Family Dog Research Articles

He Fell from Dad’s Arms: Subdural Hemorrhages in an Infant

A 3-month-old male infant was brought by his parents to his primary care physician with a history of falling from his father’s arms onto hardwood flooring as the father tripped over the family dog. The baby cried immediately and eventually settled down. He was intermittently fussy and vomited 3-4 times in the 4 hours prior to presentation. The father waited for the mother to come home from work before bringing the baby to the local community emergency department where bilateral subdural hemorrhages (SDHs) were diagnosed.

The owners’ assessment of “everyday dog memory”

In a questionnaire study we surveyed the owners of 113 companion dogs. Owners had to mark on a four-grade scale how long their dog remembered particular memory items (persons, other animals, events, objects). Additionally we collected descriptive data on the demographical characteristics of the dog and the keeping conditions.A principal component analysis on the memory items resulted in five components. From these, two were connected to people (‘Family’ and ‘Intruders’), three other components contained individual items of memory of objects and events (‘Going out’, Playing’ and ‘Doing something’). Analyses of variance revealed that the dog-owner relationship, the keeping conditions, age and breed of the dog affect the dogs’ memory as described by the owner. The amount of time spent together or the education of the owner had no or minimal effect on these components.Our study showed that owners form stable opinions about their dogs’ episodic memory capacity. Nevertheless, the results can be biased by such factors that affect either the owners’ opinions about their dog-companions, or the dogs’ access to particular stimuli, which can modify the formation of memory traces. In the future, these results can serve as a starting point for empirical testing of family dogs’ memory. Keywords: dogs; dog owners; memory; questionnaire

Understanding the relationship between dog ownership and children's physical activity and sedentary behaviour

Dog ownership is a catalyst for physical activity in adults. Given 50-70% of Australian households with children have a dog, dog-facilitated physical activity may be an effective way to increase physical activity and decrease child obesity. We hypothesized that children with a family dog walk more, are more physically active and are more likely to achieve recommended levels of weekly physical activity compared with children who do not have a dog. Cross-sectional data from the Western Australian TRravel, Environment, and Kids project (TREK) were analyzed for 1218 children aged 10-12 years. Individual and environment factors, child physical activity, walking, screen use, sedentary behaviour and dog ownership status was collected from child and parent questionnaires. Children's height and weight were measured. Approximately 60% of children had a family dog. Dog ownership was associated with, on average, 29 more minutes of walking and 142 more minutes of physical activity per week (P ≤ 0.01). After adjustment, children with a dog were 49% more likely to achieve the recommended level of weekly physical activity (420 min) and 32% more likely to have walked in their neighbourhood in the last week, compared with non-dog owners (P ≤ 0.05). These relationships varied by gender. Dog ownership was not associated with screen use or weight status. Dog ownership was associated with walking and physical activity, but not screen use or weight status. Within dog-owning families, the promotion of walking and active play with a dog may be a strategy to increase children's physical activity.

Arthroscopy-Associated Complications in Osteosarcoma: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Iatrogenic seeding of sarcoma cells into a joint is a feared, although uncommon, phenomenon. In 1983, Joyce and Mankin described twelve patients who had undergone arthroscopy for suspected intra-articular pathology and were later determined to have extra-articular malignancies. Failure to appreciate the extra-articular lesion in eight of these patients led to delays in definitive treatment as well as the introduction of diseased tissue into the joint space1. In 2003, Musculo et al. reported a similar series of twenty-five patients with suspected athletic injuries who were operated on first and only later diagnosed with benign or malignant bone tumors2. Microscopic seeding of a joint with tumor cells from an undiagnosed malignancy is a risk in treating bone and soft-tissue tumors3-5. Iatrogenic spread of a tumor by arthroscopy is a rare complication that can substantially alter surgical outcomes for patients, leading to more aggressive surgical treatment when conservative therapy may have initially been possible6-8. In a busy clinical practice, orthopaedic surgeons must remain vigilant in assessing all patients with musculoskeletal pain, particularly patients with an equivocal etiology. We report the case of a young man with osteosarcoma who had arthroscopy-related complications. The patient’s family was informed that data concerning this case would be submitted for publication, and they provided consent. A previously healthy nineteen-year-old man presented to his primary physician with knee pain, swelling, and limited weight-bearing. The patient offered a reportedly “vague” history of trauma to the knee, sustained while playing with the family dog. After evaluation, the physician decided on empiric treatment with rest and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Despite the medication, the pain continued to worsen, and the patient was subsequently referred for orthopaedic evaluation. The patient presented to the orthopaedist with poorly localized pain about the knee …

Keep the Family Dog

Keep the Family Dog

Missense polymorphisms in the MC1R gene of the dog, red fox, arctic fox and Chinese raccoon dog

Coat colour variation is determined by many genes, one of which is the melanocortin receptor type 1 (MC1R) gene. In this study, we examined the whole coding sequence of this gene in four species belonging to the Canidae family (dog, red fox, arctic fox and Chinese raccoon dog). Although the comparative analysis of the obtained nucleotide sequences revealed a high conservation, which varied between 97.9 and 99.1%, we altogether identified 22 SNPs (10 in dogs, six in farmed red foxes, two in wild red foxes, three in arctic foxes and one in Chinese raccoon dog). Among them, seven appeared to be novel: one silent in the dog, three missense and one silent in the red fox, one in the 3'-flanking region in the arctic fox and one silent in the Chinese raccoon dog. In dogs and red foxes, the SNPs segregated as 10 and four haplotypes, respectively. Taking into consideration the published reports and results of this study, the highest number of missense polymorphisms was until now found in the dog (9) and red fox (7).

The Twittering Machine

In Donald Barthelme's School, you end up in a classroom where everything dies. The orange trees, the snakes, the tropical fish, the salamanders, the puppy, the Korean orphan, the grandparents, the parents, even some of the students. In just two pages, the story has the momentum of a howitzer, piling the bodies up in inverted pyramid of importance. The teacher tells the story and he does it with the boozy intimacy of last call. The children in the story get disillusioned by the incongruity of their position: all this death and they were stuck in school. The children ask the teacher to make love to his assistant, so they can have, in their words, an assertion of value. The teacher protests, then acquiesces, he and the assistant kiss, there's a knock at the door, a gerbil walks in, the children go wild with happiness. I taught this story to a class of rising sixth-graders last summer. As a teacher, I have a bad habit of only wanting to talk about what I am currently excited about, a strategy guaranteed to teach my students nothing but how to have a conversation with a vaguely unhinged personality manically obsessed with a topic. It's problematic, but I have no alternative other than actually preparing a lesson plan, and that isn't going to happen any time soon. If you want to examine emotional scarring, talk with a class of sixth graders about death and suffering. They're geniuses on the subject. Each of my students had a story, of a relative, pet, or classmate, who died suddenly. They all knew they had been lied to about the deaths. Pria wanted to know how, on the drive home from the vet's after the family dog was put down, her mother was able to laugh and cry at the same time. Everyone was confused and scared, and it was beautiful. We all looked suffering and death in the face and none of us had any answers. I told them that it was hard and it got harder and then it gets easier, but I lacked the language to tell them why. Then, instead of a gerbil walking into the classroom, we went to recess.

Seizure alarm dogs for children's nocturnal seizures: feasibility and consumer involvement exercise

Aims Family dogs will sometimes alert parents when a child has a seizure in bed at night. Our preliminary consumer involvement suggested that 28% of children with epilepsies already had a dog, and 24% of these had alerted parents to the child9s seizures at least once. 37% said they would consider having a dog, and only 35% would not consider having a dog in the future. We therefore wanted to assess further the feasibility and public support likely for a clinical trail of specifically trained seizure alarm dogs for monitoring children at night. Methods A convenience sample of parents of children with nocturnal seizures were asked to complete a brief questionnaire, about their child9s seizures, emergency medication, and whether they had a dog or would consider having one in the future. Data was entered into Excel and simple descriptive statistics used. Results 13/46 (28%) of children with nocturnal seizures, involved so far, had at least 1 nocturnal seizure a week and 15% had 1 a night. 50% of affected children slept in the same room as at least 1 parent and 25% regularly used a seizure alarm or audio monitor. 20% used no precautions. 61% of the children had a neurodisability, and 61% had emergency rescue medication e.g. buccal midazolm at home for prolonged seizures. Families were generally keen to be involved in helping us scope and design future research in this area with 67% wanting to help. We know of one family, not in the consultation, who successfully adopted a specifically trained nocturnal seizure alarm dog, trained by Support Dogs, funded by the Kennel Club. Conclusions A pilot study of training dogs to act as nocturnal seizure alarm dogs for children appears feasible: ideal families would be those who would consider owning a dog, but did not currently have one, and whose child had similar looking seizures in the day to the nocturnal seizures, occurring most days.

Dogs with Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome: A Natural Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

In the search for appropriate models for Alzheimer's disease (AD) involving animals other than rodents, several laboratories are working with animals that naturally develop cognitive dysfunction. Among the animals tested, dogs are quite unique in helping to elucidate the cascade of events that take place in brain amyloid-beta (Aβ)deposition aging, and cognitive deficit. Recent innovative research has validated human methods and tools for the analysis of canine neuropathology and has allowed the development of two different approaches to investigate dogs as natural models of AD. The first approach relates AD-like neuropathy with the decline in memory and learning ability in aged housed dogs in a highly controlled laboratory environment. The second approach involves research in family-owned animals with cognitive dysfunction syndrome. In this review, we compare the strengths and limitations of housed and family-owned canine models, and appraise their usefulness for deciphering the early mechanisms of AD and developing innovative therapies.

Close Quarters

Close Quarters

The behavior of the domestic dog ( Canis familiaris) during separation from and reunion with the owner: A questionnaire and an experimental study

We have constructed a questionnaire to investigate the separation behavior in a sample of family dogs ( Canis familiaris) ( N = 45) and in parallel we have observed dogs’ separation-related behavior in a simple behavioral test ( Separation and greeting test, S&G). We recorded the dogs’ behavior during the separation from and reunion (greeting) with the owner. We investigated whether owners’ report about their dogs’ separation behavior reflected the separation behavior under controlled testing conditions. Furthermore, we wanted to find out whether the duration of separation affected the behavior of dogs and whether there was some relationship between separation and greeting behavior. Dogs that were rated by their owner to be more “anxious” during separation and “happier” at reunion, showed more activity and stress-related behavior during separation, and more affection toward the owner during greeting. Dogs with owner-reported separation-related disorder (SRD) showed more stress-related behavior, they spent less time near the owner's chair during separation, and were more active during greeting than dogs without SRD. The two groups of dogs did not differ in affectionate behavior shown toward the owner. Non-affected dogs’ activity decreased with increasing separation duration, but dogs with SRD did not show this change in their separation behavior. Our results show that owners’ have a realistic view on their dogs’ separation behavior. In addition, dogs with SRD may not be “hyper-attached” to their owners because they do not show more affection during greeting. Moreover, dogs with SRD do not show preference for the owners’ objects left behind and they cannot be easily calmed by the returning owner. Our questionnaire and the Separation and greeting test could be used for screening dogs with suspected separation-related behavior problems.

Canine Conjectures: Using Data for Proportional Reasoning

A family dog supplies the measurements for scatter plots and variables so that students can explore relationships among data sets—not to mention paws and tails.

The effect of frequency and duration of training sessions on acquisition and long-term memory in dogs

Most domestic dogs are subjected to some kind of obedience training, often on a frequent basis, but the question of how often and for how long a dog should be trained has not been fully investigated. Optimizing the training as much as possible is not only an advantage in the training of working dogs such as guide dogs and police dogs, also the training of family dogs can benefit from this knowledge. We studied the effect of frequency and duration of training sessions on acquisition and on long-term memory. Forty-four laboratory Beagles were divided into 4 groups and trained by means of operant conditioning and shaping to perform a traditional obedience task, each dog having a total of 18 training sessions. The training schedules of the 4 groups differentiated in frequency (1–2 times per week vs. daily) and duration (1 training session vs. 3 training sessions in a row). Acquisition was measured as achieved training level at a certain time. The dogs’ retention of the task was tested four weeks post-acquisition. Results demonstrated that dogs trained 1–2 times per week had significantly better acquisition than daily trained dogs, and that dogs trained only 1 session a day had significantly better acquisition than dogs trained 3 sessions in a row. The interaction between frequency and duration of training sessions was also significant, suggesting that the two affect acquisition differently depending on the combination of these. The combination of weekly training and one session resulted in the highest level of acquisition, whereas the combination of daily training and three sessions in a row resulted in the lowest level of acquisition. Daily training in one session produced similar results as weekly training combined with three sessions in a row. Training schedule did not affect retention of the learned task; all groups had a high level of retention after 4 weeks. The results of the study can be used to optimize training in dogs, which is important since the number of training sessions often is a limiting factor in practical dog training. The results also suggest that, once a task is learned, it is likely to be remembered for a period of at least four weeks after last practice, regardless of frequency and duration of the training sessions.

Bad breath ... scenting victory?

We have all read news articles where a beloved family dog has identified cancer in a patient, just by using the amazing nose that nature provided. However, when Hossam Haick and his team read similar stories they recognized the potential for a more rigorous cancer screening method.

Some we love, some we hate, some we eat: why it's so hard to think straight about animals

Does living with a pet really make people happier and healthier? What can we learn from biomedical research with mice? Who enjoys a better quality of life - the chicken on a dinner plate or a rooster who dies in a Saturday night cockfight? Why is it wrong to eat the family dog? Drawing on over two decades of research in the emerging field of anthrozoology, the science of human-animal relations, Hal Herzog offers surprising answers to these and other questions related to the moral conundrums we face day in and day out regarding the creatures with whom we share our world. We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat is a highly entertaining and illuminating journey through the full spectrum of human-animal relations, based on Dr. Herzog's groundbreaking research on animal rights activists, cockfighters, professional dog show handlers, veterinary students, and biomedical researchers. Blending anthropology, history, brain science, behavioural economics, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy, Herzog carefully crafts a seamless narrative enriched with real life anecdotes, scientific research, and his own sense of moral ambivalence. Alternately poignant, challenging, and laugh-out-loud funny, his enlightening and provocative book will forever change the way we look at our relationships with other creatures and, ultimately, how we see ourselves.

Dog Ownership and Adolescent Physical Activity

Positive associations between dog ownership and adult health outcomes have been observed, but research involving youth is lacking. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship of family dog ownership to adolescent physical activity. Data were collected on dog ownership in 618 adolescent/parent pairs between 9/2006 and 6/2008 and analyzed in 2010. Adolescent physical activity was assessed by ActiGraph accelerometers. Adolescents' mean age was 14.6±1.8 years and 49% were male. White and higher-SES adolescents were more likely to own a dog. In models adjusted for age, puberty, gender, race, total household members, and SES, adolescent physical activity (mean counts·min(-1)day(-1)) remained significantly associated with dog ownership (β=24.3, SE=12.4, p=0.05), whereas the association with minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day became nonsignificant (β=2.2, SE=1.2, p=0.07). No significant results were observed for other adolescent characteristics. Dog ownership was associated with more physical activity among adolescents. Further research using longitudinal data will help clarify the role that dog ownership may have on adolescent physical activity.

Family Dog Ownership and Levels of Physical Activity in Childhood: Findings From the Child Heart and Health Study in England

Family Dog Ownership and Levels of Physical Activity in Childhood: Findings From the Child Heart and Health Study in England

Traveling with the Family Dog: Targeting an Emerging Segment

More Americans currently consider their dogs as part of their families and are more frequently including them in their travel plans. This study examines this phenomenon and the implications for the marketers of travel-related products and services. Empirical findings show that while over half of those surveyed report traveling with their dogs, many are unaware of the increasing dog-friendliness of the hospitality industry. Also, those traveling with their dogs are more likely to be risk takers, perceive that traveling with dogs is more convenient, and are more likely to see dogs as members of the family.

Friend or foe: Context dependent sensitivity to human behaviour in dogs

During the course of domestication dogs ( Canis familiaris) have inhabited a social field characterized by inter-specific interactions with humans. The mutually advantageous social contact between dogs and humans is facilitated by effective mechanisms that negotiate ongoing interactions and avoid the escalation of conflicts. We investigated the reaction of 37 family dogs towards the approaching owner and experimenter who communicated either threat or friendliness both in playful and non-playful situations. Dogs’ behavioural responses were in accordance with the conflicting (threatening) and non-conflicting (friendly) manner of the approaching humans both in the non-playful and the playful situations. The familiarity of the interacting human partner (owner or experimenter) affected the behaviour of dogs only in the non-playful situations, where contact-seeking was less typical and gaze-averting tendencies were more pronounced towards the experimenter. The threatening approach elicited tolerant/contact-seeking reactions towards the owner in both situations and also towards the experimenter in the playful situation. But dogs were avoidant/aggressive with the experimenter in the non-playful situation. Play bows were triggered by both human partners’ threatening approach, but only in the playful situation. Results suggest that this signal appears when the human partners’ behaviour becomes ambiguous in relation to the social context. We propose that the flexible utilization of various conflict-resolving behaviours depending on the actual partners represent fundamental elements of dogs’ social competence. These skills help dogs to manoeuvre efficiently in the course of dog–human interactions in various social contexts.

Family Dog Ownership and Levels of Physical Activity in Childhood: Findings From the Child Heart and Health Study in England

Dog ownership is associated with higher physical activity levels in adults; whether this association occurs in children is unknown. We used accelerometry to examine physical activity levels in 2065 children aged 9 to 10 years. Children from dog-owning families spent more time in light or moderate to vigorous physical activity and recorded higher levels of activity counts per minute (25; 95% confidence interval [CI]=6, 44) and steps per day (357; 95% CI=14, 701) than did children without dogs.