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BACKGROUND: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent and multifactorial neuropsychiatric disorder in the human population worldwide. Complex etiology and clinical heterogeneity have challenged the research, diagnostics and treatment of the disease. Hyperactive and impulsive behaviour has also been observed in dogs, and they could offer a physiologically relevant model for human ADHD. As a part of our ongoing study to understand the molecular etiology of canine anxiety traits, this study was aimed to pilot an approach to identify metabolic biomarkers in canine ADHD-like behaviours for research, diagnostics and treatment purposes. METHODS: We collected fresh plasma samples from 22 German Shepherds with varying ADHD-like behaviours. All dogs were on the same controlled diet for 2 weeks prior to sampling. A liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based non-targeted metabolite profiling was performed to identify plasma metabolites correlating with the ADHD-like behaviour of the dogs. RESULTS: 649 molecular features correlated with ADHD-like behavioural scores (praw < 0.05), and three of them [sn-1 LysoPC(18:3), PC(18:3/18:2) and sn-1 LysoPE(18:2)] had significant correlations also after FDR correction (pFDR < 0.05). Phospholipids were found to negatively correlate with ADHD-like behavioural scores, whereas tryptophan metabolites 3-indolepropionic acid (IPA) and kynurenic acid (KYNA) had negative and positive correlations with ADHD-like behavioural scores, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our study identified associations between canine ADHD-like behaviours and metabolites that are involved in lipid and tryptophan metabolisms. The identified metabolites share similarity with earlier findings in human and rodent ADHD models. However, a larger replication study is warranted to validate the discoveries prior to further studies to understand the biological role of the identified metabolites in canine ADHD-like behaviours.
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It has been described that many puppy owners experience a state called puppy blues involving stress, worry, anxiety, strain, frustration, or regret. While puppy blues is a commonly used term among dog owners, the term is nearly nonexistent in scientific literature. In turn, analogous phenomenon, postpartum affective disturbance of infant caregivers, is well described in the literature. This study aimed to develop and validate the first questionnaire to evaluate puppy blues. The methodology involved generating scale items based on a qualitative review of 135 pilot survey responses from people who had experienced distress during the puppy period, conducting exploratory factor analysis for the final scale items from a dataset of 1801 answers from Finnish dog owners (92% women), and collecting test-retest data from 265 individuals to assess the consistency of the measurement of items and factor structure across time. In addition, we collected an independent sample of 326 owners of 1-2-year-old dogs who answered the survey both regarding puppy period and current moment. The results indicate that the scale is a valid and reliable tool for measuring dog owners' negative experiences and feelings related to puppyhood. We discovered three factors that describe different aspects of puppy blues: Frustration, Anxiety, and Weariness, which accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in puppy blues. The study demonstrated good internal consistency and consistency across two independent samples for the three identified factors. The test-retest reliability of the factors was good. Responses for the current timeframe compared to puppyhood experiences revealed significantly lower current scores across all factors for the current period, validating that the scale captures distress during puppyhood that diminishes over time. Interestingly, we found a fading affect bias where recollections of the experiences in the puppy period became more positive with time. Our findings shed light on the characteristics of puppy blues and provide a useful retrospective tool for measuring it.
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Personality in pets and other domesticated animals is important for their well-being and it can also influence human-animal relationships. Genetic and environmental factors influencing unwanted behavior in dogs are somewhat well known, but the factors influencing dog personality remain understudied. Here we examined environmental and demographic factors associated with seven broad personality traits in a survey of over 11,000 dogs. We utilized linear models and extensive model validation to examine the factors that have the most significant influences on personality and calculated effect sizes to assess the importance of these variables. Breed and age had the strongest associations with dog personality traits. Some environmental factors, especially puppyhood socialization, were also associated with personality. All factors had small effect sizes, highlighting that a lot of variation in personality remains unexplained. Our results indicate that personality traits are complex and strikingly similar in dogs, humans, and other nonhuman animals.
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Human-pet attachment can impact the life of both parties, and the identification of underlying characteristics related to attachment style can improve human-pet relationships. We employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore associations between human, dog, and cat personalities, owner mental well-being, unwanted pet behavior, and attachment styles in a sample of 2,724 Finnish pet owners (92% women) and their 2,545 dogs and 788 cats. Our findings reveal that owner neuroticism and poor mental well-being are linked to anxious pet attachment in both dog and cat owners. Pet characteristics, such as unwanted behavior and lower human sociability are associated with avoidant attachment style. Overall, this study highlights the significance of individual traits in both pets and owners contributing to insecure attachment styles and underscores the potential to enhance the well-being of both pets and their owners through a deeper understanding of these traits.
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Repetitive behaviour ranges from variants of normal repetitive behaviours to abnormal repetitive behaviours. The domestic dog spontaneously performs different repetitive behaviours, which can be severe and impair the quality of life and the dog-owner relationship. We collected comprehensive behavioural questionnaire data from almost 4500 Finnish pet dogs and studied the effect of several demographic, environmental, and behavioural factors on canine repetitive behaviour with logistic regression. We replicated findings from previous studies by revealing comorbidity between repetitive behaviour and behavioural factors aggressiveness, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and inattention. We also found a novel association between repetitive behaviour and the owner's dog experience. In addition, we showed that repetitive behaviour is more common in dogs that live without conspecifics, dogs that were given a low amount of exercise, dogs that lived in larger families, young dogs and elderly dogs, and neutered dogs. Finally, we identified breed differences in repetitive behaviour, suggesting that some breeds are more vulnerable to repetitive behaviour and indicate a genetic susceptibility. As abnormal repetitive behaviour can considerably worsen the well-being of dogs and impair the dog-owner relationship, a better understanding of the environmental, lifestyle, and molecular factors affecting canine repetitive behaviour can benefit both dogs and humans.
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Transtorno do Deficit de Atenção com Hiperatividade , Qualidade de Vida , Agressão , Animais , Transtorno do Deficit de Atenção com Hiperatividade/genética , Cruzamento , Cães , Humanos , Inquéritos e QuestionáriosRESUMO
Personality traits, especially neuroticism, strongly predict psychopathology. The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris Linnaeus, 1758) is used as a natural model for psychiatric disorders, but the similarity between dog and human personality and the association between dog personality and unwanted behavioral traits, such as fearfulness, aggressiveness, and impulsivity/inattention, remain unknown. This study utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) with survey data of 11,360 dogs to examine the associations and correlations between seven personality and ten unwanted behavioral traits. Personality traits included insecurity, energy, training focus, aggressiveness/dominance, human sociability, dog sociability, and perseverance. Unwanted behavioral traits included fearfulness, noise sensitivity, fear of surfaces/heights, separation anxiety, barking, stranger-directed aggression, owner-directed aggression, dog-directed aggression, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and inattention. We first fitted confirmatory factor models for the unwanted behavioral traits and the best model grouped unwanted behaviors into four latent traits: fear-related behavior, fear-aggression, aggression, and impulsivity/inattention and used this structure in the subsequent SEM model. Especially, insecurity, which resembles the human neuroticism trait, was strongly associated with unwanted behavior, paralleling the association between neuroticism and psychopathology. Similarly, training focus, resembling conscientiousness, was negatively related to impulsivity/inattention, and aggressiveness/dominance was associated with aggressive behaviors, resembling associations of conscientiousness and agreeableness with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and aggression-related psychopathology, respectively. These results indicate that dog personality traits resemble human personality traits, suggesting that their neurological and genetic basis may also be similar and making the dog a suitable animal model for human behavior and psychiatric disorders.
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Comportamento Problema , Agressão , Animais , Comportamento Animal , Cães , Humanos , Comportamento Impulsivo , PersonalidadeRESUMO
Domestic cats are popular pets, and they have personalities, with stable behavior differences between individuals. Lately, feline behavior and personality have been studied with different approaches, for example, with owner-completed questionnaires. The majority of these studies, however, lack a sufficient validation and reliability assessment of the questionnaires used. We designed an online feline behavior and personality questionnaire to collect cat behavior data from their owners. Then, we ran a factor analysis to study the structure of personality and behavior in a dataset of over 4300 cats. For validation, we studied the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, inter-rater reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity of this questionnaire and extracted factors. In addition, we briefly examined breed differences in the seven discovered factors: fearfulness, activity/playfulness, aggression toward humans, sociability toward humans, sociability toward cats, excessive grooming and litterbox issues. Most of the rank ordering of breeds within each trait paralleled what has been found in previous studies. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire and factors were good, strengthening owner-completed questionnaires as a method to collect behavioral data from pet animals. Breed differences suggest a genetic background for personality. However, these differences should be studied further with multidimensional models, including environmental and biological variables.
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Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder impairing the quality of life of the affected individuals. The domestic dog can spontaneously manifest high hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention which are components of human ADHD. Therefore, a better understanding of demographic, environmental and behavioural factors influencing canine hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention could benefit both humans and dogs. We collected comprehensive behavioural survey data from over 11,000 Finnish pet dogs and quantified their level of hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention. We performed generalised linear model analyses to identify factors associated with these behavioural traits. Our results indicated that high levels of hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention were more common in dogs that are young, male and spend more time alone at home. Additionally, we showed several breed differences suggesting a substantial genetic basis for these traits. Furthermore, hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention had strong comorbidities with compulsive behaviour, aggressiveness and fearfulness. Multiple of these associations have also been identified in humans, strengthening the role of the dog as an animal model for ADHD.
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Transtorno do Deficit de Atenção com Hiperatividade , Animais , Atenção , Transtorno do Deficit de Atenção com Hiperatividade/epidemiologia , Cães , Humanos , Comportamento Impulsivo , Masculino , Qualidade de Vida , Fatores de RiscoRESUMO
Dogs have distinct, consistent personalities, but the structure of dog personality is still unclear. Dog personality and unwanted behavior are often studied with behavioral questionnaires. Even though many questionnaires are reliable and valid measures of behavior, all new questionnaire tools should be extensively validated. Here, we examined the structure of personality and six unwanted behavior questionnaire sections: noise sensitivity, fearfulness, aggression, fear of surfaces and heights, separation anxiety and impulsivity/inattention with factor analyses. Personality consisted of seven factors: Insecurity, Training focus, Energy, Aggressiveness/dominance, Human sociability, Dog sociability and Perseverance. Most unwanted behavior sections included only one factor, but the impulsivity/inattention section divided into two factors (Hyperactivity/impulsivity and Inattention) and the aggression section into four factors (Barking, Stranger directed aggression, Owner directed aggression and Dog directed aggression). We also examined the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, inter-rater reliability and convergent validity of the 17 personality and unwanted behavior traits and discovered excellent reliability and validity. Finally, we investigated the discriminant validity of the personality traits, which was good. Our findings indicate that this personality and unwanted behavior questionnaire is a reliable and valid tool that can be used to study personality and behavior extensively.
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Aggressive behaviour is an unwanted and serious problem in pet dogs, negatively influencing canine welfare, management and public acceptance. We aimed to identify demographic and environmental factors associated with aggressive behaviour toward people in Finnish purebred pet dogs. We collected behavioural data from 13,715 dogs with an owner-completed online questionnaire. Here we used a dataset of 9270 dogs which included 1791 dogs with frequent aggressive behaviour toward people and 7479 dogs without aggressive behaviour toward people. We studied the effect of several explanatory variables on aggressive behaviour with multiple logistic regression. Several factors increased the probability of aggressive behaviour toward people: older age, being male, fearfulness, small body size, lack of conspecific company, and being the owner's first dog. The probability of aggressive behaviour also differed between breeds. These results replicate previous studies and suggest that improvements in the owner education and breeding practices could alleviate aggressive behaviour toward people while genetic studies could reveal associated hereditary factors.
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Agressão/psicologia , Comportamento Animal , Vínculo Humano-Animal , Animais de Estimação/psicologia , Animais , Tamanho Corporal/fisiologia , Cruzamento , Demografia , Cães , Medo/psicologia , Finlândia , Inquéritos e QuestionáriosRESUMO
Behavioural problems are leading welfare issues in domestic dogs. In particular, anxiety-related behavioural problems, such as fearfulness and noise sensitivity are highly prevalent conditions that cause distress to fearful dogs. To better understand the environmental factors associated with non-social fear, including noise sensitivity, fear of novel situations, and fear of surfaces and heights, a large online survey including data on 13,700 Finnish pet dogs was performed by the dog owners. After fulfilling inclusion criteria, this data consisted of 9,613 dogs with fear of fireworks, 9,513 dogs with fear of thunder, 6,945 dogs with fear of novel situations, and 2,932 dogs with fear of surfaces and heights. Logistic regression analyses revealed that dogs with frequent non-social fear had experienced less socialisation during puppyhood, were more often neutered, had inexperienced owners, lived without conspecifics, participated less frequently in activities or training, and lived in more urban environments. In addition, we identified several breed differences, and a tendency of more common non-social fear in small dog breeds, which suggests a genetic background. Non-social fearfulness has a negative effect on well-being of the dogs. Our findings suggest that the socialisation and the living environment and the value of other dogs' company and owner interaction via activities and training may improve the well-being of the dogs.
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Ansiedade/psicologia , Doenças do Cão/psicologia , Medo/psicologia , Vínculo Humano-Animal , Animais de Estimação/psicologia , Animais , Comportamento Animal , Cães , Feminino , Finlândia , Humanos , Masculino , Ruído/efeitos adversos , Socialização , Inquéritos e QuestionáriosRESUMO
Problematic behaviours are severe welfare issues for one of the world's most popular pets, the domestic dog. One of the most prevalent behavioural problem that causes distress to dogs is social fearfulness, meaning fear of conspecifics or unfamiliar people. To identify demographic and environmental factors associated with fear of dogs and strangers, logistic regression was utilised with a large dataset of 6,000 pet dogs collected through an owner-filled behavioural survey. Social fearfulness was associated with several factors, including urban environment, poor socialisation during puppyhood, infrequent participation in training and other activities, small body size, female sex, and neutering. In addition, we identified several breed differences, suggesting a genetic contribution to social fearfulness. These findings highlight the role of inadequate socialisation, inactivity, and urban living environmental in fear-related behavioural problems in dogs. Improvements in the management and breeding practices of dogs could, therefore, enhance the welfare of man's best friend.
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Medo , Animais de Estimação , Comportamento Sedentário , Socialização , Inquéritos e Questionários , População Urbana , Animais , Cães , Feminino , Humanos , MasculinoRESUMO
Behaviour problems and anxieties in dogs decrease their quality of life and may lead to relinquishment or euthanasia. Considering the large number of pet dogs and the commonness of these problematic behaviours, a better understanding of the epidemiology and related molecular and environmental factors is needed. We have here studied the prevalence, comorbidity, and breed specificity of seven canine anxiety-like traits: noise sensitivity, fearfulness, fear of surfaces and heights, inattention/impulsivity, compulsion, separation related behaviour and aggression with an online behaviour questionnaire answered by dog owners. Our results show that noise sensitivity is the most common anxiety-related trait with a prevalence of 32% in 13,700 Finnish pet dogs. Due to the high prevalence of noise sensitivity and fear, they were the most common comorbidities. However, when comparing the relative risk, the largest risk ratios were seen between hyperactivity/inattention, separation related behaviour and compulsion, and between fear and aggression. Furthermore, dog breeds showed large differences in prevalence of all anxiety-related traits, suggesting a strong genetic contribution. As a result, selective breeding focusing on behaviour may reduce the prevalence of canine anxieties. Anxious animals may suffer from chronic stress and thus, modified breeding policies could improve the welfare of our companion dogs.
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Agressão/psicologia , Transtornos de Ansiedade/epidemiologia , Comportamento Animal , Comportamento Compulsivo/epidemiologia , Doenças do Cão/epidemiologia , Animais , Transtornos de Ansiedade/fisiopatologia , Transtornos de Ansiedade/psicologia , Comorbidade , Comportamento Compulsivo/fisiopatologia , Comportamento Compulsivo/psicologia , Doenças do Cão/fisiopatologia , Doenças do Cão/psicologia , Cães , Medo/psicologia , Feminino , Finlândia/epidemiologia , Vínculo Humano-Animal , Humanos , Comportamento Impulsivo , Masculino , Animais de Estimação/psicologia , Prevalência , Qualidade de Vida , Especificidade da Espécie , Inquéritos e QuestionáriosRESUMO
Grasses have been considered to primarily employ tolerance in lieu of defense in mitigating damage caused by herbivory. Yet a number of mechanisms have been identified in grasses, which may deter feeding by grazers. These include enhanced silicon uptake, hosting of toxin-producing endophytic fungi and induction of secondary metabolites. While these mechanisms have been individually studied, their synergistic responses to grazing, as well as their effects on grazers, are poorly known. A field experiment was carried out in 5 × 5 m outdoor enclosures to quantify phytochemical changes of either endophyte-infected (E+) or endophyte-free (E-) meadow fescue (Schedonorus pratensis) in response to medium intensity (corresponding with densities of ca. 1200 voles/ha for 5 weeks during 3 months) or heavy intensity (ca. 1200 voles/ha for 8 weeks during 3 months) grazing by a mammalian herbivore, the field vole (Microtus agrestis). A laboratory experiment was then conducted to evaluate the effects of endophyte infection status and grazing history of the grass diet on vole performance. As predicted, grazing increased foliar silicon content, by up to 13%. Grazing also increased foliar levels of phosphorous and several phenolic compounds, most notably those of the flavonols isorhamnetin-diglycoside and rhamnetin derivative. Silicon concentrations were consistently circa 16% higher in E+ grasses than in E-grasses, at all levels of grazing. Similarly, concentrations of chlorogenic acid derivative were found to be consistently higher in E+ than in E- grasses. Female voles maintained on heavily grazed grasses suffered higher mortality rates in the laboratory than female voles fed ungrazed grass, regardless of endophyte infection status. Our results conclusively demonstrate that, in addition to tolerance, grasses employ multi-tiered, effective defenses against mammalian grazers.