Search Results (71)

The “experimenter gender effect” is a pervasive confound in rodent behavioral neuroscience: the sex of the human handler alters stress, social, and pharmacological responses via olfactory cues and conserved neural circuits. Whether this effect extends to dog—a species co-domesticated with humans for over 15,000 years—has never been systematically tested. Here, we examined sex-biased social preferences in Beagle dogs during both intra- and cross-species interactions, and asked whether baseline neuroendocrine states predict such preferences. Thirty-four adult Beagles (17 males, 17 females) from a standardized laboratory colony underwent social interaction tests with same and opposite-sex conspecifics and with male and female experimenters. Baseline plasma corticosterone, serotonin (5-HT), and dopamine were measured by ELISA. Results indicated that Beagles did not exhibit significant sex-based preferences for either gender of conspecifics or human experimenters in either dog–dog or human–dog social interaction tests (all p > 0.05). However, males showed markedly higher baseline corticosterone, 5-HT, and dopamine than females (all p < 0.0001), a hormonal dimorphism that did not correlate with any behavioral measure in Spearman correlation analysis (p > 0.05). Nevertheless, this study has several limitations: only baseline hormone levels were measured (not stress-induced responses), behavioral tests involved only low-stakes affiliative interactions, and only one breed was studied under standardized conditions. These results suggest that Beagle dogs may lack experimenter-gender preference in social interactions, exhibiting stable, gender-neutral social behavior despite profound underlying hormonal differences. This decoupling of internal state from behavioral output suggests that domestication may have shaped a social phenotype resistant to the experimenter gender effect, supporting the Beagle as a valuable translational model with a stable baseline and low susceptibility to confounding social cues, making it suitable for research on affective and social-cognitive disorders. Full article

This study investigated context-associated variation in vocalizations in Malinois dogs through acoustic parameter analysis. Vocalizations from thirty adult Malinois dogs (15 males, 15 females) aged 2 to 3 years were recorded across 11 behaviourally defined contexts. Using Praat software, key acoustic parameters—fundamental frequency (F0), harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR), and formant frequencies—were extracted and analyzed. Results indicated that different vocalization types (barking, whimpering, growling, snarling, howling) exhibited distinct acoustic profiles. Whimpering and howling showed significantly higher F0 values than barking (p < 0.05), with whimpering uniquely displaying both low and high F0 components. Dogs in contexts expected to be positively valenced (e.g., food anticipation) showed lower HNR than those in contexts expected to be negatively valenced (e.g., separation) (p < 0.05). However, the actual internal states were not independently verified. Formant analysis revealed that snarling and howling had lower Formant 1 (F1) values (p < 0.05), while formant dispersion varied with emotional state. These findings suggest that acoustic analysis of dog vocalizations can provide objective insights into dogs’ motivational and arousal changes, thereby improving our understanding of canine vocal communication, social behavior, and the human–dog bond. This approach has potential applications for working-line Malinois breeding programs and for enhancing human–working dog interactions. Full article

Overweight and obesity are prevalent among companion dogs and cats in the Western world. Affected animals are at risk of comorbidities and reduced longevity. This narrative review found that veterinary literature generally characterises overweight and obesity as nutritional disorders that are primarily addressed by reducing caloric intake. However, veterinary management of overweight and obesity has limited success outside research settings. The Five Domains model for animal welfare assessment is applied to explore impacts of overweight and obesity and their management in dogs and cats by focusing on nutrition, health, physical environment, behavioural interactions and mental state. A second focus is on the practical strategies for addressing non-diet-related barriers and client communication through the provision of management recommendations. This novel and integrative approach aims to inform veterinarians and improve the success of weight management protocols. Full article

Animal-Assisted Services (AASs) are increasingly used in therapeutic, educational, and supportive contexts, raising growing concern for the welfare of the dogs involved. This study assessed dogs’ affective states during AAS sessions by establishing expert-derived behavioural thresholds and comparing these with field observations. Thirteen experts in canine behaviour, health, welfare, and AAS evaluated 19 behaviours across 11 fictional scenarios using an absolute scoring approach. Expert ratings were used to derive lower and upper frequency thresholds distinguishing excellent, neutral, and unacceptable welfare for behaviours associated with positive- or negative-affective states. Field data were collected over a two-month period from 837 AAS sessions involving 63 dogs, scored by trained professionals using the same ethogram. Stress-related behaviours were generally within the expert-defined acceptable ranges, although some dogs exceeded the upper thresholds for behaviours such as low posture or sniffing. In contrast, positive-affective behaviours—including play, voluntary lying down, and broad tail wagging—were observed infrequently and often fell below the expert-defined minimum thresholds. These findings suggest that while overt stress indicators are largely managed in AAS practice, opportunities for dogs to express positive-affective states may be limited. Integrating expert-derived behavioural thresholds into welfare monitoring may support evidence-based standards and safeguard canine welfare in AASs. Full article

Animal-assisted services (AASs) are increasingly integrated into healthcare, education, and social support settings. However, empirical evidence on the emotional well-being of participating dogs remains limited. This study investigates how dog, session, handler, and client factors influence dogs’ affective states during animal-assisted activities (AAAs), education (AAE), coaching (AAC), and therapy (AAT). A total of 837 sessions involving 63 dogs and 30 handlers were observed, with behavioural scoring and statistical analyses used to analyse the data. Principal Component Analysis then identified key affective components, including playfulness, comfort, anxiety, and uncertainty, which explained 45–61% of the variance. Session circumstances, as well as the characteristics of handlers, clients, and individual dogs—including age, experience, and gender—significantly influenced dogs’ responses. Specifically, older dogs were less playful but more settled, while experience was linked to positive affect in AAAs and AAT, but not in AAC. Female dogs demonstrated increased uncertainty and arousal in AAAs and AAE. The impact of session length varied by context. In AAC, unfamiliar handlers increased tension. Additionally, younger clients were associated with heightened uncertainty or tension in dogs across AAAs, AAC, and AAE. In light of these findings, optimising dog welfare requires matching dogs to suitable roles, attentive session planning, and managing workload. Full article

Severe crusting dermatosis affecting the mucocutaneous junctions, pressure points, and trunk of dogs fed low-quality dry food was first reported in the United States in the 1980s. Since then, only a few cases have been documented. Twenty-two adult dogs owned by private individuals were evaluated. All dogs exhibited thick crusts forming plaques and marked scaling on the face—particularly around the lips, nasal bridge, and eyelids—as well as on the paw pads, dorsal digits, abdomen, and dorsum. Pruritus ranged from moderate to severe, and all dogs showed varying degrees of lethargy and reduced activity. Each dog was fed a low-quality commercial diet. A presumptive diagnosis of dermatosis associated with poor-quality food was made. Skin biopsies from nine dogs revealed similar histopathologic changes, characterized by epidermal hyperplasia, severe parakeratotic hyperkeratosis with spongiosis, and exocytosis of lymphocytes and neutrophils. The skin lesions resolved within 15–30 days after switching to a high-quality diet. This case series highlights that dermatosis associated with low-quality food should remain in the differential diagnosis for dogs presenting with symmetric crusted and scaly lesions on the face, mucocutaneous junctions, and paws, particularly when nutritional deficiencies are suspected. Full article

Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a serious and often fatal disease caused by Morbillivirus canis, which affects domestic dogs and wild carnivores, with case-fatality rates reaching up to 47%. The hemagglutinin (H) protein mediates viral adsorption and shows high genetic variability, making it a valuable molecular marker. This study aimed to detect and characterize the H gene of CDV strains from 14 dogs with fatal neurological disease in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Rondônia. Brain tissue was tested via RT-PCR for the nucleocapsid gene, and positive samples were amplified for the H gene. Ten complete H-gene sequences were obtained. Phylogenetic analysis revealed two distinct clusters within the South America I/Europe lineage: one related to strains from Uruguay and Argentina (with residues 530G/549Y) and another related to Brazilian strains (530S/549Y). One sequence (MT8) showed an intermediate position in the haplotype network but clustered phylogenetically with Uruguay/Argentina-related strains. Most sequences carried 530S/549Y, a pattern linked to altered SLAM receptor usage in wildlife. These findings demonstrate the co-circulation of two CDV clusters in Central–Western Brazil, their regional and international genetic connectivity, and amino acid substitutions potentially influencing host adaptation and antigenicity. Full article

Cardiac tumors are rare and linked to high mortality rates in both human and veterinary medicine. Despite their clinical significance, the effects of these tumors on coagulation and cardiac function remain poorly understood. This retrospective study assessed coagulation profiles and echocardiographic parameters in 14 dogs with cardiac tumors compared to 10 healthy controls. Tumors were identified through echocardiography, with further confirmation by computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging. Coagulation was evaluated using conventional tests (prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT)) and thromboelastography (TEG). The employed conventional coagulation tests and echocardiographic parameters showed no significant differences between the groups. However, TEG revealed a hypercoagulable state in the majority of tumor-bearing dogs (8 out of 14), characterized by shortened reaction and clot formation times, as well as an increased α-angle and coagulation index (p < 0.05–0.001). No significant correlations were found between TEG parameters and echocardiographic indices. This study is the first to demonstrate subclinical hemostatic alterations using TEG in dogs with cardiac neoplasia. The results support the utility of TEG as a more sensitive tool than conventional tests for detecting hypercoagulability, potentially guiding individualized anticoagulant strategies in affected dogs. Full article

This study introduces an innovative dog emotion classification system that integrates four non-invasive physiological indicators—skin potential (SP), muscle potential (MP), respiration frequency (RF), and voice pattern (VP)—with the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) algorithm. A four-breed dataset was meticulously constructed by recording and labeling physiological signals from dogs exposed to four fundamental emotional states: happiness, sadness, fear, and anger. Comprehensive feature extraction (time-domain, frequency-domain, nonlinearity) was conducted for each signal modality, and inter-emotional variance was analyzed to establish discriminative patterns. Four machine learning algorithms—Neural Networks (NN), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Gradient Boosting Decision Trees (GBDT), and XGBoost—were trained and evaluated, with XGBoost achieving the highest classification accuracy of 90.54%. Notably, this is the first study to integrate a fusion of two complementary electrophysiological indicators—skin and muscle potentials—into a multi-modal dataset for canine emotion recognition. Further interpretability analysis using Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) revealed skin potential and voice pattern features as the most contributive to model performance. The proposed system demonstrates high accuracy, efficiency, and portability, laying a robust groundwork for future advancements in cross-species affective computing and intelligent animal welfare technologies. Full article

Canine distemper is caused by a morbillivirus similar to others that affect livestock and humans. The increase in host range and its persistence in wildlife reservoirs complicate eradication considerably. Canine distemper virus has been reported in wildlife in Mexico since 2007. Dogs were previously considered the main reservoirs, but high vaccination coverage in the USA has helped control the disease, and racoons (Procyon lotor) are now recognized as the main reservoirs of the agent in the USA, since they live in high densities in urban environments (peridomestic), where contact with domestic and wildlife species is common. Racoons are now considered to spread CDV in wildlife species and zoo animals. Mexico is home to at least two wildlife species that have been reported as carriers of the CDV infection in studies in the USA. Raccoons and Coyotes are distributed in several Mexican states and could play the same reservoir role as for the US. In addition, the increase in non-traditional pets expands the availability of susceptible individuals to preserve CDV in domiciliary and peri-domiciliary environments, contributing to the spread of the disease. Combined with incomplete vaccination coverage in domestic canids, this could contribute to maintaining subclinical infections. Infected pets with incomplete vaccination schedules could also spread CDV to other canines or wildlife coexisting species. In controlled habitats, such as flora and fauna sanctuaries, protected habitats, zoo collections, etc., populations of wildlife species and stray dogs facilitate the spread of CDV infection, causing the spilling over of this infectious agent. Restricting domestic pets from wildlife habitats reduces the chance of spreading the infection. Regular epidemiological surveillance and specific wildlife conservation practices can contribute to managing threatened species susceptible to diseases like CDV. This may also facilitate timely interventions in companion animals which eventually minimize the impact of this disease in both scenarios. Aim: The review discusses the circulation of CDV in wildlife populations, and highlights the need for epidemiological surveillance in wildlife, particularly in endangered wildlife species from Mexico. Through an extensive review of recent scientific literature about CDV disease in wildlife that has been published in local and international databases, the findings were connected with the current needs of information from a local to global perspective, and conclusions were made to broaden the context of Mexican epidemiological scenarios as closely related to the neighboring regions. Full article

Canine chronic inflammatory enteropathy (CIE) has been associated with coagulation abnormalities, predisposing affected dogs to a hypercoagulable state and potential thromboembolic events. This study aimed to evaluate the coagulation status in dogs with CIE using a viscoelastic point-of-care device, a Viscoelastic Coagulation Monitor (VCM Vet^®). A retrospective review of medical records identified 38 dogs diagnosed with CIE that underwent VCM Vet^® testing. Coagulation profiles were classified as hypercoagulable, normocoagulable, or hypocoagulable. The results demonstrate that 81.5% of dogs exhibited hypercoagulability, and significant associations were found between the coagulation status and the type of CIE. Hypercoagulability was more commonly found in immunosuppressive-responsive enteropathy (IRE) cases. Albumin and cobalamin were significantly higher in food-responsive enteropathy, whereas the canine chronic enteropathy clinical activity index (CCECAI) was significantly higher in immunosuppressive-responsive enteropathy and non-responsive enteropathy. One dog with protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) was suspected of having developed possible pulmonary thromboembolism. These findings reinforce previous reports of hypercoagulability in CIE and suggest that VCM Vet^® is a valuable and easy tool to assess coagulation abnormalities in a clinical setting. Further investigation is warranted to evaluate the clinical implications of hypercoagulability in CIE and the potential role of anticoagulant therapy in disease management. Full article

Canine distemper virus (CDV) is the causative agent of a widespread infectious disease affecting both domestic and wild carnivores. Owing to its ability to cross species barriers and its high fatality rate in unvaccinated animals, CDV poses a significant conservation threat to endangered wildlife worldwide. To date, two distinct CDV lineages have been reported in Colombia, with cases documented separately in domestic dogs and wild peri-urban carnivores. This study aimed to detect and characterize the concurrent circulation of CDV in naturally infected domestic dogs and crab-eating foxes (Cerdocyon thous) from the same area in Colombia. Through molecular and phylogenetic analyses, we identified the South America/North America-4 lineage infecting both populations simultaneously. Our findings revealed high genetic variability, multiple virus reintroductions, and a close relationship with CDV strains previously detected in the United States. These results confirm the simultaneous circulation of CDV in the domestic and wildlife interface and underscore the urgent need for an integrated approach to CDV prevention and control involving both domestic and wildlife health interventions. Full article

This study evaluated the application of the BCG Sense1 wearable device for monitoring the heart rate (HR) and the respiratory rate (RR) in dogs, comparing its performance to the gold standard ECG under awake and anesthetized conditions. Data were collected from twelve dogs, with six awake beagles and six anesthetized client-owned dogs. Bland–Altman analysis and linear regression revealed strong correlations between BCG and ECG under both awake and anesthetized conditions (HR: r = 0.97, R² = 0.94; RR: r = 0.78, R² = 0.61, and p < 0.001). While slight irregularities were noted in respiratory rate measurements in both groups, potentially affecting the concordance between methods, BCG maintained a significant correlation with ECG under anesthesia (HR: r = 0.96, R² = 0.92; RR: r = 0.85, R² = 0.72, and p < 0.01). The wearable BCG-Sense 1 sensor enables continuous monitoring over 24 h, while ECG serves as the gold standard reference. These findings prove that BCG can be a good alternative to ECG for the monitoring of vital signs in clinical, perioperative, intraoperative, and postoperative settings. The strong correlation between the BCG and ECG signals in awake and anesthetized states highlights the prospects of BCG technology as a revolutionary method in veterinary medicine. As a non-invasive and real-time monitoring system, the BCG Sense1 device strengthens clinical diagnosis and reduces physiological variations induced by stress. Full article

Background/Objectives: An automated extrusion-based material deposition is a contemporary and rapid method for pharmaceutical dose-dispensing and preparing (printing) individualized solid dosage forms. The aim of this study was to investigate and gain knowledge of the feasibility of automated extrusion-based material deposition technology in preparing customized prednisolone (PRD)-loaded gel tablets for veterinary applications (primarily for dogs and cats). Methods: The PRD loads of the extrusion-based deposited gel tablets were 0.5% and 1.0%, and the target weights of tablets were 0.250 g, 0.500 g, and 1.000 g. The effects of the material deposition processes on the physical solid state, in vitro dissolution, and the physicochemical stability of PRD gel tablets were investigated. Results: The small-sized gel tablets presented a uniform round shape with an exceptionally smooth outer surface texture. The actual average weight of the tablets (n = 10) was very close to the target weight, showing the precision of the process. We found that PRD was in a pseudopolymorphic sesquihydrate form (instead of an initial PRD crystalline form II) in the gel tablets. In all the immediate-release gel tablets studied, more than 70% of the drug load was released within 30 min. The soft texture and dimensions of gel tablets affected the dissolution behaviour in vitro, suggesting the need for further development and standardization of a dissolution test method for such gel tablets. A short-term storage stability study revealed that the content of PRD did not decrease within 3 months. Conclusions: Automated extrusion-based material deposition is a feasible method for the rapid preparation of gel tablets intended for veterinary applications. In addition, the present technology and gel tablets could be used in pediatric and personalized medicine where precise dosing is crucial. Full article

Fear and frustration are two emotions thought to frequently contribute to problem behaviour, often leading to relinquishment. Inferring these emotions is challenging as they may present with some similar general signs, but they potentially require different treatment approaches to efficiently address the behaviour of concern. Although behavioural assessment frameworks have been proposed, it is largely unknown how clinical animal behaviourists (CABs) assimilate information about the emotional state of an animal to inform their behavioural assessment. In other fields (such as both in human and veterinary medicine), the use of intuition and gut feelings, without the concurrent use of an assessment framework, can lead to higher rates of error and misdiagnosis. Therefore, this study used semi-structured interviews of ten CABs and qualitative methods to explore the ways they conceptualise, recognise and differentiate fear and frustration in dogs. Although interviewees perceived fear and frustration as negative affective states that lead to changes in an animal’s behaviour, there was little consensus on the definition or identification or differentiation of these emotions. The use of a scientific approach (i.e., hypothesis-driven and based on falsification of competing hypotheses) for behavioural assessment was highly variable, with individual assessment processes often characterised by tautology, intuition, circular reasoning and confirmation bias. Assessment was typically based on professional judgment, amalgamating information on interpretation of communicative signals, motivation, learning history, breed, genetics and temperament. Given the lack of consensus in the definition of these states, it is clearly important that authors and clinicians define their interpretation of key concepts, such as fear and frustration, when trying to communicate with others. Full article