02/6/12

Environmental Enrichment and Stress

Just read an absolutely fascinating study called “Enriched environment experience overcomes learning deficits and depressive-like behaviour induced by juvenile stress“, that Dr Sophia Yin made reference to recently on Facebook. It’s an absolutely fascinating read, especially after writing about the over-emphasis of socialisation just days ago. I almost have to eat my words… Almost…

Rat Yawning - Do rats yawn in stress like dogs?

Dogs yawn when they’re stressed – I don’t know if rats do, too, but this study used biochemistry to measure rat-stress.

 

Basics of the Study

This study used rats to investigate the role of stress on adult behaviour (particularly surrounding anxiety and depression).  Two groups of rats were stress during their juvenile period (27-29 days) through ‘forced swimming’, elevation, and restraint. (A third group of rats was used as a control.)  One group of the ‘stressed’ rats was given environmental enrichment, by enhancing their cage environments with toys, shapes, colours, and allowing them activities outside of their cage.  The other groups did not receive environmental enrichment.

The Findings

In short: Environmental enrichment seemed to ‘neutralise’ the anxiety experienced by the stressed rats, and sometimes reduced their anxiety further than rats with no stressful incidents and no environmental enrichment.

In long: Continue reading

02/1/12

Select, Select, Select

For too long we’ve cried “socialise, socialise, socialise”.  I vote for a new slogan: “select, select, select”.

Ultimately, to bring a confident, happy, sound, enjoyable new puppy into the household, three critical selections need to be made:

We need people to select an appropriate breed. They need to know what characteristics fit in with their family or lifestyle. Genetics hugely determine the behaviours of dogs.  There are countless resources explaining how to consider the breed most suitable to you.  This includes practical appearance criteria, like “how big?” and physically appealing charactertisitcs.  Then, nitty gritty criteria regarding owner energy compared to the dog’s, and willingness to groom.  An understanding of the breed’s original purpose and how that original purpose might be annoying (e.g. a breed bred to retrieve likes to use their mouth, a breed bred to herd may nip and herd people, a breed bred to kill vermin often are indiscriminate with pocket pets).  In short, new owners need to research breeds and work out what breed would love to live and thrive in their household- not a breed that they could ‘make work’.

Golden retriever puppy

Kari with a puppy from Savaneta Golden Retrievers from South Australia.

Puppy buyers need to select a breeder with care. By that I mean: a breeder that cares. Cares about where their puppies end up, about the pedigrees of their dogs, about choosing pups suitable to the individual’s lifestyle. A good breeder may say no to some households, because they only want the best for their puppies. A good breeder probably doesn’t have a puppy available right now. Good breeders take steps to ensure their animal never ends up in a shelter, and will live a happy and full life in a loving home.  A good breeder knows some puppies are not perfectly normal, and will not let them go to any home.

And the pedigree of the dog, including the parents, need to be considered. This is in terms of temperament and in terms of health.  Nervous dogs, or aggressive dogs, should not be bred from, and should not be in the pedigree.  Buyers should insist on meeting at least the mother of the puppy, and any other relatives possible.  The pedigree should, however, include healthy dogs – especially dogs that are old and healthy.  Certificates of health should be presented for the parents, including any relevant scores (e.g. hip, eye, etc) for the particular breed.  Knowing the background of the puppy provides some security and confidence in what the puppy may grow to be.

I’m sure if people went through all these steps, or even half of these steps, we’d have less dog problems than we see today. There would be no impulse buys, if people were selecting the right breed, and going through a responsible breeder. If people considered pedigrees and parents more often, there would be more healthy and stable dogs.

Selecting the right breed, from the right breeder, from the right pedigree, would right a lot of wrongs. … We can dream, can’t we?

 

Further reading: Can breeders breed better?