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25.01.2022 Researchers used odour samples taken from the armpits of more than 360 people, who were both positive and negative for the virus.The dogs were able to detect the presence of Covid-19 in some of them, and had a 95% overall success rate. In their paper, the researchers said introducing dog olfactive detection was a cheap, quick and reliable tool to either pre-test willing participants or could be a fast-checking option in certain circumstances. link to article: https://www.biorxiv.org//10.1/2020.06.03.132134v1.full.pdf

25.01.2022 Did you know crows are about as smart as a 7 year old? They make tools, recognise human faces, know the route your garbage truck takes, understand analogies, hold grudges and pass those grudges down to future generations. https://www.audubon.org//march-april-2016/meet-bird-braini

20.01.2022 Parentchild relationships share a surprising number of similarities with ownerdog relationships, including analogous behavioural and hormonal bonding mechanisms. Researchers found evidence to suggest that the humandog attachment may in turn influence dog behaviour and reproductive physiology during puberty. They found an association between earlier puberty and an insecure attachment to a human carer. Additionally, when dogs reached puberty, they were less likely to follow ...commands given by their carer, but not by others. The socially-specific nature of this behaviour in dogs (reduced obedience for their carer only) suggests this behaviour reflects more than just generalized hormonal, brain and reward pathway changes that happen during adolescence. They also found a reduction in obedience to the carer and not an other person to be specific to the dogs developmental stage and more pronounced in dogs with insecure attachments. See more

18.01.2022 Dophins are such amazing learners.... did you know a dolphin whose trainers gave her fish for bringing them litter/dead gulls to clean her pool started hiding fish under a rock in her pool, then used fish to lure gulls which she brought to her trainers to get more fish. She taught her calf the strategy, who taught more calves!

17.01.2022 A more in depth look at the incredible Kelly and the much debated question - do animals even have personality to begin with? For centuries, scientists refused to use the term to describe animal behaviours. The word itself indicates the reason: you cant spell personality without the word person. Instead, researchers talked about temperament and behavioural syndromes and reward systems, operant conditioning. But more recent research suggests what people who live and work closely with animals have long suspected - they each have distinct personalities just like people.

17.01.2022 The Australian labradoodle which was initiated from Labrador retriever and standard poodle crosses 31 years ago in order to produce dogs with a reduced tendency to elicit an allergic reaction but that retained the desirable characteristics of a service dog. A study in the journal Genetics, has found despite the major contributions from poodle and Labrador retriever, additional breeds contributed to the modern Australian labradoodle. Todays Australian labradoodle is largely poodle with an excess of poodle alleles related to coat type. link to article: https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article

17.01.2022 Did you know a guide dog named Roselle led a group of people including her blind owner down 78 flights of stairs before the North Tower collapsed on 9/11. She only stopped to give kisses to a woman who was having a panic attack. You can learn more about Roselle in this podcast https://thisislovepodcast.com/episode-20-roselle-and-micha/

16.01.2022 Lovely meditation on the sadly shorter lifespan of our canine companions. As canines age, their owners have to adapt, much as with elderly parents but the lessons learnt are deep and vital.

15.01.2022 A study suggest our ability to recognise dogs emotions is shaped by our cultural upbringing. Participants who had grown up in a European, dog-positive culture were better at recognising dog emotions than those who had grown up in a Muslim country (even if they later moved to Europe). The researchers say These results are noteworthy because they suggest that it is not necessarily direct experience with dogs that affects humans ability to recognise their emotions, but rather the cultural milieu in which humans develop,. https://digest.bps.org.uk//our-ability-to-recognise-dogs-/

14.01.2022 In the new study, video cameras and GPS trackers were placed on four dogs who were taken on trips into the forest. The dogs would scamper off to chase the scent of an animal for 400 meters on average. The GPS tracks showed two types of behaviour during their return trips to their owner. In one, dubbed tracking, a dog would retrace its original route, presumably following the same scent. In the other behaviour, called scouting, the dog would return along a completely new route..., bushwhacking without any backtracking. In the middle of a scouting run, the dog would stop and run for about 20 meters along a north-south axis (see video, below) before it began to navigate back. Those short runs looked like an alignment along the magnetic field. An enlarged study of 27 dogs over 3 years found in 170 of 223 trips, the dogs stopped before they turned back and ran for about 20 meters along a north-south axis. When the animals did this, they tended to get back to the owner via a more direct route than when they didnt. Researchers suggest the dogs run along a north-south axis to figure out which way they are. See more

14.01.2022 Dogor was two months old when he died and has been well preserved in the Siberian ice. But is he an early modern wolf or one of the worlds very oldest domesticated dogs?

14.01.2022 Researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute in the US analysed DNA from 161 breeds to create a dog-breed family tree. The tree groups breeds into categories according to their shared history. These groups, known as clades, reflect the fact that for much of their domestication history dogs were known only by the kind of service they offered humankind.

12.01.2022 We have all really enjoyed the unexpected bonus of getting to spend extra time with our furry friends in lockdown... but are they all loving it as much as we do? For some anxious pets the effects of the Covid-19 quarantine has led to changes in their usual routine, more walks (which not all dogs love!) and more people/dogs/bicycles etc on their walks which can be highly stressful. For cats even small changes like switching to another brand of litter as their usual one has sold out can be devastating and lead to medical issues such as blocked bladders.

11.01.2022 Survey invitation The COVID-19 pandemic has raised additional and perhaps unforeseen ethically challenging situations for those working in veterinary clinical... settings. Dr Anne Fawcett is conducting a survey to determine the frequency, stressfulness and nature of these ethical challenges as part of her PhD study. The survey is open to veterinarians, animal health technicians and veterinary nurses around the world who are over the age of 18. We estimate that it will take 15-20 minutes to complete. To read the participant information statement and complete the survey, use this link: https://bit.ly/3dLqVK9

10.01.2022 Is there any empirical support for the popular stereotype that dogs are racist? As an initial inquiry into this question, researchers investigated whether human caregivers perceive racial bias in the behavior of their pet dogs. White caretakers reported that their dogs displayed more positive behaviors toward White than Black people, and these reports of dog behaviors were significantly correlated with caretakers own explicit and implicit racial preferences. The answer seems... to be "Yes," particularly if its caregiver has explicit or implicit negative attitudes toward other races and has limited experience interacting with them. In this case, as in many others, dogs, like children, are modeling their behavior after what they see in the actions of their caregivers. link to abstract: https://journals.sagepub.com//abs/10.1177/1368430218824656

09.01.2022 Really lovely comment from Marc Bekoff which we all need to remember: "We must consider what's happening in a dog's head and heart, and take their perspective on the matters at hand. We should accept that dogs will bark in situations in which it seems to us that barking is unnecessary or over the top. They may be smelling, hearing, or seeing something of which we are totally unaware, or simply feeling down and out or afraid. Perhaps they had a bad dream or perhaps they're hallucinating and having trouble figuring out what's happening and they're scared out of their minds. Stripping them of their emotions and ignoring why they're doing something and what they're trying to tell us is the wrong way to go and mishandling the situation can be bad for them and for us. "

09.01.2022 So many benefits - These detector dogs can in some cases even sniff out asymptomatic people! Sweat is used for tests as its not considered infectious for COVID-19. This means it presents less risk when handling samples.

09.01.2022 Very interesting read: Is telling your dog when he has done the right thing all you need for training?

08.01.2022 Debunking the popular myth that 1 dog year = 7 human years, researchers at the University of California San Diegos school of medicine studied epigenetic changes to DNA modifications that dont change the DNA sequence but can switch genes on or off. They looks at how methyl groups, accumulated in certain areas of the human genome over time and compared them with how they accumulated in similar areas in the dog genome. Dogs show far more rapid accumulation of methyl groups... in their genome than humans within their first year or so, suggesting they age at a much faster rate. However, as time passes, the rate of ageing in dogs, compared with humans, slows down. The findings suggest a one-year-old dog would have a human age of about 30, while by the age of four theyd be about 54 in human years, and by 14 they would be on a par with a human in their mid-70s.

03.01.2022 Despite the myth that has been circulating for decades, fish do feel pain and do show the capacity to suffer from it. When considering our ethical obligations to other animals, English philosopher Jeremy Bentham wrote, the most important question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?

02.01.2022 The hypothesis underpinning traditional breed group classification of domestic dogs is that behavioral differences among breeds may be explained by selection to perform particular roles. Consequently, breed group membership may provide an explanation of differences in performance in problem-solving tests. This study examined owner-reported performance of 8,063 pedigree dogs of three problem-solving tests designed to assess performance of different aspects of animal cognition.... Results indicate that counter to popular perception of breeds as distinct populations manifesting differing and predictable breed-group typical cognitive abilities, the findings revealed no such differences in problem-solving performances between breed groups although there was variation between breeds.The results caution against an overreliance on such classifications for understanding dog behavior.

02.01.2022 The Washington-based nonprofit group called People. Animals. Love. has switched its in-person meetups to virtual sessions during the pandemic to serve hundreds of kids per month who are practicing reading. We think part of the awesomeness is to see the dog on the screen, said James Haworth, executive director of PAL, which was started in 1982 by retired veterinarian Earl Strimple. Kids are often frightened if a teacher asks them to read in front of the classroom, but they are not intimidated by dogs, which makes the pooches a more comfortable audience.