What did we learn about dogs this year?
In July of this year, Dr Zoe Parr-Cortes, PhD student at Bristol Veterinary School did a study on how a human’s stress affects a dog. In this study, they trained the dogs to know that a bowl sat in a specific location would contain a treat. When the dog was then given sweat from a stressed person to sniff before the bowl was placed, they acted “pessimistic” and were less likely to approach the bowl. The craziest part is the sweat was from a human the dog didn’t even know! Dogs are extremely in tune to our emotions, and training sessions should happen when you are in a good state of mind.
Researchers were commenting on a “third wave of domestication” in dogs, and referencing a study that was actually conducted in 2017 by researchers at Sweden's Linköping University. This study measured a service dog’s willingness to ask for help from a human after receiving a nasal spray of oxytocin. What they found was that a dog’s genetic makeup influences their oxytocin receptors and the way that they process oxytocin. What this means is that if we breed for this receptor, we are almost guaranteed to have more social dogs.
Erica Feuerbacher, an associate professor with the Virginia Tech School of Animal Sciences, published a study in June outlining the possible positive effects of housing shelter dogs in pairs. This 8 day study showed that dogs that were housed with another dog showed less physical signs of stress, had lower levels of cortisol in their urine, and were adopted on average 4 days sooner than their single counterparts.
In January, researchers from Aberystwyth University published a study that found that scent work training may set pet dogs up to be more successful with behaviors that require inhibition. The study looked at dogs that were trained for scent work, agility, and competitive obedience and their ability to solve two different problems. While dogs with any formal training did perform better with the tasks, dogs with scent work training showed better inhibitory control or self control.
Citations:
Parr-Cortes, Z., Müller, C.T., Talas, L. et al. The odour of an unfamiliar stressed or relaxed person affects dogs’ responses to a cognitive bias test. Sci Rep 14, 15843 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-66147-1
Mia E. Persson, Agaia J. Trottier, Johan Bélteky, Lina S.V. Roth, Per Jensen,
Intranasal oxytocin and a polymorphism in the oxytocin receptor gene are associated with human-directed social behavior in golden retriever dogs,
Hormones and Behavior, Volume 95, 2017, Pages 85-93, ISSN 0018-506X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.07.016.
Hecker G, Martineau K, Scheskie M, Hammerslough R, Feuerbacher EN (2024) Effects of single- or pair-housing on the welfare of shelter dogs: Behavioral and physiological indicators. PLoS ONE 19(6): e0301137. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301137
Nerys Mellor et al, Impact of Training Discipline and Experience on Inhibitory Control and Cognitive Performance in Pet Dogs, Animals (2024). DOI: 10.3390/ani14030428
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