Animal Behaviour Flashcards
Why are dogs good predators?
very curious animals- diversity of prey
* Variety of diets- more versatile: not obligate carnivores
* Social hunters (pack up)- can incapacitate prey larger than individual animal (dog)
* Run fast, over ling distances- great stamina
* Long , slender limb, slender toes (phalanx)
* More upright standing posture
What is the ansestor of dogs?
Grey Wolves
The most likely origin of domestication is East Asia
Ethology
The study of behaviour
- includes causation and function
- Behaviour is a combination of physiological responses (ei. social interaction) and complex activity (ei. social interaction
What are the three different catagories of animal behaviour?
The ones to do with uniqueness
1) unique to the individual,
2) unique to the event
(situation)
3) can be uniform within the population
What are Tinbergien’s four questions
Ethology
Cause, purpose, development (evolution?) and effect of a response
1) What causes dog barking?
2) What is the function of dog barking?
3) How does dark barking develop during their evolution?
4) How has barking developed during their evolutionary and social relationships with other organisms? (Effect)
Note: The 4 questions may not take into consideration the dog’s emotional and cognitive aspect of behaviour
Cerebral cortex (neocortex)
Present in all mammals (80% of total mass of human brain)
* Integration of sensory stimuli
* Higher learning - reasoning, reflection
* Includes the Limbic system
Limbic System
Includes the hypothalamus, thalamus,
hippocampus:
Responsible for basic behaviours: feeding, fear, aggression, sexual behaviour (the four “F”s)
Although cortex of dog is smaller than people, the limbic system is comparatively the same size, as such dogs can sense basic stimuli (ie fear),
but may not process the stimuli the same as humans
Nervous System
Includes:
* Central nervous system: (CNS; spinal cord + Brain),
* Peripheral nervous system: (PNS; all non-spinal cord + non-brain,
‘outside’’ CNS)
Afferent Neurons
Nerve signals to CNS
Efferent Neurons
Nerve signal away from CNS
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
Somatic- voluntary control (weight lifting - muscle contraction)
Autonomic- involuntary control (digestion after a meal),
- Parasympathetic (relaxation),
- Sympathetic (excitation)
Key Stimuli
A collection of stimuli (signals) that cause a interpreted by the CNS in a specific and functional manner
Often linked to specific behavioural response, but can be modified
- Ex. dogs will chase ( rabbit)- instinctive (innate response)
- Can prevent chasing behaviour- this is trained (learned event)- not
instinctive
Endocrine System
Formones ( chemical signals) form areas of the brain (ie hypothalamus-pituitary axis; HPA)) will effect behaviour
* Example: Follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) from HPA, will
increase testosterone in the testes- this will effect growth, maturation
and reproductive behaviour
* Castration of the dog – reduces testosterone – alters reproductive
behaviour
What are the 4 behaviuoral development phases in dogs?
1) Neonatal (birth~13 days)
- Completely dependant of mother for life function
2) Transition (~13-20 days)
- early development of adult traits
3) Socialization (3-8 weeks)
- Social behaviour begins, this is also where you start seeing fear and aggression
4) Juvenile (2-8 months)
- Behaviour traits are not changing much
What is considered to be the highest priority motivations
feeding, reproduction, defence-aggression
How can genetics influence behaviour?
Behaviour can be affected by a either:
- single genes (drastic changes)
- impacted on complex suite of multiple genes
Usually behaviour is affected by a ‘defined set of multiple of genes’ (protein interactions)
What are behavioural changes usually associated with?
Behavioral changes are associated with morphological (physical and health) changes
What are the comparisons between dogs and wolves?
Genetic – very similar genetic sequences (genetic code) between dog species and wolves
* Behaviour differences- alterations (mutations) in the ‘regulatory areas’ of the of the genetic code
* Especially alterations in the regulation of the genetic code within the brain
Wolves have more ‘social behaviour’ abilities as compared to domestic dogs and other wild canids (fox, coyotes, jackals)
- it maintains commination, hierarchy and interaction in the wolf pack
What are some basic characteristics of wolf social behaviour?
List 6 out of nine
-
Social play- form some basic characteristics of social life (ie bite play vs dominance- aggression)
- Fairness- part of social play- helps individua animal benefit-survive within the environment (group pack behaviour)
- Communication skills- visual cues- body posture, facial expression and barking
- Communication social hierarchy-established structure and aids in social behaviour stability
- Family groups (pack size and interactions)- influenced by food supply. A division of labour in wolve packs- hunting, progeny rasing and development
-
Monogamy- usually long term (wolf pack), polygamy is uncommon.
- Note: Domestic dogs’ reproductive behaviour is heavily influenced by people (hard to have a natural monogamous mating pair)
- Social bonding- bonding is strong is social animals such as candids (wolves- bonding in pack; domestic dogs- bonding with owner). Postulated bonding between canids stronger that other Non-human primates (chimpanzees)
- Parental care- wolf pack members ‘ helpers’ in raising cubs
- Social learning (long-term)- wolf can stay within the pack indefinitely, as such long term learning for hunting, social interaction, play etc
Personality traits
Definition
Dispositional (ie individual characteristics) that regularly and persistently determine behaviour in many different types of situations’
What are the types of dog personality types?
-
Aggression (well studied)
- Includes object and teritorial agression
- Includes aggresision toward family members, stangers, and unfamiliar dogs
-
Fearfulness (highly studied)
- Fear can stem from: i) non-social stimuli, and ii) non-social stimuli
- Fear response can differ based on breed (ex. inhibition (Shetland sheepdogs) , avoidance (basenjis))
-
Excitability
- expressed- when owner returns home, playing with family or preparing for a trip
-
Socialbility (friendliness)
- Overly friendly to unknown people and dogs
-
Playfulness
- Pet is willing to play games (fetch, tug-of -war) , run and chase with both known and unknown persons
-
Trainability (This is unproven and unlikely)
- ’success in training events’
- Possibly a manifestation of other traits
Types of Human-Dog Communication
- Pointing (gestures) - dogs appear to understand directional point (ie pointing at a chew toy)
-
Looking (facial gestures). Looking at the object ( chew toy, food treat), the dog will move in that direction
-how does facial gestures work?
Note: dogs are better at interpreting gestures from human companions- better than non-human primates -
Words: do dogs truly understand words, or its it changes in frequency and amplitude in the word acoustic (word-commands)
- Some evidence is dogs can understand some select word related to objects and can learn
- Note: the ability to understand words can vary between individual dogs within the same breed and may differ between various breeds
Why was it important for dogs to develop human-dog communication?
- Behavioural aspects and adaptations allowed dogs to become part (of human society and interact (attachment-often co-operatively) with people
- This social interaction requires forms of (‘understandable’) communication between people and dogs
- Animal behavioural communication: both genetics and leaning ability of the animal is required (ie wolf dominance vs submission)
Epigenetics
- 1942 Waddington ‘epigenetics’, which he defined as changes in phenotype without changes in genotype
- ’inheritance of gene expression patterns without altering the underlying DNA sequence but by adapting chromatin’
- DNA methylation, non-coding RNA and Histone modification
- Can have a multigeneration effect
- Potentially can be reversible (Eraser proteins) other mechanisms
Steps of Cat Development
This is a relativly rapid process
Gestation of domestic cat: 63 days average - 3-7 days longer than wild ancestor (Felis sylvestris libyca –African wild cat)
- Eyes remain closed 7-days post parturition
- Visual acuity becomes exellent within 1 month post-delivery (continues to develop until 3 months
- Olfactory, thermal, tactile (main stimulation first 2 weeks)
- Orientation complete capabilities: 4 weeks of age- similar to mature cats
- Complex motor abilities (walking on plank):10-11 weeks after birth
- ‘Body righting in mid air’: complete 6 weeks of age
- Voluntary elimination of waste (no other help); 5-6 weeks of age
Explain the process of cat weaning
Weaning: start week 4 and is finished (generally) by week 7
* Wild cats: mother swill bring wild caught prey to young week 4 and kittens will begin to hunt by week 5
* Weaning: a time period form kittens transition from complete dependence to independent of mother support
* Precise environmental and genetic factors that affect onset of weaning- still unknown
What are the stages in cat behavioural development?
Major changes in behaviour: first 2 months of life
- Condition responses to sound: day 10 post delivery
- ‘Defensive personality’ (ie behavioural responses to challenges by large difficult prey- rodents)- week 4-8
- Mature (adult-like responses) to threatening social stimuli (ie part of social development – visual and olfactory cues) : 8 weeks of age
- ‘Social Play’:
- Begins 4 week of age, declines and stops week 12-14
- Week 5-6 crouching and interacting with objects and other kittens
- Escalates into fight (2-3 month) and can cause injuries
Development of predator behaviour in cats
Even with the differences- Its known that all ‘adults cats become’ excellent predators- regardless of development and up-bringing and training (ie equifinality- in the context of predation)
-
Equifinality- in biological systems (ie living organism)- ‘end of development maybe reached by different staring conditions and developments routes’
- Basicly, even if you raise a cat domestically, it will still develop predator behaviour
- All cats can be great hunters, but other behaviours could different effected by different socialization, different levels cat dominance, different food sources- different environments etc
What two processes is domestic cat communication made of?
The domestic cat is a combination of two process: solitary predation (African wild cat) and domestic socialization (increased human dependency)
Example: cats that are not solidary need to further communicatereduce ‘close quarter’ conflict and interact with people
* Forms of communication: olfactory, auditory, visualization, tactile and often communications is complex interaction of serval or all forms of communication
Name the four common types
Cat Olfactory Communication
Felined olfactory communication can consist of:
1) Urine
- Spraying
- Soil and litterbox
2) Feces
- scent detection- used to determine social information
* Feces can be both buried and unburies; unburied feces is used to provide social information; and buried feces to ‘hide’ form more dominant cat threats
3) Scratching
- claw conditioning & and deposit scent form glands in paws
4) Skin Glands
- ‘Bunting’ – marking scent with head on objects
* ‘Allorubbing’ – unknown cause- may be used to establish social information in groups (ie ‘group odours’); determination of friendly vs hostile cats
Cats often use face to face scent communication, this can help prevent confrontation duing hunting and might be important for reproduction receptivity detection of fematles by mature males
Cat Auditory Communication
Between cats (no human-cat interaction) usually:
* -aggression, reproduction behaviour, mother-kitten interaction
Types of feline auditory communication:
1) Purring: occurs during both inhalation and expiration and is generated but build and release of pressure as glottis -opens and closes vocal cords (generates sound).
- This is controlled by laryngeal muscles under regulation (CNS) neural oscillator (30 msec intervals)- gets contiguous vocalization
- Purring does not always mean ‘pleasure-happy temperament’, can indicate altered behaviour (ie potential aggression)
- Purring has different sounds (ie soliciting from form owners)
2) Miaowing: rare between cat-cat communications
* may be a learned behaviour- to human interaction (ie feeding)
Cat visual communication
Change in appearance (post domestication) has affected visualization communication (different from domesticated canines)
Types:
1) Posture changes + piloerection etc. - will appear to increase size:
cat looks bigger for aggression.
* Cats not wanting confrontation, look smaller, crouch on ground
2) Rolling females: sexual receptivity
3) Tail: mobile structure, used to signal
* between legs- submissive
* tail upright: used for cat colony affiliation (+ve colony membership)
Cat Tactile Communication
Tactile is one of the most important form of communication:
* Allorubbing (rubbing head, tail, flanks),
* Allogrooming (cat licking each other)
* Allogrooming- redirect aggression and assert dominance
* Counterintuitive: more aggressive and dominant cats lick submissive animals more often than the reversal
Cat communication-domestic felids vs wild felids
- Tail up- appears to be important form of communication and likely associated with domestication (ie cat colonies an human interactions).
- Tail up- not seen in wild felines and researchers suggest this the only form of communication associated with domestication
- Note: lions will have tail up on occasion
- Human-cat communication: different forms of meowing has believed to developed from domestication
Differences in the role of urban and rural cats
- Urban setting- cats are companion animals (especially 1-person homes,
usually indoors) - Rural setting- more utilitarian (pest control), owners will still care for cats
Human-cat bonding
1) the brain has the chemical mediators (oxytocin) – this enables all animals to be capable of social interactions.
* The more oxytocin release (ie early socialization with people )- more ‘mesolimbic reward system’ (dopamine sensitive – are involved in ‘desire awarding)
* - social- behaviour network (social behaviour, emotions) -is a component of ‘mesolimbic reward system’
2) Strength of bonding- Do the person and cat feel safe (safer perception stronger bond)
3) What are the interactions – routine- ritual behaviours effects bonding
Factors of human-cat bonding
1) Cat genetics (some cats are more intolerant to handling)- can reduce bonding – important factor
2) Age of socialization: earlier socialization- better bond- important factor.
-Early socialization- important part for empathy development
3) Husbandry practises (ie housing conditions)
Human-cat bonding: Personalities
3 cats personalities have been suggested- and this can effect humacat bonding:
* Note personalities are related also to social development and owner personalities and animal genetics
1) bold, confident, easy going
2) shy nervous (this is the one best suited to companionship)
3) active/aggressive
Inappropriate House Soiling (urination +/- defecation)
Cats
- frequent urination - defecation is a single spot (in the wild-, ‘nature’s
outdoor toilet’) - Localized (ie outdoor) urination-defecation – to keep resting placed clean
- Urban setting: litterbox (should have small amounts of defecation) smells directing proper voiding
- Note: cat smelling ability is far more sensitive than people’s, so it may be virtually impossible to remove detectable smells from cats- this can lead to soiling problems.
Most common cause of urban inappropiate hous soiling = Dirty litterbox (too many solids)
Solutions to Inappropriate House Soiling (urination +/- defecation)
A) Urban
- Clean litterbox- mild unscented detergents
- Clean soiled areas – reduce smells
- Determine which is the litter is the preference for the cat
- Temporarily use litterbox in a confined space
- Multi-cat household: one more box than the total numbers of cats
B) Outdoor-
* Enclosed protection from weather and aggressive animals
* Used covered roof (ie whether protection)
* -Sandbox ( sandy area) easily cleaned (garden hose)
Urine Marking
Cats
Urine marking (spraying)- reflection of marking territory (territory borders)
* frequent urine marking- used to keep ‘territorial scent’ active and strong
* Spraying- most common on vertical objects (walls, furniture) , rarely on horizontal objects
* Mainly male cat problem (10% castrated males vs <5% spayed females)
* intact males (Tomcats) spray more frequently: why
* does castration always work as a treatment in intact males?
Treatment for urine marking
Cats
Castration of intact males (prior to puberty?) – reduce testosterone/androgens – (90% effective?)
* Clean litterbox- reduces making- especially females
* reduces scents: cleaning, use easy to clean (plastic) carpet runners etc),
* use aluminum foil in spraying areas cats don’t like to walk on foil
* cover windows- reduce cat aggression associated urine marking
* cat pheromone sprays
* prescription behavioural modifying medication
* Use individually or in combination
Name the 6 types
Cat Agression
All forms of aggression not as common a behavioural problem as compared to elimination problems
1) Territorial aggression- seen in new cats in a multi-cat home: can have to permanent aggression between cats
* Less common in socialized cats (ie kitten socialization)
* Possible resolution:-keep separated and introduce cats to each other slowly (smell and visual ques) , reducing communal litterbox use
2) Fear-related aggression (displayed to both other cats and people):
* considered defensive aggression, cat has ‘no place to escape’
* Possible resolution:-avoid fear generating events – slow desensitization (+/- medication) allow for an escape
3) Inter-male or inter-cat aggression: (both males and females will fight), but this aggression mainly occurs in intact males
- See in roaming cats
- Castration can eliminate 90% of the problem, best prior to puberty
4) Play-related aggression: playful behaviour (pouncing, scratching biting etc) directed at moving people
- If the owner encourage playful behaviour at young age- can transform into play - related aggression
- Possible resolution- redirect behaviours- toy + string instead of person’s leg, aversion treatment- used spray bottle (water) following aggression
5) Re-directed aggression: highly arouse cat aggressive to bystander (person), Often cat is normally affectionate to owner
* tomcat sees another and will scratch/bit owner
* Possible resolution- avoiding ‘aggressive inducing events’ – don’t allow male cats to look outside the window
6) Pet-evoked aggression. Owner is attacked (ie holding) without provocation, cat can appear anxious prior to the aggression
* Possible resolution- reduce the amount of time holding the cat
Scratching furniture (scratching wrong objects)
Cats
- Natural (nature) feline scratch trees - visual and olfactory cues for territory marking, also removed older claws, for new claw growth
- Cats scratch furniture (natural behaviour)- especially furniture with a similar texture-feel as trees
- Possible resolution– redirect behaviours- furniture to scratching post
- try to have scent (ie smell for damaged furniture) added to post- will
help with the redirection.
- try to have scent (ie smell for damaged furniture) added to post- will
- -rub cats feet on the post- this will transfer scent for secretory glands in the feet to the post- enhancing scent
Eating grass-plants (cats)
Is this a problem?
Eating plants is common and a normal behaviour in wild felids and canids
Speculation: (wild) eating grass may be require to expel intestinal parasites, urban (domestic cats)- assist to expel furball
* Becoming a more common problem in indoor cats
* Speculation: Possible reasons for grass eating in households :
- rebalance intestinal bacterial communities (good gut health?)
- innate behaviour to eat grass (maintained form ancestors)
What are the 3 disciplines of clinical behaviour
Ethology Based - (genetic) adaption of behaviour for the animal in its natural conditions. These are considered ‘innate qualities’ of the animal (hardwired?)
Physiological Based - behaviour is influenced on physiological process (oxytocin release by mother enhance newborn-mother bonding) As such, behaviour problems are secondary to disease or abnormal physiological responses.-
Learning Based - animals (people pets) learn all the time. Learning behaviour can be both ‘good and bad’ behaviour. Behaviour modification can be directed at rewarding good behaviour and discouraging bad behaviour
Illness Model
Behaviour modification
Honestly, it makes no sense to me, but its not a very good theory anyway.
Potential problem with the illness model (abnormal behaviour is a disease) for the cause problem behaviours in animals- treatments (ie drug therapy) may not be a long-lasting or permanent- solution treatment. The pets may revert back to ‘problematic behaviour’ over time
Flooding
Habituation
Desensitization stimuli provided repeatedly at full amount (strength) is known as flooding.
Flooding works in neonates
Systemmatic Desensitization
Gradual habituation is known as systematic desensitization.
Systematic desensitization works for adult animals
* note- its particularly difficult to habituate adult cats- so don’t try
* Note: habituation to work and remain active (ie maintenance) - requires parodic exposure to stimuli- if not habitation to the stimuli will dimmish and can fail
Appetitive vs Aversive Stimuli
1) Appetitive (pleasant)
2) Aversive (unpleasant)
Interactive punishment
pet associates unpleasant stimuli with pet owner
* This often invokes agression adn defensiveness
Also list the 5 ways it works best
Remote Punishment
Remote punishment: no association between punishment stimuli and owner
-most effective type of punishment
-cat be useful in cats
Personally I think its still unethical, but its in the required content for this class
Works best if:
i) Have an alternate area for behaviour (not digging in flower bed- but digging in a designated area)
ii) Try other techniques to mitigate behaviour (ie castration reduces androgens and potential hormonal drive of aggression)
iii) Consistent punishment for very mis-behavioural event
iv) Punish immediately (within seconds) after behaviour
v) Try to limit the ability to misbehave. Less access to flower beds- so this would reduce digging
Examples:
* Electric shock collars (remote activated)- important to protect against life hazardous event (chasing cars) and is better than drug therapy for treating
acral lick dermatitis/granuloma
* Citronella spry collar- remove activated –release citronella
* Bark activated collar (electric or citronella)- sensor feels vibration of the vocal cords and releases response. Advantage- owner doesn’t have to see
the behaviour to activate the response
* Up-side down loaded mouse traps – ie digging dog garden or cat in flower pots- touch’s trap- it springs closed (but safe- upside-down trap) and loud noise is an adverse stimuli. Can use multiple traps in the same area- very
oad noise
* ‘Snappy trainer- ‘ commercial product
Extinction
Learning
Condition stimulus (clicker) is to provided over many occasion (repeated exposure of the condition stimulus) without followed involuntary response (unconditioned stimulus; meat)
* Ex: Condition stimulus (box with dog treats)- Unconditioned stimulus (treats) but no longer giving dog treat in the box- no response (wagging tail, salivates). The association is eventually lost.
* Extinction therapy of classical adverse conditions ( fear + anxiety)- hard to
accomplish. These emotions maybe critical for survival of the candid within the wild (biologically important emotions)
* Systemic Desensitization (gradual increasing levels of anxiety provoking stimuli)- similar to habituation- can also used for to modify adverse classical conditioning
Counter Conditioning
Establishing and new (positive – appetitive) conditioned response that is mutually exclusive (not compatible) with the unwanted behavioural response
* Used in conjunction with systematic desensitization
* ‘the aversion response (loud noises) is reduced by also linking the aversion response to a condition positive response (treat)’
* The positive response (treat) may overtime replace and as such eliminate the negative (aversion, loud noises) response
* Can treat: fear and anxiety, dominant aggression
Medication assisted desensitization
- Anti-anxiety medication used in conjunction with desensitization process.
- Although effective as an individual (medical) treatment- medical treatment works best: medication + systematic (non-drug therapy; counterconditioning) desensitization program
Often employed when:
* behavioural systematic desensitization is ineffective
* Owners (work, life) schedule limits the proper gradient stimulus treatment
* Allows for more flexibility to desensitization program
* Aberrant (hyper-reaction) reaction to aversion stimulus by the animal
* Inability to prevent exposure to aversion stimulus
Treatment: anxiety and fear provoking behavioral problems- especially beneficial for separation anxiety
List some “normal” dog behaviour problems
- aggression (people and dogs)
- anxieties (ie separation anxiety)
- Excessive barking, excessive activity (ie furniture destruction)
- roaming
- inappropriate urination/defecation
- inappropriate attention
- sexual and maternal behaviours
List some normal cat behavioural problems
- inappropriate urination/defecation
- scratching
- aggression (people and cats)
- sexual and maternal behaviours
- feeding and predatory behaviours
What makes a behavioural problem “non-normal”?
No adaptive or functional value for the animal’:
- Repetitive, Compulsive and Stereotypic (stereotypies) behaviour
- (ie pacing of zoo animals, pet)
Highly repetitive movements/behaviours without function
* Its suggested that stereotypies are coping mechanisms- are manifestation of environmental stress, boredom, isolation, condiment, overcrowding (livestock)
Repetitive, Compulsive and Stereotypic Behaviour (OCD)
Repetitive and stereotypic behaviours in pets- similar to compulsive disorders in people
* People compulsive disorder linked to obsessions.
* Obsessions: (ideas, thoughts, beliefs, visual cues) that induce anxiety
* Compulsions (frequent hand washing, multiple locks closures) are used to reduce- eliminate obsessions
* Term: Obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD).
* Compulsions are pathological if alters function of ‘normal’ living
Compulsive and Stereotypic Behaviour-pets
1) Stereotypic: repetitive behavioural cats
2) Compulsive: internal drive to preform behaviour acts with not innate function or link to ancestral acts need for survival and to fitness (food, reproduction, fear-flight)
* There is genetic predisposing for compulsive- stereotypic behaviours in breeds of dogs
* Could be neurotransmitter deficiencies- this is unknown
* But medical therapies to improve the CNS (brain) balance of neurotransmitters (ie serotonin) appears to improve abnormal behaviour
Acral Lick Dermatitis: Dogs
Acral Lick Granuloma (old term):Dogs
- Dog licks excessively:
- Location: Carpus > tarsus»_space; other body regions
- Moisture leads to wound
These dogs will lick right to the bone
Compulsive-Stereotypic Behaviours: Cats
Some compulsive- stereotypic behaviours maty have a link to natural behaviours, but the marked manifestation of the behaviour becomes profoundly abnormal and as such are considered compulsive- stereotypic behaviours
1) Wool Chewing and Wool Ingestion (pica, Siamese and Burmese cats)
* Get destruction of owners clothing
* Appears near puberty
* Unproven- buts some consider it associated with early weaning of kittens
* Note: Pica- ingestion of material that has no nutritional value or benefit to the animal
2) Excessive grooming (psychogenic alopecia, no breed predisposition)
* Grooming is an important part of the cat behaviour (8% of awake time) is directed to grooming (may keep fur parasite free)
* Unknown- overaction of behaviour directed towards dermatitis (allergy; flea etc), or a completely abnormal behaviour toward some other stimulus
* Licking and biting of large areas of fur
