copyright Bill Buelow
Well done to Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy for helping to save some of Sochi’s stray dogs. Don’t forget to click through on the link in this article to the Today Show interview where Kenworthy and his friend talk about the challenges they faced in saving the dogs.
Posted in animal welfare
Tagged 2014 Winter Olympics, dogs, Gus Kenworthy, Olympics, Sochi, Today Show, Winter Olympics
This video comes via the Center for Pet Safety, a registered 501(c)3 research and advocacy organization dedicated to companion animal and consumer safety.
Darla was the victim of a poorly designed dog toy purchased at Walmart by her unsuspecting owner. Darla ingested nylon fabric that wrapped around her tongue and proceeded into her digestive tract causing peritonitis. She fought for her life for over 3 days before losing her battle.
You can read Darla’s story by clicking on this link.
Dog owners must understand that dog toys are not subject to recalls and the burden of proof and legal remedies rest with the dog owner in cases like these.
I’m sharing this story to spread the word about this dog toy and to remind everyone to be careful in their selection of toys. Toys sold at discount retailers are particularly suspect, such as those in New Zealand that are imported from China and are not well made and use paints and dyes that clearly rub off when being chewed.
Read Darla’s story and then give your dog a hug – and promise to keep them safe from deadly toys.
Source: National Geographic
Posted in animal welfare, dog breeds, Dogs
Tagged adoption, American Pit Bull Terrier, bully breeds, euthanasia, Pit Bull, second chance, Staffordshire Bull Terrier
Yet more research on how dogs’ brains work. This time from a research team at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary and published in the journal Current Biology.
Using functional MRI, the team could see where blood flowed in the brains of a group of 11 dogs. The dogs had been specially trained using positive reinforcement techniques to lie still in the MRI scanner for six minutes.
A dog lies still in the fMRI scanner, wearing earphones to pipe in sounds as part of the study. (Photo by Eniko Kubinyi)
The team played each dog a series of over 200 sounds across several MRI sessions. The sounds included human voices, dog vocalizations, and meaningless noises.
When the results were compared, it showed that the dogs’ brains appear to have a dedicated area that displays more activity in response to voices (whether human speech or dogs barking) than other meaningless noises (such as glass breaking).
More importantly, that part of the brain shows more activity upon hearing an emotionally positive sound, as compared to a negative one. This means that our dogs are able to distinguish a tone of voice that is positive from one that is negative. (Something many of us probably already knew)
The voice areas of the dogs’ brains is similar to that found in humans, suggesting that our species evolved from a common ancestor almost 100 million years ago, enabling a high degree of communication and social structure.
“We know that dogs don’t have language, per se, but we see now that dogs have very similar mechanisms to process social information as humans,” Attila Andics, lead researcher on the study says. “It makes us wonder what aspects of so-called ‘language skills’ are not so human-specific after all, but are also there in other species. That’s something we plan to look at.”
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
Here are my earlier blogs about functional MRI studies on dogs:
I adore my Daisy and I’m very aware that she’s getting older. For example, I notice that she doesn’t hear as well as she used to and she sleeps very deeply as a result.
I love watching her sleep and couldn’t resist taking this short video of her snoring. Enjoy!
Researchers have debated human right brain/left brain theory for years. New research has looked into whether lateralisation of brain function affects dogs.
The study involved 19 dogs and trainers. The study subjects went through a series of tests, firstly paw preference tests whilst offering food followed by agility tests, using A-frames, jumps and weave poles. Throughout the tests, the dogs received trainer stimuli from both the right and left sides.
Trainers also completed questionnaires giving more information about the dog’s temperament. Results showed a correlation between paw preference and agility. Dogs with stronger paw preferences seemed more predisposed to training, less distracted and had greater agility.
When trainers presented on the left, dogs were more agitated, emotional, and performances deteriorated. A dog’s left visual field stimulates the right brain hemisphere.
Overall the results revealed that behavioural lateralisation correlates with
performance of agility-trained dogs. These results support previous evidence that lateralisation in dogs can directly affect visually guided motor
responses.
The results have practical implications for personnel involved in
the selection of dogs trained specifically for agility competitions and for the
development of new training techniques.
You can read the full article on this research here.
Read my previous blogs about paw preference in dogs:
In a new study published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, author Dong-Dong Wu, et. al., explored the genetic basis of high-altitude adaptation of Tibetan Mastiffs, which were originally domesticated from the Chinese native dogs of the plains.
Credit: © zuzule / Fotolia
The authors examined genome-wide mutations (called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs) of 32 Tibetan Mastiffs, and compared them to 20 Chinese native dogs and 14 grey wolves. Overall, they identified more than 120,000 SNPs, and in their analysis, narrowed these down to 16 genes that have undergone positive selection in mastiffs, with 12 of these relevant to high altitude adaption.
These candidate genes have been shown to be involved in energy production critical to high-altitude survival under low oxygen conditions.
For future studies, the authors will explore whole genome sequences from individual Tibetan Mastiffs to gain better insights into high-altitude adaptations and canine evolution.
Source: EurekAlert! media statement
Posted in research
Tagged adaptation, evolution, native dogs, Tibet, Tibetan Mastiff, Tibetan Mastiffs
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