T3: Canine Behavioral Disorders Flashcards
What are common canine behavioral disorders?
- based on clinical diagnosis
- fears, anxieties, and phobia-related disorders
- compulsive disorders
- elimination disorders
- aggression problems
- miscellaneous problems
What is fear?
the apprehension of a stimulus; object of the event
What are the 4 Fs?
fight, flight, freeze, fiddle about
What is anxiety?
the apprehension anticipation of a threat
For the anxious dog…
no threat is present, and anxiety is under the control of stimuli that are not the main object of attention
What are two common fear and anxiety/phobia-related disorders?
- separation anxiety
-phobia
What is a phobia?
irrational fear that is out of proportion to the actual level of threat (human psychiatry)
What are some examples of phobias?
- phobic fear is “all or nothing”
- Escape or avoidance reaction
- Phobia fear persists long after the actual threat has gone
- noise phobia
- thunderstorm phobia
- fireworks phobia
What are obsessive-compulsive disorders?
- Ritualized behaviors the animal feels compelled to perform
- often arise in situations of frustration or conflict but become compulsive when they persist or arise outside the original context
What is a predisposition of OCD ?
genetic predisposition: wool sucking in oriental breeds of cats, tail chasing in german shepherds, flank sucking in Dobermans
What are the behaviors of OCD?
circling, tail-chasing, spinning, freezing, repetitive pouncing, fly-snapping
Where do we see alteration in serotonergic activity?
in dogs and cats, plus multiple neurotransmitters (obsessive compulsive disorders)
What brain areas does OCD target?
the prefontal cortex and amygdala
What are the medical factors contributing to compulsive disorders?
Impaired perception/mobility
painful conditions
anxiety
sensory loss/neurological abnormality
metabolic diseases
cognitive impairment
What are examples of canine elimination disorders?
incomplete house-training
emotionally related urination
submissive urination
scent marking
incontinence
What are some forms of canine aggression?
Dominance aggression
fear-related aggression
redirected aggression
possessive aggression
what are two factors that can lead to dog aggression?
social conflict and fear
What are the three motivations for dog aggression?
- competition: to gain an immediate share of resources
- self-defense
- Defense of resources: that are already held by the individual of group or territory
A dominant animal does what?
protects the cohesion of the social group by inhibiting aggression by other members of the pack
How is aggression against both dogs and humans triggered?
when the dog feels that it is being challenged by a subordinate
Typical behavioral sequence:
intimidation, attack, appeasement
The appeasement phase is the same when the adversary is a human..
sometimes the dog may lick a limb it has bitten when the human present it, which leas the human to wrongly suppose that the dog is somehow expressing contrition
Describe the status-related aggression.
immediate action: stop confrontation
prevention: control the resources the dogs need. signs that play is over
