T3: Canine Behavioral Disorders

Question 1

What are common canine behavioral disorders?

Answer 1

• based on clinical diagnosis
• fears, anxieties, and phobia-related disorders
• compulsive disorders
• elimination disorders
• aggression problems
• miscellaneous problems

Question 1

What is fear?

Answer 1

the apprehension of a stimulus; object of the event

Question 2

What are the 4 Fs?

Answer 2

fight, flight, freeze, fiddle about

Question 3

What is anxiety?

Answer 3

the apprehension anticipation of a threat

Question 4

For the anxious dog…

Answer 4

no threat is present, and anxiety is under the control of stimuli that are not the main object of attention

Question 5

What are two common fear and anxiety/phobia-related disorders?

Answer 5

• separation anxiety
  -phobia

Question 6

What is a phobia?

Answer 6

irrational fear that is out of proportion to the actual level of threat (human psychiatry)

Question 7

What are some examples of phobias?

Answer 7

• 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

Question 8

What are obsessive-compulsive disorders?

Answer 8

• 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

Question 9

What is a predisposition of OCD ?

Answer 9

genetic predisposition: wool sucking in oriental breeds of cats, tail chasing in german shepherds, flank sucking in Dobermans

Question 10

What are the behaviors of OCD?

Answer 10

circling, tail-chasing, spinning, freezing, repetitive pouncing, fly-snapping

Question 11

Where do we see alteration in serotonergic activity?

Answer 11

in dogs and cats, plus multiple neurotransmitters (obsessive compulsive disorders)

Question 12

What brain areas does OCD target?

Answer 12

the prefontal cortex and amygdala

Question 13

What are the medical factors contributing to compulsive disorders?

Answer 13

Impaired perception/mobility
painful conditions
anxiety
sensory loss/neurological abnormality
metabolic diseases
cognitive impairment

Question 14

What are examples of canine elimination disorders?

Answer 14

incomplete house-training
emotionally related urination
submissive urination
scent marking
incontinence

Question 15

What are some forms of canine aggression?

Answer 15

Dominance aggression
fear-related aggression
redirected aggression
possessive aggression

Question 16

what are two factors that can lead to dog aggression?

Answer 16

social conflict and fear

Question 17

What are the three motivations for dog aggression?

Answer 17

1. competition: to gain an immediate share of resources
2. self-defense
3. Defense of resources: that are already held by the individual of group or territory

Question 18

A dominant animal does what?

Answer 18

protects the cohesion of the social group by inhibiting aggression by other members of the pack

Question 19

How is aggression against both dogs and humans triggered?

Answer 19

when the dog feels that it is being challenged by a subordinate

Question 20

Typical behavioral sequence:

Answer 20

intimidation, attack, appeasement

Question 21

The appeasement phase is the same when the adversary is a human..

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Describe the status-related aggression.

Answer 22

immediate action: stop confrontation
prevention: control the resources the dogs need. signs that play is over