Canine play behavior

Teaching owners how to train their dogs is an important part of maintaining the health and safety of dogs and people. Yet we do not know what behavioral characteristics of dogs and their owners are relevant to dog training or if owner cognitive abilities play a role in training success. The aim of this study is to determine which characteristics of both dogs and owners predict success in completing the American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen training program. Before the first session of a dog training course, owners completed surveys evaluating the behavior and cognition of their dog and themselves...

Therapy dogs provide health benefits for individuals who suffer from illnesses, such as dementia, depression, loneliness, and aggression. Therapy dogs' impact on human health has been thoroughly studied; however, studies on dog welfare have been limited. Additionally, as dogs have evolved with humans, they have learned to read non-verbal social cues. Dogs can read humans' non-verbal body language and can react to their emotions. However, the body language of dogs is poorly understood and can lead to dog owner-directed aggression...

BACKGROUND: The WW domain-containing oxidoreductase (WWOX) tumor suppressor gene is frequently lost in a variety of solid and hematopoietic malignancies in humans. Dysregulation of WWOX has been implicated as playing a key role in tumor cell survival, DNA damage repair, and genomic stability. The purpose of this study was to characterize WWOX expression in spontaneous canine mast cell tumors (MCTs) and malignant cell lines and investigate the potential contribution of WWOX loss on malignant mast cell behavior...

DNA methylation is a comprehensively studied epigenetic modification and plays crucial roles in cancer development. In the present study, MethylCap-seq was used to characterize the genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in canine high-grade B-cell lymphoma (cHGBL). Canine methylated DNA fragments were captured and the MEDIUM-HIGH and LOW fraction of methylated DNA was obtained based on variation in CpG methylation density. In the MEDIUM-HIGH and LOW fraction, 2144 and 1987 cHGBL-specific hypermethylated genes, respectively, were identified...

Breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide. Identification of reliable prognostic indicators and therapeutic targets is critical for improving patient outcome. Cancer in companion animals often strongly resembles human cancers and a comparative approach to identify prognostic markers can improve clinical care across species. Feline mammary tumors (FMT) serve as models for extremely aggressive triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in humans, with high rates of local and distant recurrence after resection...

Canine melanoma is a malignant tumor that exhibits aggressive behavior, and frequently metastasizes to regional lymph nodes and distant sites. Currently, there are no effective treatments or practical prognostic biomarkers for canine melanoma. The enzyme kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (KMO), which plays a central role in the tryptophan metabolism, has previously been identified as the main pathogenic factor in neurodegenerative diseases; however, it has recently been found to be positively associated with tumor malignancy in human hepatocellular carcinoma and canine mammary tumors...

The bacterial pathogen Staphylococcus pseudintermedius is involved in canine otitis externa and pyoderma as well as in surgical wound and urinary tract infections. Invasion of canine epithelial cells is promoted by S. pseudintermedius fibronectin (Fn)-binding proteins SpsD and SpsL through molecular interactions that are currently unknown. By means of single-molecule experiments, we discover that both adhesins have distinct molecular mechanisms for binding to Fn. We show that the SpsD-Fn interaction has a strength equivalent to that of a covalent bond (∼1...

BACKGROUND: The central serotonergic system originating from the dorsal raphe nucleus (DR) plays a critical role in anxiety and trauma-related disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder. Although many studies have investigated the role of serotonin (5-HT) within pro-fear brain regions such as the amygdala, the majority of these studies have utilized non-selective pharmacological approaches or poorly understood lesioning techniques which limit their interpretation. AIM: Here we investigated the role of amygdala-projecting 5-HT neurons in the DR in innate anxiety and conditioned fear behaviors...

Music therapy yields many positive health outcomes in humans, but the effects of music on the health and welfare of nonhuman animals vary greatly with the type of music played, the ethology of the species, and the personality and learning history of individual animals. One context in which music therapy may be used to enhance animal welfare is to alleviate stress in domestic environments. Here, we review studies of the effects of music exposure on dogs as a case study for the implementation of music therapy in veterinary medicine...

Aging research has experienced a burst of scientific efforts in the last decades as the growing ratio of elderly people has begun to pose an increased burden on the healthcare and pension systems of developed countries. Although many breakthroughs have been reported in understanding the cellular mechanisms of aging, the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that contribute to senescence on higher biological levels are still barely understood. The dog, Canis familiaris , has already served as a valuable model of human physiology and disease...

BACKGROUND: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) and follicular lymphoma (FL) are the most common B-cell lymphomas (BCL) in dogs. Recent investigations have demonstrated overlaps of these histotypes with the human counterparts, including clinical presentation, biologic behavior, tumor genetics, and treatment response. The molecular mechanisms that underlie canine BCL are still unknown and new studies to improve diagnosis, therapy, and the utilization of canine species as spontaneous animal tumor models are undeniably needed...

Matrix metalloproteinases 2 and 9 (MMP2 and MMP9) are proteolytic enzymes involved with extracellular matrix degradation. They play a role in tumor invasion and metastases. Because of their ability to degrade signaling molecules presented in extracellular matrix, MMPs contribute to tumor proliferation and apoptosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate expression of MMP2 (latent and both active and latent forms) and MMP9 (active, latent, active and latent forms) in different subtypes of canine lymphomas and their relationship with proliferative (mitotic index and percentage of Ki67-positive cells) and apoptotic (apoptotic index) markers...

Inhibitory control is a term used to envelop a collection of processes that allow an organism to refrain from engaging in an inappropriate prepotent or responsive behavior. Studies have examined the propensity of inhibitory control by nonhuman animals, from the cognitively complex processes involved in self-control to potentially less cognitively taxing processes such as motoric self-regulation. Focusing on canines, research has suggested that the domestication process as well as experiences during ontogeny contribute to inhibitory control...

Introduction: Psychometric tools have been developed for the assessment of behavioral and affective traits in non-human animals. Frustration can be defined as an emotional reaction experienced after a given expectation is violated. Frustration is a negative emotional state and whilst it probably plays a key role in certain behavior problems in dogs (e.g., aggressive behaviors), there appears to have been little attempt to scale this affective tendency. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to develop a tool to assess frustration tendencies in dogs...

E-cadherin is a cell adhesion molecule that participates in several cellular processes that guarantee the maintenance of structural and functional integrity of epithelial tissues. E-cadherin plays an important role in mammary carcinogenesis and various studies have demonstrated the effect of CDH1 genetic variation in risk, progression and biological behavior of human breast cancer. Although there are some recognized genetic variations in canine CDH1 gene, their influence in canine mammary tumor development and progression has not been previously evaluated...

Consumer genomics enables genetic discovery on an unprecedented scale by linking very large databases of personal genomic data with phenotype information voluntarily submitted via web-based surveys. These databases are having a transformative effect on human genomics research, yielding insights on increasingly complex traits, behaviors, and disease by including many thousands of individuals in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The promise of consumer genomic data is not limited to human research, however...

Five decades ago, Dmitry Belyaev, Lyudmila Trut, and colleagues began a now-famous experiment, selectively breeding foxes based on one criterion: perceived tame behavior. Over generations, the fox population changed in behavior (as predicted) but, intriguingly, also changed markedly in appearance-for example, many had wider mouths, curlier tails, different fur coloring, and floppy ears. These researchers concluded that the morphological changes that appeared in their foxes were a by-product of the researchers' selecting for genetic variants that are implicated both in behavior and in appearance...

Drug detection dogs can be trained to locate various prohibited drugs with targeted odors, and they play an important role in the interdiction of drug smuggling in human society. Recent studies provide the interesting hypothesis that the oxytocin system serves as a biological basis for co-evolution between dogs and humans. Here, we offer the new possibility that genetic variation of the canine oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene may regulate the success of a dog's training to become a drug detection dog. A total of 340 Labrador Retriever dogs that were trained to be drug detection dogs in Japan were analyzed...

Cervical spondylomyelopathy (CSM), also known as wobbler syndrome, affects mainly large and giant-breed dogs, causing compression of the cervical spinal cord and/or nerve roots. Structural and dynamic components seem to play a role in the development of CSM; however, pathogenesis is not yet fully understood. Finite element models have been used for years in human medicine to study the dynamic behavior of structures, but it has been mostly overlooked in veterinary studies. To our knowledge, no specific ligamentous spine models have been developed to investigate naturally occurring canine myelopathies and possible surgical treatments...

Background: Breed-related health problems in dogs have received increased focus over the last decade. Responsibility for causing and/or solving these problems has been variously directed towards dog breeders and kennel clubs, the veterinary profession, welfare scientists, owners, regulators, insurance companies and the media. In reality, all these stakeholders are likely to share some responsibility and optimal progress on resolving these challenges requires all key stakeholders to work together...