Use of tramadol in a Labrador retriever presenting with self-mutilation of the tail

A 30-month-old Labrador retriever bitch with a history of atopy was presented for acuteonset tail biting that was leading to self-mutilation. The problem began 8 months before consultation and was resolved after 2 months, but it recurred 3 months later and continued for 3 months until the time of consultation. The current episode was difficult to interrupt and was being controlled through the use of an Elizabethan collar. There had been no history of injury to the tail. On examination of the tail, an irregularity was palpated approximately midway on the dorsal surface. Radiographs of the tail showed soft-tissue swelling cranially and presence of an ossicle between the mid-caudal vertebrae. Mutilation stopped with administration of tramadol and paracetamol and started again when the medication was discontinued. No behavior modification was implemented. Although there is a possibility that the tramadol was treating a psychogenically driven self-mutilation behavior, it is more likely that pain was the initiating cause for the behavior. This case report highlights the importance of careful medical evaluation of suspected behavioral problems and discusses the possible use of tramadol in self-mutilation.http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-veterinary-behavior-clinical-applications-and-research/mn201

A need for greater inclusivity and diversity in scent detection dog research: a reply to Lazarowski et al. and Byosiere et al

In this response to the commentaries, we highlight the relevance of our approach to different challenges faced by working dogs and those working with them. We agree with Byosiere, Feng, and Rutter (2019) that sourcing dogs from nontraditional routes would be beneficial and highlight the importance of using our approach to realize the potential of these animals. Further, Lazarowski, Waggoner, and Katz (2019) highlight the importance of different cultural approaches to training; again, we believe that this, in combination with our suggested approach, is likely to be fruitful. Finally, we agree with the commentaries that it is essential to further investigate the mechanisms underlying performance to fully understand the factors that influence success in working dogs. Better understanding the factors that are important in shaping success in the field will be an essential step to reliably deploying more successful working dog

Animals can assign novel odours to a known category

The ability to identify a novel stimulus as a member of a known category allows an organism torespond appropriately towards it. Categorisation is thus a fundamental component of cognition andan essential tool for processing and responding to unknown stimuli. Therefore, one might expectto observe it throughout the animal kingdom and across sensory domains. There is much evidenceof visual categorisation in non-human animals, but we currently know little about this process inother modalities. In this experiment, we investigated categorisation in the olfactory domain. Dogswere trained to discriminate between 40 odours; the presence or absence of accelerants formed thecategorical rule. Those in the experimental group were rewarded for responding to substrates withaccelerants (either burnt or un-burnt) and inhibit responses to the same substrates (either burnt or unburnt)without accelerants (S+ counterbalanced). The pseudocategory control group was trained onthe same stimuli without the categorical rule. The experimental group learned the discrimination andanimals were able to generalise to novel stimuli from the same category. None of the control animalswere able to learn the discrimination within the maximum number of trials. This study provides the firstevidence that non-human animals can learn to categorise non-biologically relevant odour information

Truth is in the eye of the beholder: Perception of the Müller-Lyer illusion in dogs

Visual illusions are objects that are made up of elements that are arranged in such a way as to result in erroneous perception of the objects’ physical properties. Visual illusions are used to study visual perception in humans and nonhuman animals, since they provide insight into the psychological and cognitive processes underlying the perceptual system. In a set of three experiments, we examined whether dogs were able to learn a relational discrimination and to perceive the Müller-Lyer illusion. In Experiment 1, dogs were trained to discriminate line lengths using a two-alternative forced choice procedure on a touchscreen. Upon learning the discrimination, dogs’ generalization to novel exemplars and the threshold of their abilities were tested. In the second experiment, dogs were presented with the Müller-Lyer illusion as test trials, alongside additional test trials that controlled for overall stimulus size. Dogs appeared to perceive the illusion; however, control trials revealed that they were using global size to solve the task. Experiment 3 presented modified stimuli that have been known to enhance perception of the illusion in other species. However, the dogs’ performance remained the same. These findings reveal evidence of relational learning in dogs. However, their failure to perceive the illusion emphasizes the importance of using a full array of control trials when examining these paradigms, and it suggests that visual acuity may play a crucial role in this perceptual phenomenon

The use of tramadol in a Labrador retriever presenting with self-mutilation of the tail

A 30-month-old Labrador retriever bitch with a history of atopy was presented for acute-onset tail biting that was leading to self-mutilation. The problem began 8 months before consultation and was resolved after 2 months, but it recurred 3 months later and continued for 3 months until the time of consultation. The current episode was difficult to interrupt and was being controlled through the use of an Elizabethan collar. There had been no history of injury to the tail. On examination of the tail, an irregularity was palpated approximately midway on the dorsal surface. Radiographs of the tail showed soft-tissue swelling cranially and presence of an ossicle between the mid-caudal vertebrae. Mutilation stopped with administration of tramadol and paracetamol and started again when the medication was discontinued. No behavior modification was implemented. Although there is a possibility that the tramadol was treating a psychogenically driven self-mutilation behavior, it is more likely that pain was the initiating cause for the behavior. This case report highlights the importance of careful medical evaluation of suspected behavioral problems and discusses the possible use of tramadol in self-mutilation. 2012 Elsevier Inc

Short term consequences of preventing visitor access to kennels on noise and the behaviour and physiology of dogs housed in a rescue shelter

Re-homing centres present a range of potential stressors to kennelled dogs which are likely to impact negatively on their welfare. Despite the presence of visitors to the kennel often being considered a potential stressor, empirical investigation into its impact on the behaviour and welfare of kennelled dogs in re-homing centres is lacking. This study investigated the influence of changing visitor access policy from open access to prohibited viewing at kennels (with organised single meetings for viewing dogs outside of the kennel environment) on the welfare of 15 dogs housed in a dog-only re-homing facility. Data was collected across a number of domains comprising kennel noise levels, behavioural measures (activity, repetitive behaviour, response to human approach); physiological measures (urinary cortisol:creatinine ratios); sickness events and faecal scoring. The general kennel noise levels were significantly lower when visitor access to the kennel area was restricted. Furthermore, dogs were found to display behaviour indicative of improved welfare during this time period; dogs spent significantly more time sedentary, less time moving and exhibited significantly fewer episodes of repetitive behaviours. No significant change was seen in the urinary cortisol:creatinine ratio, nor in sickness behaviour, faecal scoring or response to a human approach test. Overall, the results from this study suggest that restricting visitors from viewing the dogs while in their kennels may be better for the dogs' short term welfar

Word generalization by a dog (Canis familiaris): is shape important?

We investigated the presence of a key feature of human word comprehension in a five year old Border Collie: the generalization of a word referring to an object to other objects of the same shape, also known as shape bias. Our first experiment confirmed a solid history of word learning in the dog, thus making it possible for certain object features to have become central in his word comprehension. Using an experimental paradigm originally employed to establish shape bias in children and human adults we taught the dog arbitrary object names (e.g. dax) for novel objects. Two experiments showed that when briefly familiarized with word-object mappings the dog did not generalize object names to object shape but to object size. A fourth experiment showed that when familiarized with a word-object mapping for a longer period of time the dog tended to generalize the word to objects with the same texture. These results show that the dog tested did not display human-like word comprehension, but word generalization and word reference development of a qualitatively different nature compared to humans. We conclude that a shape bias for word generalization in humans is due to the distinct evolutionary history of the human sensory system for object identification and that more research is necessary to confirm qualitative differences in word generalization between humans and dogs