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13 October 2015

#RaisingRudy Advance canine dna do you believe in dog Do You Believe In Dog? Dog Dogs ethnicity genes genetic Mia Cobb panel science test testing Wisdom panel

What can a DNA test tell you about your mixed breed dog?

The results are IN!
Rudy's DNA test results have come back.

Let's see what a DNA test can tell us about this mixed breed dog.

What you thought he was
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:

The 'Other' category included suggestions of: Collie, English Foxhound, Irish Setter, Galgo, Super cute curly tail hound (!), Glamour dog(!), Borzoi, Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen, Pomeranian and German Shepherd.

What the DNA test says he is

Not surprisingly, Rudy has been identified as having come from a line of mixed breed dogs.

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.

What we expected

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 Scottish Deerhound and one-quarter Greyhound. This makes sense and fits with his physical appearance.

(Photo: source)

(Photo: Sue Muir)

Part of Rudy's DNA test results report

What we weren't expecting

Because of Rudy's muddled up mixed breed lineage, the DNA test results offer us a further five breeds that have been identified as "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". This is definitely where the fun starts!

*Drumroll*

With the highest 'relative strength' (undefined and unclear if this is supposed to be % of total dog, or % of the 50% unaccounted for, or some other strength) of 10.86 (again, 10.86 units of what, or out to a total available number of ##, is unclear) - is...

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.

Dobermann reportedly represented in Rudy with strength of 10.86

Now, our first surprise... coming in with strength of 10.55 - the Shetland Sheepdog! 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 would explain those neck flares... This is nothing compared to the next couple!

Shetland sheepdog reportedly in Rudy with a strength of 10.55

Oh hi there Puli, with a strength 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....

Puli reportedly in Rudy with strength of 6.64

...but we'll save it for last. Coming in with the second lowest strength of the five mixed breed contributors identified, we have the Irish Wolfhound. I know most of you thought this was going to be a leading contributor to Rudy's make up, but whatever strength represents, 3.28 doesn't seem like much of it. So now my favourite....

Irish Wolfhound identified in Rudy with a strength of 3.28

Basset Hound. I guess Rudy gets his leg from the other side of the family, right?! With a strength of 1.63, it's the final and lowest reported strength identified in Rudy's report.

Basset Hound reportedly in Rudy with a strength of 1.63

Part of Rudy's DNA test results report

The science behind mixed breed DNA tests

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.

An important note about this kind of test is that 321 markers are not that many. Other canine research (genotyping for whole genome analysis) can use 170,000 markers. Human ethinicity testing relies on 20,000 (to determine caucasian/non-caucasian) -700,000 markers.

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.

Another way to think of it

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.

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.

Image: Dean Russo

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.

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!).

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.

So - what is Rudy?

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 when we adopted him, 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". He is certainly a dog.

Look forward to any comments and questions you might have,

Mia

Further reading:

van Rooy, D., Arnott, E. R., Early, J. B., McGreevy, P., & Wade, C. M. (2014). Holding back the genes: limitations of research into canine behavioural genetics. Canine Genetics and Epidemiology, 1(1), 7.

Hedrick, P. W., & Andersson, L. (2011). Are dogs genetically special?.Heredity, 106(5), 712.

McPhee, C. G. (2011). Advances in canine genetic testing—And what these tests mean for you. Veterinary Medicine, 106(12), 608.

© 2015 Mia Cobb | Do You Believe in Dog?

DoYouBelieveInDog

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9 February 2015

attachment baby blog canine crying do you believe in dog Do You Believe In Dog? Dog Dogs empathy Min Hooi Yong New Zealand psychology research science sound Ted Ruffman University of Otago

How do dogs and people respond to a crying baby?

Guest post by: Min Hooi Yong, PhD

“Does your dog know when you are sad?” Puzzling question, perhaps?

We get a range of answers from dog owners, from the confident “Yes!” to “Maaaaybe?”, and the hopeful “I like to think so...”. Many dogs are considered to be part of the family, and we expect our family members to empathize with us when we are sad.

A recent study found that dogs showed submissive behavior (licking and nuzzling) when an adult person pretended to cry but not when she is humming¹. Does the licking and nuzzling behavior mean that the dog understand that we are feeling sad? (I hear YES-es). Or can it be that because we are crying, we ignore everyone including our dog, and so, our dog will nuzzle us seeking attention and/or comfort?

(source)

There have been many studies showing that animals (e.g. rodents, birds, chimps) experience distress or concern (empathic response) when observing either kin or non-kin in distress. For example, giving electric shocks to rats and pigeons. The observer experienced a change both behaviourally and physiologically, and these responses are often considered as an experience of emotional contagion, an elementary form of empathy. Emotional contagion is essentially the spreading of all forms of emotion from one person (or animal) to another (like the spreading of joy or distress through a crowd - think of a flash mob dance effect filtering through a crowd)².

Hearing a baby cry can be quite distressing. What happens to us when we, the observers, hear the cry? We respond by getting up and checking on the crying baby, “increased attention”. Our body also releases the stress hormone cortisol when we hear the cry, regardless of age or parenting experience^3,4. Also, we can tell if the crying is urgent or not. We do, sometimes find crying aversive (imagine a baby crying non-stop throughout your long-distance flight).

Flickr/thedalogs

In our study, we wanted to know if dogs and humans show a similar physiological response to a baby crying. We had three questions:

We know that dogs are attached to humans, so would dogs show increased attention to a baby crying and babbling?
Exposure to uncontrollable white noise is considered aversive and elicits submissive behavior. If dogs find crying aversive, would dogs show submissive behavior towards crying as well as white noise?
Do dogs show an increased stress response (measured in their salivary cortisol levels) to a baby crying compared to white noise and a baby babbling, similar to humans?

We had 75 dogs and 74 humans listen to one of three sounds. A human baby crying:

A human baby babbling:

Or white noise:

Each sound was played at an average volume of 82 decibels – similar to chamber music in a small auditorium (not loud enough to cause hearing damage, but it is loud). We collected saliva before and after listening to one sound from both dogs and humans for their cortisol levels. We also analyzed dogs’ behavior while the sound was played, and collected sound ratings about how aversive people found the sounds.

What did our three questions reveal? First, we found that both dogs and humans showed an increase in cortisol levels only after listening to crying, but no changes to baby babbling and white noise. Second, dogs showed increased attention to both the crying and babbling sounds, but not to white noise. Third, dogs displayed increased submissive behavior (e.g. the dog’s body and head were lowered, the ears were held flat and back, the tail was lowered and sometimes slightly between their legs or wagging rapidly side-to-side, the tongue pro-truded slightly, or the dog raised one leg in a hesitant or placating manner) to the crying and white noise, but not to babbling. Additionally, human participants rated the white noise as more aversive than crying (see table below for a summary). We also analyzed other possible aspects that might have influenced the dogs’ responses such as time of testing, demographic data e.g. neutered status and sex, acoustic features in the sounds (pitch and melody), and even dog owners’ unintentional cuing. We found that the responses shown were a result of distress, evident from crying.

You might ask why submissive behavior was shown during crying and white noise. Let’s start with white noise. Our human participants perceived white noise as more unpleasant compared to crying. Humans tend to cover their ears and animals also show similar avoidance, and what better way than to lower your head? On the other hand, with crying sounds, one is generally more subdued (sympathetic concern) especially when you can hear the distress meaning in the sound. The combined behavioral indicators during these sounds (e.g. lowered posture, shaking, stimulus avoidance) points toward submissive behavior.

In humans, an increase in cortisol and attention is interpreted as a demonstration of
emotional contagion^3,4. This unique pattern of physiological and behavioral responding to crying in our study is most consistent with (a) emotional contagion in dogs, providing first evidence that dogs, like humans, experience a physiological response to human infant crying, and (b) suggests the first clear evidence of cross-species empathy (i.e. canine emotional contagion to human distress).

Author

Min Hooi Yong has recently completed her PhD under the supervision of Professor Ted Ruffman in the Department of Psychology, University of Otago, New Zealand. You can follow her research, or Prof Ted Ruffman. This study has been published in the journal “Behavioural Processes”:

Yong, M. H., & Ruffman, T. (2014). Emotional contagion: Dogs and humans show a similarphysiological response to human infant crying. Behavioural Processes, 108, 155–165.

Min Hooi Yong

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the dog owners and their dogs who participated in our study, and to Stephanie McConnon, Mary Saxton, and Barbara Lowen for allowing us to use their dog videos. Mia is a female English Setter aged 3, Annie is a female Border Collie aged 9, and Flack is a male mixed breed (Collie/Husky/Heading) aged 4.

References

1. Custance, D. & Mayer, J. Empathic-like responding by domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) to distress in humans: An exploratory study. Anim. Cogn. 15, 851–859 (2012).
2. De Waal, F. B. M. Putting the altruism back into altruism: The evolution of empathy. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 59, 279–300 (2008).
3. Fleming, A. S., Corter, C., Stallings, J. & Steiner, M. Testosterone and prolactin are associated with emotional responses to infant cries in new fathers. Horm. Behav. 42, 399–413 (2002).
4. Giardino, J., Gonzalez, A., Steiner, M. & Fleming, A. S. Effects of motherhood on physiological and subjective responses to infant cries in teenage mothers: A comparison with non-mothers and adult mothers. Horm. Behav. 53, 149–158 (2008).

Thank you, Min, for discussing your research on Do You Believe in Dog? View other guest contributors here ~ Julie & Mia

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15 January 2015

#RaisingRudy 2015 blog blogger blogging canine do you believe in dog Do You Believe In Dog? Dog new year pup puppy research Rudy science shelter socialisation socialization training young

2015: Puppy New Year! Get some science into your dog

2015 is a bright and shiny new year for canine science!

But first, this face:

After being a dog-less household for eight months (you might remember we sadly farewelled Elke in 2013 and gut-wrenchingly, also old man Caleb, in the first half of 2014) we welcomed a new member to the family at the end of 2014.

Those paws. Not photoshopped.

If I'm honest with you, I'd been stalking PetRescue quietly for a month or so, not really sure if the time was right, but also open to being inspired to make it the right time to welcome a new dog into our lives. I eventually made a call to a shelter a long, long way away about a dog I'd seen who looked like the kind of dog I thought would be a good fit for our family over the next fifteen years. His profile had been up for a few weeks and I was concerned he might be nearly out of time to be adopted. The lovely shelter staff let me know he'd actually just been adopted that morning - I was thrilled for him and his new family. Probably a good thing anyway, that shelter was 5 hours' drive away - no small distance.

The following day I received a message from the shelter staff - there was another dog - a younger pup, similar type, would I be interested? "Send me some photos and a video clip of him" I said... and they did. I told Julie about the pup and how far away he was. "Love this story!! Keep it coming ;)" she said via email. Huh, I thought - what an adventure this could be to meet a new family member - and luckily, my partner agreed!

So a week later, coincidentally on my birthday, we headed off after lunch on a 400km (that's 250miles to those of you who prefer miles) drive to a faraway coastal town south west of Melbourne to meet this four month old pup. He had come into the regional shelter as a stray. Whether he was deliberately dumped, wandered off through an open gate, or actively strayed by jumping a fence - we'll never know. That's part of the shelter dog story - not necessarily knowing what came before.

What we do know is this:

He was not identified by microchip, had no collar with ID and was not desexed
No one came looking for him during his two weeks in the shelter
On meeting us, he was excitable, mouthy and jumpy, but calmed down fairly quickly
We have named him Rudy (roo-dee), inspired by Rudolph as it was Christmas week

What is he?

We've been asked that a lot! Rudy is a Staghound. Staghounds in Australia are similar to Lurchers and Longdogs in the UK - a 'type' of dog, rather than a breed. Staghounds are generally greyhound x deerhound with maybe a bit of whatever else was around the area in them too. They can vary widely in looks as they are bred with an emphasis on health, performance and longevity, rather than to a physical standard. They are generally bred to help with hunting in rural areas, but like greyhounds, can make excellent companions as well. As you'd expect, they are highly distracted by moving things.

A diet of science

Inevitably, we're feeding Rudy a daily dose of science. If you want to keep up with how he's going, you can follow the #RaisingRudy hashtag on Twitter, keep up with our Do you Believe in Dog? Facebook posts, or check in here at the blog for regular updates. I've never claimed to be a dog trainer, but I'm certainly aware of the importance of putting the wide array of scientific findings into practice with our dogs to help them have a great life and help us enjoy our time with them.

So far, over the first couple of weeks Rudy's been with us, this has looked a bit like this:

In these early days, we're focusing on socialisation (new experiences, places, people, surfaces, sounds, smells), basic training (toilet training, recall, sit, leash walking, house behaviour, independent time outside) and getting to know Rudy (learning how he responds to new places, loud noises, other dogs and people, etc.). We're marvelling at those ears.

We're remembering what having a puppy in the house means (e.g. encouraging the puppy to splash its feet in a toddler pool is super funny and cute, until it starts repeating that behaviour in the indoor water bowl and floods your laundry!). We're a tidier household for it (Shoes go in cupboards! Pre-schooler's toys get put away! Remote controls go up high!).

If, like us, it's been a while since you raised a puppy, you might enjoy the back seat experience (sometimes hilarious, sometimes frustrating!) offered by the new BBC documentary series 'Six Puppies and Us' - Episode 1 linked here:

What science have you fed your dog recently?
What should I be sure to feed mine?

Let us know your thoughts by commenting on the blog, Facebook or Twitter - and join in #RaisingRudy.

Til next time,

Mia

p.s. No, this hasn't turned into just a puppy blog! The Do You Believe in Dog? team will still be bringing you regular guest posts from fellow canine scientists, monthly updates on the science that's caught our attention and news on major events we attend in 2015.

Further reading:
Kidd A.H. & Kidd, R.M. (1989). Factors in Adults' Attitudes Toward Pets, Psychological Reports, 65 (3) 903-910. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1989.65.3.903

Hiby E.F., Rooney N.J. & Bradshaw J.W.S. (2004). Dog training methods: their use, effectiveness and interaction with behaviour and welfare. , Animal Welfare, 13 (1) 63-70.

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13 October 2015