The January 2015 special edition of the journal Behavioural Processes is fully online (until January 2016). This means you can download .pdf copies of fifteen interesting research articles about dogs and behavior.
In the opening editorial of this journal, Monique A.R. Udell says that research into social development and cognitive evolution of dogs is just beginning to scratch the surface despite the long history of the human-canine relationship.
I am particularly interested in these fields of research (as my many blog postings under the category of ‘research’ show!) because of the work I do with dogs. Understanding dogs is critical to working with them in a holistic approach to health.
My only criticism of journal articles generally (not just this journal) is the odd and often long names that researchers choose for the title of their articles. It is just one indication that researchers work in a different world from generalist audiences; they are often judged in peer reviews for language this is technical. In my experience as a research manager, I have also found that most academic researchers write in a style using long sentences and paragraphs.
Some of these articles are easier to read than others because of this.
The articles in this issue are:
- Revisiting the concept of behavior patterns in animal behavior with an example from food-caching sequences in Wolves (Canis lupus), Coyotes (Canis latrans), and Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes)
- Assessment of attachment behaviour to human caregivers in wolf pups (Canis lupus lupus)
- Self-regulatory depletion in dogs: insulin release is not necessary for the replenishment of persistence
- Dogs and their human companions: The effect of familiarity on dog-human interactions
- Scent of the familiar: An fMRI study of canine brain responses to familiar and unfamiliar human and dog odors
- Shut up and pet me! Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer petting to vocal praise in concurrent and single-alternative choice procedures
- A comparison of pet and purpose-bred research dog (Canis familiaris) performance on human-guided object-choice tasks
- Gazing toward humans: A study on water rescue dogs using the impossible task paradigm
- Is that fear? Domestic dogs’ use of social referencing signals from an unfamiliar person
- Why do adult dogs ‘play’?
- Down but not out: Supine postures as facilitators of play in domestic dogs
- The advent of canine performance science: Offering a sustainable future for working dogs
- Do you see what I see? Can non-experts with minimal training reproduce expert ratings in behavioral assessments of working dogs?
- Which personality dimensions do puppy tests measure? A systematic procedure for categorizing behavioral assays
- Citizen science: A new direction in canine behavior research
Kathleen Crisley, specialist in dog massage, rehabilitation and nutrition/food therapy, Canine Catering Ltd, Christchurch, New Zealand
DoggyMom.com 