Dog Behavior (Unit 2) Flashcards
When does a pregnant dog have changes in behavior?
Changes in behavior occur close to whelping
– want to find safe place to nest
What happens when pup is born
- Mother licks, removes birth sac
- Cuts cord
- Aids it to suckle
What are the 4 stages of development?
- Neonatal period
- Transitional period
- Socialization period
- Juvenile period
Neonatal period
- Birth to 14 days old
- Altricial –> dependant on parental care
- Unable to regulate body temperature
- Primary behavior goals: acquire food, warmth, and maternal care
Neonatal dogs
- Require tactile stimulation for urination and defecation
- Well developed olfactory and tactile systems
- Poor hearing and eyes closed
Mother dog behaviors
- Licks young
- Stimulates urination and defecation
- Cleans up messes
- Nurses them
- Carries them
- Influence of hormones: Prolactin –> stimulates flow of milk, increases mothering behaviors
Neonatal dog innate behaviors
- Rooting reflex: searching to find teat to suckle on
- Triggered by maternal licking
- Enables puppies to locate teat
- Develop nipple preference
Neonatal dog behaviors
- Vocalizations limited to distress calls
- Accompanied by increased activity
- Rapid growth occurs
- Behaviors don’t change much in the first 2 weeks
- Dependant on mother
- Learning abilities limited
- Early handling may be beneficial
Long term effects on behavior:
- Accelerated maturation of the nervous system, increased growth rate. enhanced development of motor skills, and problem-solving abilities
Transitional period
- 14 - 21 days
- Rapid physiological changes
- Deciduous teeth erupt –> 20 days
- Maturation of sensory organs
~ open eyes 12-14 days
~ About 19-21 d, ear canals open - Behaviors begin to transition neonatal to adult
- Stand to walk
- Tail wagging
- No longer need stimulation for urination and defecation
Mother dog behaviors (transitional period)
- As puppied age, mom begins to provide food
- Vomit/ chew up food
- Even males in wild will do this –> as will older offspring
What happens during transitional period?
- Social behaviors start to emerge
- Capable of learning
~ Rate of learning reaches adult level at 4-5 weeks - Begin introducing new toys, objects
- Expose to normal household sounds, sights, smells, handle, pet, brush
Primary Socialization
- 3-12 weeks
- Most important period of social development
- Very rapid behavioral changes
- Maturation of central nervous system
Mother dog behaviors (primary socialization period)
- At 5 weeks, mother begins to prevent suckling
- May growl or snap at young
~ Pups may roll over onto back when happens - Start to learn that they don’t need to suckle
Primary socialization milestones
- Puppies become highly responsive to stimuli
- Increased opportunities to learn
- Form attachments to other animals, people
Importance of socialization
- Development of species-specific social behavior
- Dog social to its own species and humans
- Prevent development of inappropriate behaviors
Changes during primary socialization
- Rapid increase in activity
~ more complex behavior
- Play becomes more complex
- Facial expressions and aggressive vocalizations appear at 5 weeks
- Social structures begin to developXenophobia
Definition: fear of new things
- Approach and investigate novel stimuli
- Until about 5 weeks of age
- Starting at 5 weeks, puppies become more wary of new things
- Fits with natural development in wild
Development of species-specific behaviors
- Learn from mother
- Mother will discipline if too rough or aggressive
- Teaches puppies how to read dominant signals
Weaning process
- Start at 3-4 weeks
- Completed by 7-9 weeks
- Mother will do by:
~ increased periods away from litter
Moving to new homes
- Usually 8-9 weeks
- Too early: more fearful, don’t know how to interact with humans
- Too late: more fearful, less trainable
- Socialization with humans is important
Socialization to humans
- Should occur between 5 and 12 weeks
- After 14 weeks, show fear, untrainable
- Shift social attachments
- Introduce dog to new housemates, other people
Fear imprint period
- Highest level of curiosity: 3-5 weeks
- 8-10 weeks, “fear imprint” period
- Uncertainty and decreased confidence
- Genetics and early socialization will affect
Socialization procedures
- Provide a variety of experiences
- At 3 weeks, provide with sights, sounds of household
- More varied at 7-9 weeks
- Continue up to 4 months of age and beyond
Ways to socialize puppies
Vet clinic Children Cars Other pets Weather Walking on leash Different flooring/ textures Loud noises Vacuum Variety in people Fire alarm/ emergency vehicles Grooming/ trimming toenails
~ anything really you want them to reacts well as an adult to
Juvinile period
- 12 weeks to sexual maturity
- Refine existing capabilities, increase coordination
- Attention span increases
- Permanent teeth begin to erupt
~ Complete by 6 mo. - Sexual behaviors develop
~ Between 6 and 16 months - Social behaviors develop until 18 mo.
~ Increase in urine marking, aggression, roaming. mounting behaviors
Feeding:
Motivation
To eat:
- empty stomach
- Glucose levels
- Odor
- Taste food
- Sight of food
To stop eating:
- Stomach fills
- Satiated
- Glucose increases
- Hormone signals
Feeding behaviors
Appetitive:
Consumptive:
food- searching
Eating
- Proportion spend on each depends on the abundance of food and social situation
Times of peak activity
Nocturnal
Crepuscular
Diurnal
- Rats, reptiles
- Rabbits, guinea pigs
- Pigs, dogs, cats, most birds
Wild dogs (wolf)
- Predatory
~ Ungulates, hares, rabbits, rodents
- Hunts in packs
- Weaken prey by repeated biting
- Also consume berries and fruits
- Intermittent periods of eating
- Long periods of time without food
- After a kill,
~ Eat rapidly
~ Social competition
~ Store excess after large kill –> “scarf and barf”
Vomiting after eating in dogs
- Vomit more readily than humans
- Typical feeding behavior of gulping down food then regurgitating indigestible bones, fur, etc.
- In the wild, the most important thing is to get as much of the kill as possible
What does this tell us about the feeding patterns in dogs?
- Ad lib vs. meal feeding
- Rapid eating pattern
- Social competition
- Hiding food
- Eat during day
Free choice
- Surplus of food available at all times
- Animal must self-regulate
- Dry food preferred
Advantages: eat throughout day, dog relies on internal cues, easy for humans –> requires least effort
Disadvantages: overeating (risk of obesity), food could spoil, habituation, owner can’t monitor food intake
Time controlled
- Excess of food provided
- Allowed to eat for a set amount of time
Advantages: can monitor food intake better, establishes schedules, owner establishes dominance, can limit amount of time eating
Disadvantages: can cause them to vomit from eating too fast, may not always eat in the time allowed, resource guarding
Portion controlled
- Provide a specific portion size
- Can be at one time or several meals per day
Advantages: Can control exact intake, can feel based on calorie needs to prevent obesity, catch changes in eating intake, set routine
Disadvantages: could accidentally underfeed/ overfeed, most owner knowledge/ effort required
Eating disorders
- Check to see if animal is eating
- Anorexia is common sign of illness
- During immune response, appetite suppressed
- Other causes of decreased appetite: stress
Seperation Anxiety
- Common cause of poor appetite
- Animal doesn’t eat while owner is away
- Could be during the day if boarded during trips
- Increased appetite when owner returns
- Will a dog starve himself if owner away too long?
Overeating
- Palatability ~ food tastes good
~ Own food
~ Human food
- Boredom
- Inactivity
- Disease
~Thyroid, overactive adrenal glands, heart or liver failure (very small %)Food guarding behaviors
- Some dogs guard their food from other dogs or humans
- What feeding regimen should you use? It depends on how individual dog displays their food guarding behavior
- How should you deal with this?
- Dog feels human or other dog may steal food
- Have to teach them that you are a food “giver,” not taker
Pica
Why does it happen?
Treatment:
- Eating non food items
~ Cords, furniture, wool, string, etc.
- Can be very dangerous
~ GI obstruction
~ Eat something toxic
Boredom. anxiety, curiosity, don’t have access to toys, inappropriate diet
- Remove items/ make aversive
- Give more structured play
- Change diet
- Proved appropriate item to chew on
Wolf social structure
- Social structure
- Pack
- Small group related individuals
- Work together to raise young, scavenge and hunt for food, protect den and territory
- Important that pack work together to obtain goals
- Social ranking
- Single-sex hierarchies
- Cross-sex dominance relationships
- Dominant male and female
- Mature animals
- Maintain pack order and security
- Demonstrate dominant body postures
- Preferred sleeping areas
- Initiate pack activities
- Eat first
Domestic dog
- During domestication, selection occurred for most trainable, dependent animals
- Neotenized wolf
- Results in animals that are more subordinate by nature
- Social hierarchy in dogs not the same as wolves
Dominance and submission
- Dominance
- Target of least amount of aggressive threats
- Initiates aggression
- Offers few submissive postures to others
- Evokes submissive displays from others
Domestic dog social structure
- Need to live in secure, orderly social group
- Consists of human caretakers, other pets
- Dominant dogs:
~ Display dominant body postures
~ Steal food, toys
~ Best sleeping/ resting areas
~ Initiate social activities and play
~ Compete for owners attention
Characteristics of dominant temperament
- Highly exploratory
- Inquisitive
- Gain possession of food, toys
- Control play with other puppies
Characteristics of a subordinate temperament
- Avoid competing for resources
- Relinquish food, toys, sleeping areas
- Followers
- Dominance challenges non-existance
- Training focuses on establishing good habits vs. establishing leadership
Communication
- Primarily: olfactory, visual, auditory
- Communication appearance is universal across dog breeds, sizes, coats
- Often subtle
- Human’s can’t reproduce the subtle cues and dogs can’t understand
Olfaction
- Urine, feces, glands (anal gland)
- Benefits to olfactory signals: last for much longer after individual is there
- Sniffing part of normal greeting behavior
- Convey information about gender, territory, reproductive status, identity of animals
Dog’s olfactory system
- More olfactory cells found in nose
~ 150-250 million vs. 5 million - 15 times the number of cilia
- Specialized folded mucus membranes to increase surface area
- 40 times more cells in olfactory center of brain
- Able to remember a variety of odors
Urine
- Identify individuals and mark territory
- Raised leg urination (RLU):
- Wolf - done more by
- Deters others from entering territory
- All intact domestic dogs
- Females in estrus
- Associated with sexual maturity
