OVC Companion Animal Behaviour and Welfare Lab
50 Stone Road E N1G2W1 Guelph, ON, Canada

Benefits for humans participating in animal-assisted therapy have been long documented; however, welfare considerations for the animals involved have not been as thoroughly looked into. This new article by Winkle and colleagues reviews the current state of animal-assisted intervention as well as the risks associated with not protecting the dogs’ welfare. It is free to download from the link below if you are interested! ... https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/11/2188

What are the five freedoms in the context of animal welfare and how can these principles be applied to the furry friend you have at home? Are these freedoms enough to ensure good welfare? Read all about these ideas in Dr. Zazie Todd's newest post! https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com//what-are-five-f

Owners often describe behaviours in puppies they believe to be problematic. These behaviours often lead to compromised welfare, relinquisent and in extreme cases, euthanasia, for the dog. A collaborative study out of the UK, a group of researchers set out to identify the type of problem behaviours reported by owners in dogs aged 6 and 9-months, and identify whether and how owners sought help for the undesired behaviours. The study also investigted the potential risk factors f...or the reported problem behaviours in 9-months old dogs as well as risk factors for behaviours reported to occur but not recorded as problematic by owners. The study found that 31% and 35% of owners of 6-month and 9-month old puppies reported behaviour(s) they found to be problematic. Owners reported they most often sought help from dog trainers, and online sources. The most commonly reported problem behaviours at both ages were pulling on the lead, jumping up at people and poor recall. Owners who were employed/self-employed/students, owners who reported using positive reinforcement only, owners who had not attended puppy class, and owners of small dogs had increased odds of not reporting a behaviour to be problematic despite evidence of the behaviour having been observed. You can read the full article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com//artic/pii/S0168159120302355

A recent study published in Scientific Reports aimed to identify how dog personalities changed over their life span at the individual and group levels. These researchers tested the dogs personality 4-years apart using the "Vienna Dog Personality Test". This test is composed of 15 short sub-tests, which can be found in the article below. They found that particular personality traits of dogs in this study changed over time, and it was dependent on the trait. For example, seeki...ng novel objects did not change until the dogs were middle aged, and then showed a steady decrease at that point. Researchers noted that these findings may only be specific to the breed assessed in this study (Border Collie) and findings may not be generalizable to all dog breeds. To learn more, check out the full, open access article below! https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-74310-7

Rabbits appear to have personality traits that are stable over time. Exploration, Boldness related to human approach, and Curiosity were traits reflected in a suite of behaviour tests conducted on stable populations of adult, neutered rabbits at 4 teaching facilities in the UK. Understanding rabbit personality and behaviour is important because many rabbits end up in shelters and need to be rehomed annually in North America, the UK, and Europe. As described in the document l...inked below, better pet rabbit welfare can result from tools that can link personality traits and behaviours to (1) individually appropriate accommodation and care in the shelter, and (2) new home environments and owners' expectations leading to successful adoptions. The rabbit personality studies featured in today's post are the first step on the way to achieving these better welfare goals. For a complete report of this exciting, exploratory, rabbit personality research by Dr. Clare Ellis as well as detailed descriptions of her two other rabbit personality tools, please see her PhD thesis from the University of Northampton at the following link: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk//Ellis_Clare_2020_Explorin

Our survey is still open, but closing soon! If you have started or were interested in participating, be sure to complete your survey by our closing date of September 30th, 2020. We want to know how your cat responds to petting! ... Help out with our new research study (opened July 13th, 2020) examining how different factors influence companion cats reactions to petting. Participation involves completion of a 1-day petting log and a short online survey. This study is part of Kristina OHanleys PhD research at the Ontario Veterinary College, which is focused on preventing and managing petting-related aggression in cats. To get started, follow this link: http://uoguel.ph/pettingsurvey Please SHARE!

We would like to send a huge congrats to former lab member, Dr. Carly Moody (who graduated with her PhD in 2018) on starting a new position as Assistant Professor in Animal Welfare and Epidemiology at the University of California, Davis! She will be working with cats as well as farm animals. We wish you all the best, Carly!

A recent study has found experimental evidence of a cat imitating human-demonstrated actions! Hungarian researchers Fugazza and colleagues used the Do As I Do training paradigm to train a well-socialized companion cat to reproduce actions demonstrated by a human model. This is the first evidence that the Do as I Do paradigm can be applied to cats, suggesting that the ability to recognize behavioural similarity may fall within the range of the socio-cognitive skills of this species. This ability of reproducing the actions of a human model in well-socialized cats may pave the way for future studies addressing cats imitative skills. Read the full access article in Animal Cognition in the link below! https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s10071-020-01428-6

The failure to recruit, engage and retain hard-to reach population limits the involvement of patients as research partners in diverse medical and psychiatric settings. In a current study completed by a research group at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the use of therapy dogs to bridge the gap between patients and researchers was studied. The project was to determine whether the presence of a therapy dog could increase participation in studies where participation w...as limited in the past. The study concluded that the presence of a therapy dog increased patients motivation to participate in the study, helped build a rapport and created connections that enriched the data. These findings suggest that the presence of a therapy dog could be a stepping stone to engage participants in future studies. If you are interested in reading the full article, it can be found here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article

This week was the week of birthdays here at the lab! Three out of seven of our lab members have birthdays this week! Please help us wish Happy Birthday to Dr. Lee Niel, Quinn Rausch and Emma Lamoure!

Training dogs with aversive methods, including e-collars, can be detrimental to the success of a dogs learning. The use of positive reinforcement training has been on the rise in many training facilities. There has been evidence that positive reinforcement is more effective and provides greater benefits than the use of e-collars. In a recent study out of the University of Lincoln, a group of researchers studied the differences between training methods based on how quickly ...the dogs responded to commands, how often the commands needed to be repeated before a response, and how often the dog refused to complete the command within a 10s timeframe. Three groups were studied: e-collar group with professional trainers, control group (same trainers as previous group but without e-collars), and a positive reinforcement group. While all of the groups were successful in teaching the dogs, there were some important differences. Dogs who were trained with positive reinforcement were more likely to respond to the commands the first time they were asked, and less likely to have commands repeated. In addition, they were quicker to respond when each command was given. You can read a summary here: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com//positive-reinfo Or read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00508

A recent literature review published in Animals pulled decades of research on temperament studies of domestic cats. They also reviewed the affects of temperament on the human-animal bond. Authors outline trends of this research, improvements to studies over the years, and current gaps in knowledge on this topic. Read the full, open access article here! https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/9/1516

**EDIT: we will be closing this survey on September 30th, 2020 Pet your cat for science!! Help out with our new research study (July 13th, 2020) examining how different factors influence companion cats reactions to petting. Participation involves completion of a 1-day petting log and a short online survey.... This study is part of Kristina OHanleys PhD research at the Ontario Veterinary College, which is focused on preventing and managing petting-related aggression in cats. To get started, follow this link: http://uoguel.ph/pettingsurvey Please SHARE!

Pet rabbit owners may have heard of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus (RHDV). Today were sharing a link to a current and comprehensive summary report on RHDV in North America. The report was produced by the House Rabbit Society, an international nonprofit animal welfare organization headquartered in Richmond, California. This article provides information about the virus, the disease and symptoms it causes, how it spreads, North American outbreaks, how to protect rabbits in affected areas, and information for veterinarians and shelters/rescue agencies. For the report, just click on the link: https://rabbit.org/rhdv/

Happy Friday everyone! Lets bring this weekend in with some more happy news! One of our lab members, Emma Lamoure, was offered the position of lab manager at Helpaws in St Lucia, rescuing abandoned puppies and kittens, caring for strays and improving overall animal welfare on the island. With all of the options to complete the final stages of her thesis via online communications, she jumped at the opportunity and is going to complete her thesis in sunny St Lucia! We are going to miss her here in Guelph, but are so excited to see her take on such an incredible opportunity to improve animal welfare in another part of the world! Wishing you all the best Emma!

**EDIT: we will be closing this survey on September 30th, 2020 There is still time to complete our survey! Help out with our new research study (July 13th, 2020) examining how different factors influence companion cats reactions to petting. Participation involves completion of a 1-day petting log and a short online survey.... This study is part of Kristina OHanleys PhD research at the Ontario Veterinary College, which is focused on preventing and managing petting-related aggression in cats. To get started, follow this link: http://uoguel.ph/pettingsurvey Please SHARE! See more

We would like to take a moment to congratulate lab member Dr. Anastasia Stellato (who graduated with her PhD in August 2019) on a new tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at Texas Tech University! We are going to miss her here in Guelph but are so excited for her new role and continual care of animals! Wishing you all the best Dr. Stellato!

Many households have both a feline and a canine companion. These inter-species interactions are important to study when it comes to a harmonious home environment and good animal welfare. This is the first study to evaluate the effects of pheromone products Feliway FriendsTM and AdaptilTM on cat-dog interactions, in homes where owners perceived the potential for improvement in the relationship between their cat and dog. Check out the free access paper from the Animal Behaviour Cognition and Welfare group out of the University of Lincoln. https://www.frontiersin.org//10.3389/fvets.2020.00399/full

Hello and happy hump day - we hope everyone pulls through the rest of the week with success and self compassion <3 Speaking of pulling... have you ever wondered who is doing more pulling during a walk, you or your dog? Leash tension can negatively impact animal welfare as well as the human animal bond. New research out of the University of Queensland conducted by HaoYu Shih and colleagues investigated this with a new device called a tri-axial accelerometer (leash tension me...ter). Among other things, they found that larger and heavier dogs exerted more tension but pulled less frequently than smaller and lighter dogs. Further, young dogs tended to pull with a higher frequency and handlers of young dogs also pulled with a higher frequency. For more results and access to the full paper, check out the link below! https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/8/1382

Our survey is still open! We want to know how your cat responds to petting! Help out with our new research study (opened July 13th, 2020) examining how different factors influence companion cats reactions to petting. Participation involves completion of a 1-day petting log and a short online survey.... This study is part of Kristina OHanleys PhD research at the Ontario Veterinary College, which is focused on preventing and managing petting-related aggression in cats. To get started, follow this link: http://uoguel.ph/pettingsurvey Please SHARE!

A cats ability to understand acoustic and visual cues given from both conspecifics (same species) and humans, play a large role in their social relationships. A recent study aimed to investigate cats abilities to match acoustic and visual signals from other cats and humans to the emotions they represent. Researchers reported that the cats in this study were able to distinguish which emotions the signals represented, and were more proficient at this when the signals were of high intensity. Read the open access article below! https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/7/1107

**EDIT: we will be closing this survey on September 30th, 2020 How does your cat respond to petting? Help out with our new research study (July 13th, 2020) examining how different factors influence companion cats reactions to petting. Participation involves completion of a 1-day petting log and a short online survey.... This study is part of Kristina OHanleys PhD research at the Ontario Veterinary College, which is focused on preventing and managing petting-related aggression in cats. To get started, follow this link: http://uoguel.ph/pettingsurvey Please SHARE!

New research from Henschel & colleagues (2020) explored factors affecting the success and form of canine showing behaviour. Showing behaviour is a specific type of attention-seeking and directional behaviour used by dogs for communication. In this study, researchers used hidden-object tasks in which knowledgeable dogs were required to communicate the location of a hidden toy to their nave owners. The results suggest that owner behaviour can increase dogs showing effort and... decrease their showing accuracy. In addition, results suggest that spatial set-up has an effect on showing success and that dog-owner communication history does not have an effect on showing success or effort. Read the full article here! https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-020-01409-9

Have you tried to restrict your cats outdoor access in the past 4 months? We want to hear about your experiences! Participate in a new survey (July 8, 2020) from researchers at the Ontario Veterinary College at the U of Guelph exploring the welfare impacts of restricted outdoor access on cats with previously unrestricted outdoor access. https://uoguel.ph/8bflr... PLEASE SHARE!

If your pet rabbit(s) is roaming in your garden or home, here is a list of plants that you wont want it(them) to munch on. We thank the Rabbit Welfare Association & Fund (RWAF) for this practical resource naming plants poisonous to our rabbit companions. Although RWAF focuses on pet rabbit care in the UK, many of the plants exist in many other countries. Just click on the link or the bunny below for the list. https://rabbitwelfare.co.uk//rab/poisonous-plants-rabbits/

A new survey study by Puurunen and colleagues from the University of Helsinki shows less socialization, less exercise, fewer activities with the owner, less training, and breed differences are all linked to social fear in dogs. The biggest factor in both fear of strangers and fear of unknown dogs was found to be inadequate socialization during the sensitive period in puppies (particularly from 7 to 16 weeks of age). This reiterates the importance of early socialization for puppies to create positive associations with their world. Read more in the summary below by Zazie Todd, PhD (Companion Animal Psychology)there is also a link to the full access paper in Scientific Reports! https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com//the-factors-inv

**EDIT: we will be closing this survey on September 30th, 2020 How does your cat respond to petting? Help out with our new research study (July 13th, 2020) examining how different factors influence companion cats reactions to petting. Participation involves completion of a 1-day petting log and a short online survey. ... This study is part of Kristina OHanleys PhD research at the Ontario Veterinary College, which is focused on preventing and managing petting-related aggression in cats. To get started, follow this link: http://uoguel.ph/pettingsurvey Please SHARE!

In general, and particularly with the current pandemic, there is a continually high demand for puppies. However, recent news stories show that anyone getting a new puppy needs to be careful to avoid puppy mills and scams. Zazie Todd, PhD (Companion Animal Psychology) has written a new blog post on Psychology Today highlighting some warning signs of a puppy mill, what to look for in a responsible breeder, and how to protect the puppies and yourself. Read more in the link below! https://www.psychologytoday.com//why-its-buyer-beware-when

Recent studies suggest that cats form social bonds with both other cats and humans. One of the key factors regulating social interactions is the transfer of emotions between the individuals. A new Italian study by Quaranta and colleagues investigated cats spontaneous ability to match acoustic and visual signals for the recognition of both cat and human emotions. Different conspecific (cat purr and hiss) and heterospecific (human happiness and anger) emotional stimuli... were presented and results showed that cats are able to match pictures of emotional faces with their related vocalizations, particularly for emotions of high intensity. Overall, the studys findings suggest that cats have a general mental representation of the emotions of their social partners, both conspecifics and humans. Read the full access article published in Animals below! https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/7/1107/htm

Since the beginning of this pandemic, researchers have been attempting to train dogs to sniff out Corona Virus much like they have been trained to do with illegal substances or physiological conditions that need alerting. Check out this article by The Guardian documenting the training process and interviewing some of the trainers who have been working on this. https://www.theguardian.com//winning-by-a-nose-the-dogs-be

Many owners have stories about their dogs going through a "rebellious" phase where all the training they have done seems to go out the window. This often occurs around 2 to 12 months of age when dogs are going through adolescent changes. Dr Lucy Asher and her colleagues decided to study dogs during their "teenage" period to note these behavioral changes and how if influences the human-dog relationship. The team followed a group of guide dog puppies over the first year of the...ir life to see whether there were any parallels between dog-owner relationship and parent-child relationship. The study found a significant reduction in dog obedience in at approximately 8 months of age in comparison to the dogs behavior at 5 and 12 months. Dogs were also twice as likely to require multiple commands before responding. This rebellion was specific to the dogs caregiver, while relative strangers did not experience behavioral opposition. These results highlight a dogs "teenage" years as a vulnerable time for dogowner relationships. Read a summary by Dr. Stanley Coren: https://www.psychologytoday.com//do-adolescent-dogs-act-re Or read the article below: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/d/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0097

With the onset of Covid-19, rescues and breeders saw an influx of people looking for a companion to keep them company while they were confined to their homes. Dr. Jonathan Bowen and colleagues set out to study the effects of the initial confinement period on Spanish pet owners, their pet cats and dogs, and on the relationship between them. The team was interested in understanding how the human-animal relationship might help pet owners to cope and how the confinement effected ...the animals. The study found that pets provided owners with support during initial confinement, and those owners whose quality of life was strongly influenced by the lifestyle and emotional effects of the confinement benefited the most. However, pets showed signs of stress, and dogs with pre-existing behavioral problems were affected the most. Check out the full article below! https://www.sciencedirect.com//arti/pii/S1558787820300642

We cant forget our dogs- How does your dog nap? A recent study by Bodizs and colleagues investigated the sleep-cognition relationship in domestic dogs. This review paper summarizes the sleep-wake cycles in dogs, behavioural and learning aspects from sleep, and issues that arise with dog sleep studies. Check out the open access article below!... https://www.sciencedirect.com//artic/pii/S2352154619301378

How does your cat nap? A recent blog post by Zazie Todd, PhD. discusses how much they sleep, their sleep cycles, and what preferences domestic cats have for their nap time! Check out the post below:... https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com//how-much-do-cat See more

New research by Carballo and colleagues (2020) reported that assistant and therapy dogs had better problem solving skills than trained or untrained family dogs. In this study, dogs were tasked with manipulating an apparatus to obtain food pellets and researchers scored how much the dogs used a social strategy (e.g. looking to their owner for direction), rather than employing independent problem-solving skills. Assistance and therapy dogs had the lowest social strategy scores..., indicating that they were using more problem-solving skills during the task. The researchers inferred that the specific training and experience of assistance and therapy dogs may make them more successful problem solvers. Read the article here! https://www.frontiersin.org/articles//fvets.2020.00164/full

In a recent study, Dr. Stefanie Riemer surveyed dog owners about management and treatment strategies for reducing canine fear of fireworks. Giving dogs food and/or toys during fireworks was reported to have significant effects on preventing fear progression. Ad hoc counterconditioning (giving the dog something positive, like a treat, after the loud noise), relaxation training and anti-anxiety medication were reported as the most successful treatment techniques for reducing fear. Dr. Riemer suggests that these strategies should be used alongside standard desensitization techniques for reducing firework-induced fear in dogs. Read a summary by Zazie Todd, PhD (Companion Animal Psychology): https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com//survey-shows-wh

Today we appreciate and highlight the results of Livia Benato and colleagues efforts to provide clarity on the use of analgesia in pet rabbits around the time of surgical procedures. The reports abstract follows in the link below. https://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com//ear/2020/04/17/vr.105071

We have a new article published from our lab! The study of restraint and handling techniques for cats in veterinary clinics has increased in recent years. Past studies have indicated that owners perceive their cats welfare as impaired during routine visits and other owners have indicated they have waited to bring their sick/injured cat into a vet clinic based on past negative experiences. Dr. Carly Moody created an online questionnaire to assess different handling techniqu...es used for cats during routine veterinary examinations. The questionnaire focused on restraint methods used on calm, fearful and aggressive cats by both veterinary and non-veterinary staff in Canadian and US practices. The results suggested that the method of restraint used was largely dependent on the cats demeanor, with full body restraint used most often with all cat demeanors. The use of passive and minimal restraint was reported for fearful and calm cats, with loose towel techniques also being used on fearful cats. Read the abstract here! https://avmajournals.avma.org//abs/10.2460/javma.256.9.1020

A recent study by Carballo and colleagues investigated whether or not dogs would rescue their owners without prior training, and if they did, what the driving motivation was. To determine if dogs would rescue their owners, owners were placed in a stressful situation that the dog could both read and intervene in. An additional series of tests were completed to determine possible motivations to rescue their owners. The results of the study suggest that dogs were more likely to... rescue their owners when they pretended to be stressed with emotion contagion as a plausible mechanism motivating dogs rescue behaviour. Read a summary from Dr. Amy Wade below. https://dogsciencesays.com/would-my-dog-rescue-me/ Or read the full article here! https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-019-01343-5

Dog walking is an important part of many dog owner routines and has excellent benefits for dogs, humans and the dog-human relationship. A study published by Westgarth and colleagues (2020) in the UK looked at dog walking practices and aimed to investigate the types of dog walks that occur and the implications of this for the promotion of dog walking to increase human and animal wellbeing. The article contrasts functional dog walking with recreational dog walking. Check out the link below for the full article and happy socially distanced walking! https://academic.oup.com//d/10.1093/heapro/daaa051/5828411

Researchers have recently found that dogs are less responsive to instructions from their carer during adolescence. Dr. Lucy Asher, co-author of the research at Newcastle University, says Generally teenagers that have a less secure relationship with their parents are those that are more likely to show more conflict behaviour towards their parents. Thats the same finding that we have [between adolescent dogs and their carers]. As in humans, this research suggests that dogs w...ho are less secure about their bond with their carer may play up to test its strength, as adolescence is a time of major hormonal and brain changes. The researchers hope these findings would help owners be more understanding of their dogs and cut them some slack, noting there is a spike in owners taking their dogs to shelters when the animals hit puberty. Read more in the Guardian link below. https://www.theguardian.com//dogs-endure-emotional-difficu

New research published in the Veterinary Record finds that the pressure exerted on a dogs neck by a flat collar when the dog pulls is enough to risk damage to the dogs neck. The study, from scientists at Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham, used a model to simulate the dogs neck, and measured the forces applied when the leash was pulled. The study aimed to mimic the effects of a dog pulling consistently on a leash or the human tugging the leash (sometimes called a leash correction). The results show the importance of teaching your dog to walk nicely on leash, using a harness if they do pull, and never using leash corrections. Read more by Zazie Todd, PhD (from Companion Animal Psychology) in the link below. https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com//flat-collars-ri

A recent study published in Animals aimed to evaluate the dog-owner relationship and how it may vary over time. Researchers found that perceptions surrounding dogs and dog ownership changed during the time from before ownership to after, however owners perceptions stabilized after 6 months of ownership. Check out the free full access article below! https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/5/772

What treats should we use to reward while training companion dogs? A recent study published in Scientific Reports tackled this question. These researchers suggested that introducing some variation into training foods used may help to maintain motivation!... Read what Zazie Todd, PhD. has to say about this: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com//dogs-preferred- Or read the full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28079-5