By Zazie Todd, PhD
When dogs are waiting for adoption at a shelter, a mutual query is “what is the domestic dog similar alongside cats?” But at the 2d there’s no validated agency to exam dogs to come across if they volition hold out friendly to cats.
Some dogs drib dead practiced friends alongside cats, simply other dogs desire to chase together with kill them, together with hence it would genuinely attention if shelters knew if a domestic dog is cat-friendly.
Sometimes the soul who surrenders a domestic dog volition furnish information, simply typically this isn’t available. So staff may walk the domestic dog past times ane of the shelter cats to come across how it responds. This is potentially real stressful for the cat, together with nosotros don’t know if the dog’s reply is typical of how it would comport away from the shelter environment.
H5N1 novel written report past times Dr. Christy Hoffman (Canisius College) et al sets out to investigate what a cat-friendliness assessment mightiness await like. They tested pet dogs alongside a realistic-looking truthful cat doll, recordings of truthful cat sounds, together with the aroma of truthful cat urine.
Lead writer MD Christy Hoffman told me inwards an email,
“We had several cool findings. For one, dogs sniffed our command object (a stuffed pillowcase) to a greater extent than when it smelled similar truthful cat urine than when it did not; however, when our cat-like doll smelled similar truthful cat urine, the dogs did non invest whatsoever additional fourth dimension into sniffing the truthful cat doll than when it did non aroma similar truthful cat urine. Our interpretation of what was going on inwards the dogs’ heads: “If it looks similar a truthful cat together with smells similar a cat, together with hence what? If it doesn’t await similar a truthful cat simply smells similar one, that’s interesting!” To me, the finding suggests dogs perceived the cat-like doll every bit genuinely beingness cat-like. We idea that was interesting.69 pet dogs of a multifariousness of breeds together with mixed-breeds took utilisation inwards the study, which took house inwards a lab at Canisius College. 54 of the dogs happened to alive alongside a cat.
The other primary finding was that dogs that had a history of killing/injuring cats or other small-scale animals spent significantly to a greater extent than fourth dimension orienting to the truthful cat sounds than dogs that did non lead keep such a history. While nosotros did non develop a shelter-based assessment tool that could predict which dogs are cat-appropriate every bit utilisation of our study, nosotros mean value the findings could contribute to the evolution of such a tool.”
The written report separated visual, auditory together with olfactory information. The visual truthful cat stimulus was an animatronic Farsi truthful cat doll manufactured past times Hasbro. H5N1 command visual stimulus was made past times sticking eyes on a pillow example together with putting a motorized ball within (so it soundless had eyes together with moved, simply was non cat-like).
The auditory stimulus was a recording of cats miaowing, alongside a duad of growls too. The command was the audio of coins dropping.
Half of the dogs took utilisation inwards the olfactory status inwards which the items smelled of truthful cat urine, together with the other one-half had no odour added.
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| Photos: TN Photographer; top, shubbel (both Shutterstock.com) |
The dogs were video-taped to come across how they responded to the inanimate truthful cat toy vs control, the animated truthful cat toy vs the animated control, together with the truthful cat sounds vs the money sounds. The videos were analysed to come across how much fourth dimension each domestic dog spent looking towards, focussing on together with sniffing each stimulus.
The dogs spent the same sum of fourth dimension orienting to the truthful cat stimulus, whether it was animated or inanimate. For the command visual stimulus, they spent longer orienting to it when it was animated (i.e. the balls were moving within the pillow case).
Dogs spent longer orienting to the truthful cat audio compared to the command audio or the visual truthful cat stimulus. They also spent to a greater extent than fourth dimension orienting to the visual truthful cat stimulus than the visual control, together with to the command audio than the visual control.
In other words, they were prioritizing the auditory data over visual, together with they were most interested inwards the truthful cat sounds.
Dogs sniffed the truthful cat doll to a greater extent than than the pillow case, whether or non they were inwards the olfactory status inwards which both items smelled of truthful cat pee. So this suggests they did discovery the truthful cat doll to hold out cat-like, inwards much the same agency dogs seem to discovery stuffed dogs dog-like.
Whether or non the domestic dog lived alongside a truthful cat did non significantly impact the results.
However, iv of the dogs had previously killed or injured a cat, together with xiv had previously killed or injured a small-scale furry animal. So the researchers looked to come across if at that topographic point were whatsoever differences inwards deportment betwixt these dogs together with those alongside no such history.
They constitute the dogs alongside a history of killing/injuring a truthful cat or other small-scale furry creature spent longer orienting to the truthful cat sounds than the other dogs. There was no number for visual or olfactory information. This suggests that a exam based on truthful cat sounds mightiness hold out a practiced agency to dissever out the dogs that would non hold out prophylactic alongside cats.
Future enquiry on olfaction could utilisation scent collected from cats’ scent glands (e.g. when the truthful cat rubs on something) instead of urine, which mightiness hold out to a greater extent than realistic.
Developing assessments for shelter dogs is difficult. This written report takes the offset steps inwards finding out how to evaluate dogs to come across if they larn on alongside cats, without stressing whatsoever cats inwards the process. The results advise focussing on auditory data could hold out a practiced agency to discovery out.
This is of import enquiry because a validated exam to come across if dogs are feline-friendly would hold out real useful for animate beingness shelters.
How does your domestic dog larn on alongside cats?
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Zazie Todd, PhD, is the writer of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy
. She is the founder of the pop spider web log , where she writes most everything from preparation methods to the human-canine relationship. She also writes a column for Psychology Today together with has received the prestigious Captain Haggerty Award for Best Training Article inwards 2017. Todd lives inwards Maple Ridge, BC, alongside her husband, ane dog, together with 2 cats.Useful links:
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Reference
Hoffman, C., Workman, M., Roberts, N., & Handley, S. (2017). Dogs’ responses to visual, auditory, together with olfactory cat-related cues Applied Animal Behaviour Science DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2016.12.016
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