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If your dog has had any illnesses or ailments, you can tell us about them at any time without having to complete the rest of the questionnaire. Simply login to your dog's profile by visiting www.dogslife.ac.uk and click on the link underneath your dog's graph.
What is your dog’s face saying?
Canine Conjunctivitis
Can you fool a dog with a placebo?
Quick click questionnaire
What is your dog’s face saying?
We all interpret facial expressions to infer the emotional states of each other, but can we interpret the facial expressions of our pets? Many people believe they can, whilst others are sceptical. Research performed by Tina Blood at the Waldon University in Florida has tried to answer this question by assessing whether humans could identify specific emotions from different pictures of a dog.
The pictures were taken of a male Belgian Malinois police dog in seven “behaviourally defined” situations (in which behavioural reactions might be expected rather than presumed). These were conditions in which the dog would be expected to elicit specific emotions. The photographs were then judged by three experts who ranked the photographs of the dog in the seven behaviourally defined situaitions. Six basic emotions (happy, sad, surprise, disgust, anger, and fear) and a “neutral” photograph were taken. For example the “Happy” photographs were taken when the dog’s handler told him “Good boy. We are going to play soon.” The dog had thousands of repetitions of these words, which meant that his handler would pull a ball from his pocket and play with him. Once the picture was taken, the dog was released and given his ball as a reward.
The experts assessed and ranked ten photographs of each expression independently, and three were chosen in which the experts most closely agreed to be the best examples of the emotion. These selected photographs were then assessed by a group of people experienced with dogs (people who had trained at least one dog to an entry level (Companion Dog) title in the American Kennel Club), and a group of people with minimal experience with dogs, each of whom were asked to assess the dogs.
The results of the study were fascinating; experienced people were better at identifying the different behaviourally defined situations, although they were less accurate at reading aggressiveness. Overall, people could accurately but not perfectly identify at least one canine facial expression. They concluded that this is proof that humans are connected to other species through emotional communication (i.e. the recognition of facial expression of emotions, not just oral and physical communications). Of course, it is probably a two-way street, and how your dog interprets your facial expression when he/she is caught in your bin is another matter entirely!
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Canine Conjunctivitis
“Conjunctivitis” is a term used to describe inflammation of the tissues that surround the eyeball. It is one of the most common conditions seen by vets and it can affect any breed of dog at any age. It is quite likely that during a dog’s lifetime they may be affected by conjunctivitis, and it is one of the most common illnesses reported to the Dogslife project.
Conjunctivitis causes redness, discharge and sometimes discomfort or itching. Some of these signs can also be associated with more serious problems such as ulcers on the surface of the eye, a dislocated lens inside the eye or glaucoma. For this reason, it is important that a vet examines any eye that is red and sore.
A common misconception is that conjunctivitis is primarily caused by infections. Whilst it is true that we often see bacteria present in cases of conjunctivitis, this is usually secondary to another underlying problem. The most common initiating causes include allergies, irritation from dust or wind, poor eyelid conformation and inadequate tear production.
Treatment of conjunctivitis depends on the cause. Your vet will carefully examine your dog’s eyes using an ophthalmoscope (a combined light and magnifying lens). They may also perform a measurement of tear production and use fluorescent dye to check for scratches and ulcers on the surface of the eyeball. Only then can they plan a suitable treatment regime for each individual case.
Many thanks to Victoria Macklin MRCVS for writing this article
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Can you fool a dog with a placebo?
Placebos are a medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or medical condition which deceives the recipient. Patients given a placebo treatment may have a perceived or true improvement in their condition, which is called the “placebo effect”. Roughly 30% of the human population show a placebo effect, although it varies greatly with the type of condition being treated.
So can dogs be tricked with placebo treatments? The answer is almost certainly not as it is implausible that they could comprehend that they are being treated for a given disease. But fascinatingly, their caregivers (owners and vets) can show a placebo effect when assessing a dog for a response to treatment.
A recent study by Professor Michael Conzemius and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, looked at the relationship between the “subjective” responses of caregivers (dog owners and vets), when compared to truly objective measures in dogs treated for osteoarthritis. They studied dogs being given a placebo as part of another study evaluating the effectiveness of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) for the treatment of osteoarthritis. They used a force platform (which measures how much force dogs put through their paws when walking) as their objective measure of whether the dog’s lameness had improved following the placebo treatment, as this method cannot be biased in any way. The owners and veterinarians were unaware as to whether their dog was receiving a placebo or the NSAID.
The dogs were assessed by owners 2, 4 and 6 weeks after treatment was started, and a caregiver placebo effect was observed in both the owners and vets assessing the dogs. The caregiver placebo effect (for example, reporting that the dogs lameness had improved, when the force platform identified that it had not, or that it had deteriorated) was estimated to be 57% for owners when questioned about their dogs lameness, and over 40% for vets when questioned or asked to visually evaluate their dog’s lameness. This highlighted the need for control groups in clinical trials and the importance of considering the caregiver effect when interpreting owner responses, veterinary examination findings and clinical research reports.
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Quick click questionnaire
As part of Dogslife’s commitment to making data entry quicker and easier for our members, we will soon be pre-populating the answers to some of the questions in the questionnaire. This means that some of the answers recorded the last time you entered your dog’s data will show in the questionnaire the next time you complete your dog’s results. This is being set up to make it easier to complete your dog’s record if their details have not changed, and simple to amend if there have been any changes.
Previously recorded answers will show in the questionnaire after dogs’ ten month data entry has been entered (as before this time we would expect dogs’ details to change regularly as they progress through puppyhood).
We ask those members whose dog’s questionnaires that will be pre-populated to check the information carefully and be sure to record any changes however small they may seem.
Thank you to everyone who continues to support the project and enter their dog’s results. All the information provided helps us to find out what keeps dogs healthy!
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Don't forget to come back to Dogslife to update your dog's record www.dogslife.ac.uk
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