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
Marking territory
- Squat frequently
- RLU at numerous sites
- Small volume of urine
- Males - vertical surfaces
- Sometimes, no production of urine
Over-marking
- Urinate over another dog’s scent
- Common in groups of females
- Males will over mark if they detect urine
Backward scratching
- Sends visual signal
- Spreads scent
- Leave scent from glands in foot
Fecal
- Importance not known
- Wolves - use to mark territory
- Doesn’t appear to have the same meaning in domestic dog
Glandular
- Anal sac secretions
- Discharged during defecation
- Contribute pheromones to feces
- Highly individual
- Age, sex, identity
- Wolves - indication that amount of secretion voluntary
- Alpha males secrete highest amounts
Visual
- Eye contact, body posture, and facial expressions
- Often interpreted by owners to mean similar to human versions
~ Sometimes appropriate
~ Sometimes little to no correlation
Canine vision
- Poor compared to humans
- See grays with muted reds and greens
- Better peripheral vision
- See moving objects better than stationary
- Better night vision
~ Not as good as cats
Eye contact
- Dominant stare
- Dominant animals initiate
~ Subordinate will avert gaze first - Occurs when dogs meet for the first time, adults and puppies
- Minimizes chance of aggression
~ What happens if no one averts eyes?
–> aggression will escalate - Friendly eye contact common
- Usually between members of a social group
~ Established groups rarely use dominant eye contact - Greeting, play, social grooming. attention seeking
Ears and mouth
- Alert/dominant –> forward and erect
- Submissive –> laid back against head
- Snarl –> displays of dominance and aggression
- Submissive grin
Body Postures
Dominant
- Makes appear larger in size
- Stand on toes
- Head held high
- Elevated tail
- Tail wagging
- Piloerection
- Forepaw on shoulder of another dog
Submissive
- Body appears smaller
Active
- Crouches low
- Tucks tail
- Attempt to lick face of dominant dog
- Raise a paw
Passive
- Lie down
- Partially on back
- Tail tucked
- Turn head away
- Avoid eye contact
- Dribble urine
Defensive aggression
- Fearful, threatened
- Fear-biting may occur
- Slightly lowered body, raised hackles, growl or snarl
- Insecure and defensive
Play bow
- Inviting another to play
- Paw with front feet
- Play grin
- Open mouth panting
Tail wag
- Contextual
- Position of tail
Auditory cues
- Grunts
~ Greeting, contentment
- Growls
~ Defensive or offensive aggression
- Whines
~ Signals hunger, discomfort, loneliness
- Barks
~ Repetitive barking only done by dogs
~ Selected for as signal
~ Defense of territory, play, isolated, attention-seeking
- Howls
~ Wolves howl frequently
~ Dogs rarely howl
~ Generally sign of isolation
~ Response to environmental soundsWhat is training?
- General behavior training
- Obedience training
- Activity training
What is learning?
- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning
What makes training work?
Consistency, repetition, patience, trust/ relationship building, reinforcers (positive), being able to read behavior cues
When does training fail?
Improper use of training tools, period of training (too long), anger/ aggression
Training cues
- Body language of trainer
- Voice intonation
- Coordination
- Animal’s body language
Training
- Owner and dog both learn
- Often failed training methods escalate into more aggressive training methods
- Harsh training methods vs. reward systems of training
Rewards and corrections
examples: treats, verbal praise, toys, pets
- When do they work? Timing (have to follow immediately after), intensity
Training methods and Techniques
- After-the-fact discipline
- Lure training
- Clicker training
- Play training
- Koehler method
- Target training
- Eclectic training
Lure/ reward training
- Reward vs. lure vs. bribe
reward: comes after the appropriate behavior
lure: increases animals interest in performing task, offered before behavior is elicited
bribe: not training, want to switch things (treat for shoe)
reward = positive reinforces
primary reward: item inherently rewarding
secondary reward: animal learns it is a reward
correction = punishment
Timing: is really important
- rewards need to occur within a few seconds of performing behavior
- Lure shown to the dog before performing
Intensity
- Should match degree of difficulty
- Should decrease with increased training
- Dependent on dog’s perception of intensity
- Affected by frequency of use
Variety
- More variety will increase response
- Don’t know what to expect
- Use a variety of senses if possible
Frequency of scheduling
- Rewards for every task
- Random rewarding
- Changes in frequency as animal learns tasks
Chaining
Starting to link multiple steps together
Clicker/ whistle training
- Developed in 1950s by psychologist
- Click and treat
- Used in all different species of animals
~ zoo animals, dogs, cats, horses
Train dolphins to jump through hoop
- Inadvertently swim thorough underwater first
- Test different methods
- Slowly raise hoop
- Can train complex tasks in stages
~chaining - linking several behaviors together to create one complex behavior
~shaping - rewarding small parts until they get to main behavior
Pros and cons of clicker training
- No punishment
- Complex behaviors trained
- Can wear off clicker
- Must be used correctly
- Consistency important
Koehler method
- Developed by William Koehler in the 1940s
- Uses leash/collar corrections
- Verbal praise, NOT treats
- Goal: off-leash work in 10-13 week course
Training/corrective collars
- Corrections: combination of pinch and noise
- Different varieties available
- Obedience training usually associated with vocal praise
- Collar used in obedience shows
- Should not be used on dogs under 6 mo.
- Should not be left on dog when not training or working with animal
Issues with training collars?
Improper placement, not actually training
What if your dog is timid?
Use can depend on dog’s personality
–> could lead to submissive/fear-biting
Target training
-Animal learns to touch a target and follow it
- Common with zoo animals
- Expanded to other companion animals as well
- Target stick, laser pointer, etc
- Generally implemented to get animal to go to a certain location
~ Return to handler
~ Go into cage
~ Get on a scale
~ Stand still for exam
Training tools
- “Training” collars
- Head halters
- Treats
- Clickers/ whistles
- Spurs
- Bits
- Crop
Head halter
- Halti and Gentle leader
- Strap applies pressure to nose and top of neck (vs trachea)
- Natural sign of authority
Pros and cons of head halters
- Hard to over-correct
- Doesn’t require much strength
- Less owner training
- Won’t work with some breeds
- Must start early
- Some dogs will try to remove
- “Is that a muzzle?”
Which method is best?
- Personal preference
- Owner knowledge
- Animal’s temperament
- Age of animal
Domestication of the dog
- First domesticated animal
~ about 10,000 years ago - Role was to aid human in work and sport
- “Selective breeding” programs documented between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago
- Romans selected animals to bread for capability to perform herding sport
- House dogs owned by rich & powerful
Dog breeds
- Currently 370-400 breeds of dogs
- AKC recognized 154
- 55% of dogs are purebred in US
- Top 20 breeds make up 70% of dogs
~ Lab: 16%
~ Golden retriever: 6%
~ Beagle: 5%
~ German shepherd: 5%
~ Duchsund/ yorkie: 4% each
Influences on behavior
- Genetics
- Environment
Selective breeding
- Changed appearance
- Specific behaviors selected for include:
~ Aggression (lowered)
~ Trainability (increased)
~ Reactivity (lowered)
Genetic controls of behavior
- No genes linked to species-specific behaviors
- Genetics influences development, relative threshold for stimuli, and intensity of response
- Behaviors inherited and instinctual in raw form
~ learning influences appearance of behaviors
Physical differences between breeds
- Genetics influences physical characteristics
~ Physical traits influence some behavior patterns - Must have the physical capacity to perform behavior
- Dog unique in physical variation between breeds
Breed variation
- Irish wolfhound vs chihuahua
- Greyhound vs. Basset hound
Physical traits affect communication
- Affect ability to send species-specific communications
- Communication tools:
~ Body posture
~ Tail
~ Facial expressions
~ Eye contact
Examples of physical traits that affect communication
- Thick coat
- Ears low on head with pendulous pinnae
- Curled tails, docked tails
- Cropped ears
- Excess skin folds on face
Inheritance of Temperament
- Genetics affect:
~ Reactivity
~ Trainability
~ Ability to learn from environment
Genetic Basis of Temperament
- Landmark study compared:
~ Basenjis
~ Beagles
~ Cocker spaniels
~ Shetland Sheepdogs
~ Wire-haired fox terriersEmotional Reactivity
Measured:
- Body posture
- Tail posture
- Tremors
- Investigation
- Escape behavior
- Heart rate
- Lip licking
- Vocalizations
- Panting
- Tail wagging
- Resistance to forced movement
- Biting
- Elimination
Reactivity Differences Between Breeds
- Basenjis, Beagles, and terriers had highest reactivity
~ Terriers –> high levels of tremors
~ Basenjis –> high levels of lip-licking
~ Beagles –> High levels of vocalizations
Trainability experiments
Included:
- Training dogs to remain quiet while on a scale
- Walk on leash
- Punishment
Trainability difference by breed
Demerits for leash training varied by breed
- Basenjis fought with leash
- Sheepdogs interfered with handler
- Beagles vocalized
- With increased training number of demerits decreases
- Cocker spaniels easier to train
Genetics of Trainability
- Breeding program for training of guide dogs and service dogs
- Upon selection of successful dogs for breeding
~ success rate increased from 30 to 60%
Heritability of traits
- Nervousness in guide dogs:
~ Between 0.47 - 0.58 - Sound and body sensitivity most highly heritable traits in dogs selected
Temperament inheritance
- Selection for nervous pointers resulted in dogs that were hesitant to explore new areas
~ Froze at novel sounds
~ Avoided contact with humans - Non-fearful line didn’t change traits
- Socialization had minimal effects
- May be due to differences in neurochemicals
- Livestock guarding dogs –> lower levels of dopamine compared to: herding and sled dogs
Inheritance of aggression
- High interest
- Limited amount of information available
- German shepherd dogs high territorial and nervous aggression
- Cocker spaniels –> low aggression threshold
Spaniels and aggression
- Cocker spaniel, English cocker spaniel, and English springer spaniel
- High incidence of “rage syndrome”
- Most common in blonde cocker spaniels
- May be a form of social dominance within the breed
General temperament by breed group
- Some behavior traits are breed-related
~ excitability
~ General activity level
~ Tendency to snap at children
~ Excessive barking
- Some are not
~ Ease of housebreaking
~ Destructiveness
~ Demand for affection
Spitz type dogs
Breeds: Siberian husky, Alaskan malamute, Samoyed, Norwegian elkhound
- Work in groups
- Minimal hierarchical behaviors
- Independent
- Low to moderate trainability, aggression, reactivity
Mastiffs
Breeds: Mastiff. St. Bernard, Boxer
- Protection and guard dogs
- Territorial, dominant
- High reactivity, moderate to high aggression
- Bond strongly to one owner or family
- Highly trainable
Sight Hounds
Breeds: greyhound, Saluki, Afghan hound, whippet
- Speed
- Grabbing and killing bite
- Independent
- Silent
- Can be gentle and quiet when not working
Scent Hounds
Breeds: bloodhound, basset hound, beagle, otterhound
- Endurance vs speed
- Low level of reactivity
- Low aggression
- Low to moderately trainable
- High amount of vocalization (howl)
Terrier
Breeds: Manchester, Cairn, Border, Norfolk, Fox, Airedale, Bedlington
- Find/kill small rodents/pests
- Worked with little to no direction from handler
- Low to medium trainability
- High reactivity
- High aggression - inter-dog and predatory
Gundogs/ Hunting
Breeds: Pointers, setters, retrievers, spaniels
- Indicate and retrieve
- Highly trainable, reactive, and now aggression
- Hunting eagerness heritable
- Grabbing bite, but not killing bite
Livestock Herding
Breeds: Shepherd, border collie, corgi, collie
- Form predatory behavior, but grabbing and killing bite inhibited
- If nip or bite, should not be selected for breeding
- Highly trainable
- Strong bond with human caretaker
- Highly reactive
Livestock Guarding
Breeds: Komodor, Great Pyrenees
- Imposing size and presence
- Show little to no predatory behavior
- Low to moderate reactivity
- Low trainability
- Moderate aggression
Toy
Breeds: chihuahua, pomeranian, Maltese
- Developed strictly as companions
- Some retain traits of larger breed
- More subordinate
- Bond strongly to humans
- Puppy-like behaviors throughout life
- High trainability
What are calming signals? What is their purpose in nature?
They are signals used to keep the peace and quiet. Their purpose is to avoid conflict
What would it be beneficial for dogs to have multiple calming signals?
So many different breeds of dogs could display them and apply to many different situations that other dogs would understand
Calming Signal Examples
- Looking away
- Turning away
- Yawning
- Licking
- Slow movements
- Sitting + lying down
- Sniffing
- Curving
- Play bow
- Marking
- Splitting up
- Doing something else
- Lifting paw
- Wagging tail
- Barking
- Handling
