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Showing posts with label The Bark. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Bark. Show all posts

21 February 2013

Pet sounds

Pet sounds

Hi Mia, 

 Your last post opened an entirely new can of worms -- dog poo as a source of electricity. Yes, you went there, and your post was equipped with a lamp shaped like a dog taking a poo as well as the phrase, “I’m not talking crap (well, I am).” Extraordinary.

Since one of our goals at DYBID is to discuss topics that are important to dogs, it was inevitable that we’d arrive at poo. And while dogs probably don’t care what we do with their poo after they’re done with it (maybe that’s an incorrect assumption), it’s an area relished by many dogs, and I hope we revisit it.

WOOF WOOF WOOF!
Another area that many dogs give a crap about is barking. I just covered the topic of barking and growling (common pet sounds) for the Spring 2013 issue of The Bark, now on newsstands. 
Barking Decoded in The Bark
The Sounds of Dogs investigates what all the noise is about. Research finds that humans are pretty good at recognizing the context and emotional content of barks. Barks in an “alone” situation sound different from a “go away stranger” or “asking for a ball.” 

 
The NOVA special, Dogs Decoded, highlights barking at the 8:30 mark  
 
As a city dweller living in a first floor apartment facing the street, I hear a lot of different barks outside my window. Some barks I ignore, and others make me rush out of the apartment to investigate -- those are usually the high-pitched distress barks. Sometimes I bring treats, just in case.

The Sounds of Dogs also covers the various theories behind why dogs bark much more than wolves. Could barking have some relationship with communicating with humans? Or perhaps dogs often find themselves in conflicted situations, and then out pops a bark.  

SHUT UP!!!
But barking is not only about dogs, it’s also about managing human perceptions. Since some dog owners are apt to perceive barking as, “so annoying,” the article also discusses how to manage barking... within reasonable expectations. Additionally, it's important that barking not hinder the human-dog bond. From The Sounds of Dogs:

Susan Friedman, PhD, a pioneer in the application of applied behavior analysis to captive and companion animals and a psychology professor at Utah State University, explains, “For dogs, barking is a functional behavior, meaning it is maintained, increased or decreased due to consequences. Once this is [understood], it opens the door to changing the duration, intensity and frequency of the behavior by changing the consequences.” In other words, dogs can learn to be quieter.

Laura Monaco Torelli, CPDT-KA, KPA CTP, director of training at Animal Behavior Training Concepts in Chicago also weighs in:

Owners should focus not on eliminating barking altogether, but on reducing it to levels they find appropriate and livable. When she meets with clients to discuss their dogs’ barking issues, Monaco Torelli, asks questions such as, “How many barks is okay? What’s excessive to you?” This, she says, gives the trainer a good starting point from which to develop a plan to teach the client how to reshape a dog’s barking behavior. Trainers and owners discuss acceptable barking, and then implement techniques to achieve desired levels in each context.

For people who assume barking is just something on a dog's checklist, "Go to the bathroom, sniff another dog's butt, bark..." The Sounds of Dogs could be a good read.

Now! Rock out at your RSPCA talk, and then tell us all about the conference!

Julie 

References
Hecht, J. The Sounds of Dogs. The Bark, Spring 2013.

© Julie Hecht 2013
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The Bark

10 October 2012

Size matters. ‘Specially when it comes to your tail

Size matters. ‘Specially when it comes to your tail

Hello hello Mia!

I'll come back to "cute" next week, but I want to stick with the topic you brought up.

As you mentioned, tail docking and ear cropping regulations differ across the globe. Both practices are common here in the States, but the American Veterinary Medical Association, “encourages the elimination of ear cropping and tail docking from breed standards.”

 Even so, docking and cropping are often seen as normal parts of dog pedigree and sometimes built into breed standards:
AKC Boxer Breed Standard: "The tail is set high, docked, and carried upward. An undocked tail should be severely penalized." When it comes to Boxers' ears, they "are customarily cropped, cut rather long and tapering, and raised when alert."
Some might not even notice that this dog was not born this way, that the tail has been docked.

Hello tail!
"But who cares about tails?" some might ask. You mention that "Tails are major communication tools for dogs," but some might wonder, Where's the proof?
The Bark

My latest article in Bark Magazine directly relates to this topic. The article's called, Skin Deep: Looks Do Play A Role In Intraspecies Communication, and you can view the article here. I know it sounds like a face cream advertisement, but it's not. It's about dogs. I promise.

The premise is, "Looks aren’t everything, but they do play a role in communication." Here's an excerpt from the article about tails:

 "When researchers went to explore how dogs respond to other dogs’ tails, they pulled out the big guns: a model robot dog resembling a Labrador Retriever. Apart from its tail, the 'dog' was motionless. 

The researchers found that when the robot dog had a long wagging tail, it was approached more than when it had a long still tail, which as you probably assumed, suggests that the tail conveys emotional state, and that wagging is more inviting than not wagging. When it came to short tails, the story changed. There was no difference between how the robot dog with a short/still and a short/wagging tail was approached. It appears that the longer tails were most effective at conveying emotional information, and since short tails are hard to read, they might not be read at all."

Left (short tail); Right (long tail). Leaver, & Reimchen. Behavioural responses of Canis familiaris to different tail lengths of a remotely-controlled life-size dog replica
Tails help dogs assess one another's emotional states and contribute to overall behavioral expression. Tails are not unnecessary add-ons like our appendix.

(For more details about this study, Con Slobodchikoff wrote a longer summary on his Dog Behavior Blog, and the post is accurately titled, Size Of Tail Messes Up Dog Language).

For any skeptics you might know, I too was surprised that a stuffed, robotic dog could offer insights into dog-dog communication. But stuffed animals and robots, particularly those covered in fur, are used in dog behavior research every now and again, and they seem to have good results. 

 While tails are not the beginning and end of dog-dog communication, they certainly do contribute to the whole package.

And how is the Sciencerewired conference? I think you are on your way there now. Updates updates!!
http://sciencerewired.org/
Bye for now! 
Julie

References / further reading:

ASPCA Canine Body Language

 Hecht, J. Skin Deep: Looks Do Play A Role In Intraspecies Communication, The Bark , September/October 2012.
  
Slobodchikoff, C. Size Of Tail Messes Up Dog Language. Dog Behavior Blog. January 6, 2011 

 Kubinyi, E., Miklósi, Á., Kaplan, F., Gácsi, M., Topál, J. & Csányi, V. (2004). Social behaviour of dogs encountering AIBO, an animal-like robot in a neutral and in a feeding situation, Behavioural Processes, 65 (3) 239. DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2003.10.003

 Leaver, & Reimchen, (2008). Behavioural responses of Canis familiaris to different tail lengths of a remotely-controlled life-size dog replica, Behaviour, 145 (3) 390. DOI: 10.1163/156853908783402894

© Julie Hecht 2012
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The Bark

4 September 2012

A moment for humping

A moment for humping

(source)
Hellooooo!

You have editor friends? Such a big deal! I reference Grammar Girl often, but I always prefer live, personal feedback.
 
I was really taken aback by those photos you posted because logically, I know that when breeding for (1) physical health and (2) guide-dog "appropriate" behaviors, physical characteristics are not necessarily prioritized. And, as you showed, other physical characteristics can start coming through. I don’t think I’ve seen photos like that before. Pretty awesome.

It's a great example of the diversity within each breed, and the standards that are set are just one of many physical “breed standards” that could exist within any one breed. What if those colorings that you showed weren’t considered a “mismark” and were instead referred to as "Jackson Pollack" markings?

So, in our conversation of welfare, we’ve got working dogs and aesthetics on the table. Now I need to explain why I put up a picture of a dog humping a cat's head. I want to throw humping into the mix. 

Humping Time
Back in the Spring, I wrote an article for the magazine The Bark called, H*mping Why do they do it? (humping in dogs, of course). The piece covered (1) what people think mounting and humping is all about, and (2) when and (3) why do dogs do it. Much of the piece discussed contexts and emotional states. (To prepare for the article, I asked people on my Dog Spies Blog to share their thoughts on humping. I received 25 comments, meaning the most comments I have ever received were about humping).

This past weekend, Marc Bekoff put up a post called Why Dogs Hump on his Psychology Today blog. His post covers my H*mping piece, and he added his own experiences and perspectives as an ethologist.

I’m excited my piece is getting coverage because there’s lots of incomplete conversations about why dogs mount and hump (and to be fair, we’re still getting to know the behaviors better). It often seems like people just want to stop humping and mounting in their tracks and not think about why a dog might be humping or mounting in the first place. 

Humping can pop out during stress and anxiety; it could also occur during play, excitement, and stimulation. It can even be present during conflicted emotional states, to name a few. Given the complexity of this behavior, people should ask themselves, “What does mounting and humping mean for your dog?”

To help people when thinking about humping, I put together a list of Humping Resources written by applied ethologists and veterinary behaviorists.

(source)
I'm also talking about humping because I want to throw humping into the welfare mix! Technically, humping is a normal behavior in dogs (not an abnormal behavior like flank sucking or tail chasing), but humping can still raise welfare questions and concerns. 

For example, some dogs can become obsessive about humping, and sometimes it can be associated with stress. So I was wondering, does humping come up in working dogs? And if so, is it discussed, and how does it play out?

Bye for now!

Julie

 Some Humping Resources
Hecht, Julie. Humping Resources. Dog Spies, September 2012.

Hecht, Julie. “H*mping Why do they do it?” The Bark, June-August 2012: 70, 56-60.

Bekoff, Marc. Why Dogs Hump. Psychology Today, September 2012. 

References
Moon-Fanelli, A.A., Dodman, N.H., Famula, T.R. & Cottam, N. (2011). Characteristics of compulsive tail chasing and associated risk factors in Bull Terriers, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 238 (7) 889. DOI: 10.2460/javma.238.7.883

 Moon-Fanelli, A.A., Dodman, N.H. & Cottam, N. (2007). Blanket and flank sucking in Doberman Pinschers, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 231 (6) 912. DOI: 10.2460/javma.231.6.907

© Julie Hecht 2012
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