learning after four exposures in two dogs with knowledge of multiple toy-names. The dogs were exposed to new object-names either while playing with the objects with the owner who named those in a social context or during an exclusion-based task similar to those used in previous studies. The dogs were then tested on the learning outcome of the new object-names. Both dogs succeeded after exposure in the social context but not after exposure to the exclusion-based task. Their memory of the object-names lasted for at least two minutes and tended to decay after retention intervals of 10 min and 1 h. This reveals that rapid object-name learning is possible for a non-human species (dogs), although memory consolidation may require more exposures. We suggest that rapid learning presupposes learning in a social context. To investigate whether rapid learning of object names in a social context is restricted to dogs that have already shown the ability to learn multiple object-names, we used the same procedure with 20 typical family dogs. These dogs did not demonstrate any evidence of learning the object names. This suggests that only a few subjects show this ability. Future studies should investigate whether this outstanding capacity stems from the exceptional talent of some individuals or whether it emerges from previous experience with object name learning.

Dog-human behavioral synchronization: family dogs synchronize their behavior with child family members.

Research on dog social cognition has received widespread attention. However, the vast majority of this research has focused on dogs' relationships and responsiveness towards adult humans. While little research has considered dog-child interactions from a cognitive perspective, how dogs perceive and socially engage with children is critical to fully understand their interspecific social cognition. In several recent studies, dogs have been shown to exhibit behavioral synchrony, often associated with increased affiliation and social responsiveness, with their adult owners. In the current study, we asked if family dogs would also exhibit behavioral synchrony with child family members. Our findings demonstrated that dogs engaged in all three measured components of behavioral synchrony with their child partner-activity synchrony (p < 0.0001), proximity (p < 0.0001), and orientation (p = 0.0026)-at levels greater than would be expected by chance. The finding that family dogs synchronize their behavior with that of child family members may shed light on how dogs perceive familiar children. Aspects of pet dog responsiveness to human actions previously reported in studies with adult humans appear to generalize to cohabitant children in at least some cases. However, some differences between our study outcomes and those reported in the dog-adult human literature were also observed. Given the prevalence of families with both children and dogs, and the growing popularity of child-focused animal-assisted interventions, knowledge about how dogs respond to the behavior of human children may also help inform and improve safe and successful dog-child interactions.

The relationship between functional breed selection and attachment pattern in family dogs (canis familiaris)

Adult dogs show similar behaviour pattern towards their owners as human infants towards their caregivers among experimental conditions, where the attachment behaviour is activated because of the moderately stressful situation. Meanwhile the capacity to form attachment towards the owner is considered as part of the domestication history of dogs, in more recent times dogs were selected for often very different work-related behavioural phenotypes. For instance, ‘cooperative’ dog breeds, like shepherd dogs, typically work in visual contact with the handler, while the ‘independent’ breeds, such as the hounds or sled dogs, work independently. We investigated whether cooperative and non-cooperative working dogs would also show different patterns in their attachment behaviour. We tested independent (N = 29) and cooperative (N = 28) dogs from various working breeds in the Strange Situation Test. To describe the subjects’ behaviour, we used a scoring system with three main factors (Attachment, Acceptance, Anxiety). We did not find any significant between-group difference in the attachment pattern of the two main working dog types (Attachment: P = 0.499; Anxiety P = 0.200; Acceptance P = 0.339). Within-breed differences may be stronger than between-breed differences in this situation, while it is also possible that owners of different breeds handle their dogs differently. Our results support the theory that attachment to the owner is a fundamentally similar feature in socialized dogs, and subsequent functional breed selection may rather influence the more specific behavioural phenotypes of dogs.

Gender, Animals, and Gaskell’s Cousin Phillis

The so-called animal turn in the humanities has given rise to an increased interest in the ways in which representations of animals shape human cultures. In Victorian studies, scholars have attended to the significance of domestic pets and other animals in the production of Victorian ideologies and subjectivities. Recent studies often point out the role animals played in the formation of Victorian domesticity. While these studies in general assign a key role to animal figures in the mediation of traditional domesticity, this essay explores the opposite phenomenon taking place in the Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cousin Phillis, a novella in which pets and farm animals are prominent. In this work, the eponymous protagonist, a young woman living on a farm, falls in love with a cosmopolitan engineer. Rather than portraying Phillis as an ethereal angelic creature who would be typical of the ideal Victorian woman, Gaskell ascribes to her a passionate nature, though hidden behind a constrained façade. Phillis is partly able to express her deep-set emotions, including her interest in the cosmopolitan engineer, when interacting with animals. This non-traditional gender role becomes possible through the representation of birds and the family dog. Animals enable the imagination of a femininity that resists restrictive gender codes. The traditional association of animals with women has sometimes worked to denigrate the latter, but as Gaskell shows that this link also has an emancipatory potential.

Observing animals and humans: dogs target their gaze to the biological information in natural scenes.

BackgroundThis study examines how dogs observe images of natural scenes containing living creatures (wild animals, dogs and humans) recorded with eye gaze tracking. Because dogs have had limited exposure to wild animals in their lives, we also consider the natural novelty of the wild animal images for the dogs.MethodsThe eye gaze of dogs was recorded while they viewed natural images containing dogs, humans, and wild animals. Three categories of images were used: naturalistic landscape images containing single humans or animals, full body images containing a single human or an animal, and full body images containing a pair of humans or animals. The gazing behavior of two dog populations, family and kennel dogs, were compared.ResultsAs a main effect, dogs gazed at living creatures (object areas) longer than the background areas of the images; heads longer than bodies; heads longer than background areas; and bodies longer than background areas. Dogs gazed less at the object areas vs. the background in landscape images than in the other image categories. Both dog groups also gazed wild animal heads longer than human or dog heads in the images. When viewing single animal and human images, family dogs focused their gaze very prominently on the head areas, but in images containing a pair of animals or humans, they gazed more at the body than the head areas. In kennel dogs, the difference in gazing times of the head and body areas within single or paired images failed to reach significance.DiscussionDogs focused their gaze on living creatures in all image categories, also detecting them in the natural landscape images. Generally, they also gazed at the biologically informative areas of the images, such as the head, which supports the importance of the head/face area for dogs in obtaining social information. The natural novelty of the species represented in the images as well as the image category affected the gazing behavior of dogs. Furthermore, differences in the gazing strategy between family and kennel dogs was obtained, suggesting an influence of different social living environments and life experiences.

Editorial Introduction

Editorial Introduction Edward Timke It is difficult to write an editorial introduction at the end of one of the most challenging years in recent history. There is hope for an end to the pandemic with the distribution of various COVID-19 vaccines around the world, but tremendous uncertainty remains. Some people are questioning the safety or effectiveness of these medicines, and the rollout of vaccines is slower than expected. Even though many Americans' financial situation is still quite dire, US politicians delayed the release of much-needed aid. A caustic political climate has kept the US divided, especially about diversity and inclusion in society. Erratic weather patterns continue to remind everyone that climate and environmental issues are as urgent as ever. Even during this unsettled year, Advertising & Society Quarterlyis optimistic for better days to come through our community's shared concern about how advertising might bring positive changes to our society and culture. As one recent Microsoft holiday ad reminds us through the story of a family dog named Rufus, we can all find joy and hope during hard times by staying connected. Video 1. In one of Microsoft's 2020 holiday ads, a dog named Rufus reminds viewers that despite the social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to keep hope alive by dreaming big. We can also stay connected during these difficult times through technology and digital tools. 1 Click to view video This final issue of 2020 focuses largely on race, ethnicity, and diversity in advertising and American society. Although the journal hoped to host its fourth annual colloquium in person this October, staying true to the Quarterly's focus on digital publishing, we held a virtual meeting on December 3–4. This year's theme was Race/Ethnicity/Diversity in Advertising. To fully contextualize and analyze this topic, the colloquium was broken into three sessions. The first session had Smithsonian museum curators discuss their collecting strategies to preserve and tell the stories of race, ethnicity, and diversity in American advertising. 2In the second session, advertising practitioners discussed their public service advertising (PSA) campaigns about COVID-19 safety and concerns among Black, Brown, Asian, and Latino communities. 3The last session featured notable scholars critically unpacking the place of race, ethnicity, and diversity in the advertising industry's business and creative work. 4All three sessions were recorded and published in this issue. 5 Several other pieces in this issue relate to the colloquium's theme about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Marketing professor Yvette Bonaparte (North Carolina Central) and sociology professor Martha Reeves (Duke) examine if and how brand messages can represent concerns from the #MeToo Movement. In addition to providing background details about the #MeToo Movement, Bonaparte and Reeves analyze what Gen Z and Millennial students think about marketers' inclusion of issues such as pay disparity and sexual violence toward women in their messaging. Communication and advertising scholars Jackson Carter (South Carolina and Ouachita Baptist University) and Taylor Jing Wen (South Carolina) provide a detailed qualitative content analysis of a topic rarely assessed in advertising: adoption public service announcements. Adoption PSAs do not adequately represent the foster care system's realities. Carter and Wen worry that such inaccuracies could deter would-be parents from adopting. A reprinted chapter from Inger L. Stole's book Advertising at War: Business, Consumers, and Government in the 1940s(University of Illinois Press, 2012), provides some useful context about how the advertising industry navigates and adapts to various crises in American history. The chapter covers how the advertising industry's efforts to convince the public about advertising's benefits before and during World War II. The chapter also explains the origins of the Ad Council. This history, which we were able to illustrate in color, helps us understand why the organization still plays a vital role in addressing significant social issues while helping the advertising industry defend how it benefits society and culture...

Human proximity seeking in family pigs and dogs

Family dogs (Canis familiaris) seek human contact from an early age, can discriminate and prefer their caregivers over other humans. To investigate if being kept as a family animal is sufficient to induce similar early human proximity-seeking in another domestic mammal, here we directly compared such behaviours in dogs and similarly raised domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus). We used a preference test to measure proximity-seeking behaviours of 4-month-old family pigs and dogs in the presence of their caregiver and either a stranger or a familiar object, in a novel environment. We found that both pigs and dogs preferred their caregivers over the familiar object but not over the stranger. However, when the caregiver and the stranger were present, only dogs showed an overall preference for human proximity, and pigs spent more time away from both humans. These results suggest that both dogs and pigs seek the proximity of their caregiver, but there is a difference in how each species generalizes their experience to other humans. Species-specific predispositions, including that dogs have a longer socialization period and that humans are more salient as a social stimulus for them, may be important for the early development of an overall preference for humans.

Adult, intensively socialized wolves show features of attachment behaviour to their handler

Dogs’ attachment towards humans might be the core of their social skillset, yet the origins of their ability to build such a bond are still unclear. Here we show that adult, hand-reared wolves, similarly to dogs, form individualized relationship with their handler. During separation from their handler, wolves, much like family dogs, showed signs of higher-level stress and contact seeking behaviour, compared to when an unfamiliar person left them. They also used their handler as a secure base, suggesting that the ability to form interspecific social bonds could have been present already in the common ancestor of dogs and wolves. We propose that their capacity to form at least some features of attachment with humans may stem from the ability to form social bond with pack members. This might have been then re-directed to humans during early domestication, providing the basis for the evolution of other socio-cognitive abilities in dogs.