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April 2017 Newsletter |
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How much can your dog understand from how you speak to them?
The various colours of yellow Labradors
How much can your dog understand from how you speak to them?
Studies have been carried out to research the effect of intonation when humans speak to dogs. Scientists have found that it’s not just what you say, but how you say it that dogs can understand.
In one study, researchers from Hungary trained thirteen dogs to lie motionless inside an fMRI machine so that they could scan their brains whilst they played four different recordings of their trainer’s voice. The recordings were of neutral words and praise words, each said in a neutral intonation and a high-pitched intonation (inferring praise). The scans were studied to find out how brain activity changed during the recordings.
They found that dogs, like humans, process intonation of speech in the right hemisphere of their brain, and process meaningful words with the left hemisphere of their brain. The study found that dogs experienced a sense of reward when their trainer’s words and intonation implied praise. For more details of this study, please click here.
Another study carried out by researchers in the UK, France and US, highlighted how humans may use baby talk to try and engage with a listener that cannot speak, i.e. a dog. Thirty women were recorded saying phrases such as “who’s a good boy?” in a sing-song cooing tone to images of a puppy, an adult dog, and an elderly dog. They also repeated what they said in a neutral tone for the researchers to record.
The results showed that the women spoke more slowly and in a higher pitch when talking to dogs (as opposed to when they were talking to each other), and that their pitch increased when speaking to puppies in particular.. The study also found that when puppies and adult dogs were spoken to in the cooing tone, it was just the puppies that reacted to it; adult dogs did not seem to show a preference to baby talk over normal speech, which surprised the scientists. They thought this could be because adult dogs become less interested in a stranger’s voice, or less receptive to high-pitched sounds as they get older.
The research concluded that the speech pattern of baby talk is not just used to facilitate communications with human infants, but is also used when interacting with non-speaking listeners like dogs, and evidences the overlap between parent-child, and human-dog relationships. For more information about this research, please click here.
Mammary tumours are one of the most common tumours that develop in dogs. Certain breeds, such as Poodles, Dachshunds and Spaniels appear to be more commonly affected, as are female dogs. Neutering appears to have a large (protective) affect on the risk of female dogs developing mammary tumours; one study revealed that 0.5% of female dogs will develop a mammary tumour over their lifetime if neutered before their first season, which increases to 8% if neutered after their first season, and 25% if neutered after their second. Spaying young animals has a similar affect on risk reduction in cats.
As the mammary glands are composed of multiple cell types, it is not surprising that many different types of tumour occur in this organ. Approximately 50% of canine mammary tumours are benign (will not spread to other tissues or organs) and 50% are malignant (can spread). The treatment recommended for a mammary tumour depends on the type of tumour, and whether it has spread to other tissues or organs. A pathologist can determine what the tumour type is from cells or a piece of tissue taken away, and other tests such as chest X-rays and abdominal ultrasound scans can look for spread of the tumour to other organs and tissues. Treatments often require a combination of surgical resections of the mammary glands and chemotherapy.
Similarly, the prognosis will depend on the type of tumour, whether it has spread, its appearance on histology and its size. Most mammary tumours can be treated, and often cured, with appropriate treatment. Sadly for our feline friends, the prognosis for mammary tumours is much poorer, with most tumours spreading and behaving more aggressively.
The various colours of yellow Labradors
The genetics of the coat colours of Labrador Retrievers is mostly fairly simple; there is one gene that determines whether the dogs are black or brown, and another that gives either a dark or yellow coat, depending on the variant inherited from each parent. The Dogslife newsletter from September 2012 has more information on how this works (please see here: http://www..dogslife.ac.uk/newsletter/view/26#coatcolour). The yellow variant has to come from both parents to make the puppy yellow, but if it does, then it trumps black or brown and the dog will be yellow no matter which version of the black/brown gene it has. (The parents don’t have to be yellow themselves, the yellow gene from one parent could be hidden by a non-yellow partner from the other parent; yellow is called a “recessive” characteristic).
Interestingly, the yellow coat colour in Labrador Retrievers is caused by a variant of the gene called MC1R. Variants of the same gene result in red hair in humans and chestnut colour in horses. Exactly the same variant is associated with the red colour of Irish Setters. So the question is, why are humans, horses and Setters red, whilst Labradors are yellow? In Dogslife, “yellow” Labradors actually come in a range of shades, from a very pale, almost white colour to a darker reddish (Fox Red) shade. We want to look for other genes that differ between dogs of different shades of yellow by comparing the DNA from the different dogs. We plan to contact owners of some of the Dogslife participants with a questionnaire about their pet’s colour and, if we don’t have one already, then we may request a saliva sample for DNA analysis. We hope to explain the difference between fox red and pale cream dogs, and maybe even explain all the different shades of red hair in humans.
Congratulations to March’s prize winners! The following Dogslife members have each won £10 of Pets at Home vouchers: Miss G from Fife, Mrs B from Wiltshire, Mr P from Kent, Miss R from West Yorkshire, Mrs D from Somerset, Mrs H from Essex, Mrs L from Hampshire, Mrs C from Derbyshire, Mrs A from Buckinghamshire, Mr F from Somerset. We hope you enjoy spending the vouchers on your pet!
If you haven’t won a prize this time, don’t worry! The next time you login at www.dogslife.ac.uk and update your dog’s record, you will automatically be entered into the next prize draw which takes place in June.
Huge thanks to everyone who continues to support Dogslife; your help with the study is greatly appreciated and is key to us finding out what keeps dogs healthy over their lifetime. If you wish to read about Dogslife’s findings so far, please click here: http://www.dogslife.ac.uk/research.
Don't forget to come back to www.dogslife.ac.uk and update your dog's record!
