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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.
Telling the tail!
Dogslife is “Citizen Science”
Canine Diabetes
The Dogslife project progress
Telling the tail!
A recent study has been looking at how dogs’ tails may wag in a particular direction depending on their mood, and that other dogs can identify this and respond accordingly. It has been suggested that when dogs are happy they wag their tails to their right, and if they are nervous, they wag their tails to their left. In this study, researchers set out to prove if this was true.
The research consisted of watching how dogs react to the tail movement of other dogs by monitoring a dog as they watched a film of another dog. The film consisted of a silhouette of a dog so that there were no other stimuli to affect the result and so the tail movement could be positioned either more to the left or more to the right. The dog’s behaviour and heart rate was measured as the dog was watching the film.
When the dogs watched a film of a dog wagging its tail to the right, they were relaxed, but when the tail wagged to the left, they looked anxious and their heart rates increased.
The researchers believed that the dogs reacted in this way from learned experience; which movements they should or shouldn’t be anxious about. For example, when meeting dogs which wag their tail to the right and are friendly, that tail movement is associated with a relaxed situation, whereas meeting dogs which wag their tail to the left and are not friendly, the dog associates that tail movement with a tense situation.
Other studies have shown that dogs turn their heads to the right when looking at a happy dog, and turn their heads to the left when looking at an aggressive dog.
Next time your dog is wagging its tail, you may want to test the theory by having a look at the direction they are wagging their tail and if they seem happy or anxious. However, many dogs will wag their tail so fast that it’s probably not easy tell! And of course, “left handed”, or should it be “left footed” dogs might do everything the other way around!
For more information on this study, please click here.
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Dogslife is “Citizen Science”
Dogslife is just one of many “citizen science” projects currently underway in the United Kingdom. Citizen science (also called crowd science, civic science, networked science, public participation science etc.) involves a research project where the general public contribute to the science through intellectual effort, diverse knowledge or tools and resources.
The term originated in the 1980s and has been used increasingly to describe projects where anyone can have an input into the process. One of the earliest uses of this approach was the use of the computers of the world (distributed computing) to monitor the universe for evidence of life, the SETI@home project (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/). Computer software uses excess computing capacity whenever the computer is free to scan the universe.
The RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch (https://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/) has been running since 1979 and has just been completed for 2014. Participants spend an hour over one weekend counting the birds in their gardens, and submit the results to the RSPB who then collate all the sightings from across the country. In 2013, nearly 600,000 people took part and 8.2 million birds were logged.
Slugwatch UK uses another approach (http://www.slugwatch.co.uk/). The Spanish slug increased in frequency during summer 2012. Now citizens are encouraged to report sightings of slugs which can be identified from pictures on the website. Photographs can be submitted for verification and identification.
With developments in technology, citizen scientists can take a more active part in the science by obtaining or building simple pieces of equipment with which to obtain data, or by using video links to record observations from distant field stations.
The internet has made citizen science accessible to anyone with a computer. Submission of data via an internet link is easy and can be done from many mobile devices. If you see a slug out on a walk, you can use your phone to take a photo and then send it off to Slugwatch immediately. No need to remember when you get back home. In another project, a smartphone app allows people to report signs of ash dieback (a chronic fungal disease which affects ash trees). Since October 2013 12,000 people have downloaded the app (https://www.ashtag.org/about/). Ash trees are also physically tagged and participants are encouraged to become the “steward” of the tree. Pooter! is a new smartphone game which encourages users to identify and record bees (http://www.nbn.org.uk/News/Latest-news/New-smartphone-game-to-benefit-bumblebees.aspx).
So citizen science allows scientists to accumulate vast amounts of data from participating members of the community. Of course there is always the question of how reliable are the data. To ensure the highest quality of data, the scientists in charge carry out a wide range of checks. They may visit a number of sites or individuals, request additional photos, speak to people on the phone, carry out a detailed survey on a subset of samples, supply equipment so that records are uniform, repeat the same observations, identify reports that stand out as unusual and so on.
You will see that we are using many of these approaches to make sure our Dogslife data are as accurate as possible. With more than 4,300 dogs, we can’t visit every one of our Dogslife families, but last year a number of participants allowed one of the team to come to their homes. We wanted to hear about your experience entering Dogslife data, the things you found difficult to estimate, and the questions that weren’t clear. We used this opportunity to measure your dog’s height and weight and chat to you about other entries you had made. We also asked many of you if we could obtain your dog’s records from your vet so we could see the occasions when your dog had visited and why. This process was necessary to show the world that the data input by Dogslife members is accurate and reliable, as with the other citizen science projects outlined here.
We know that sometimes entering Dogslife data in just the right way can be difficult and it may be tempting to skip questions. But we are grateful that you, our citizen scientists, are diligent and persistent in adding your information regularly and accurately. The health of all Labrador Retrievers and indeed of all dogs will benefit from the findings and understanding that come from the contributions of our Dogslife members. We hope that soon we will be able to bring you preliminary findings about Labrador Retriever health and illnesses. In the meantime, thank you for continuing to enter those details!
Many thanks to John Swain for providing the image
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Canine Diabetes
We probably all know somebody who has diabetes, as there are nearly 2.9 million people who have the disease in the United Kingdom, but did you know that dogs can develop it too? The condition is estimated to affect approximately 0.32% of the general dog population.
Diabetes is a group of diseases which affect the metabolism of the person (or dog), resulting in them developing a high level of sugar (glucose) in their blood. Diabetes can develop because the body does not produce enough insulin. Insulin is a hormone required to “drive” sugar into cells where it is used. This form is called Type 1 diabetes (or insulin dependent diabetes mellitus). Alternatively diabetes may develop because cells in the body do not respond to insulin properly, so again the glucose does not enter the cell. This form is called Type 2 diabetes (or non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus). Dogs most commonly develop Type 1 diabetes, and it tends to affect older dogs, although rarer genetic forms can develop in younger animals.
Dogs affected by diabetes mellitus can show clinical signs because of the high levels of sugar in their blood. For example they may show an increased thirst, an increased frequency of urination, lethargy and/or weight loss. Diabetes is diagnosed by the veterinary surgeon if they can identify evidence of high levels of glucose in the blood and urine of the affected dog. The exact cause of Type 1 diabetes is unknown, but other illnesses such as obesity, hormone problems, diseases of the pancreas and some medical treatments (like hormones and corticosteroids) appear to contribute to its development.
Diabetes can be a life threatening illness, as the body will start to use fat to generate energy (as the glucose is not entering the cells), which in turn leads to the production of substances called ketones which can make the body extremely unwell. Diabetes can be treated successfully in the vast majority of cases, usually by injecting insulin (for Type 1). The type of insulin, dose and frequency of administration have to be monitored very carefully as too much or too little result in the blood sugar level not being stabilised properly. Regular exercise is also important, as it helps the insulin to work better.
Affected dogs require regular check-ups so that blood tests can be performed to ensure that they are receiving the correct dose of insulin. Diabetic dogs commonly develop infections of their urinary tract (like cystitis), and some dogs can develop cataracts. The long term outcome for dogs with diabetes that are appropriately treated is very good.
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The Dogslife project progress
The Dogslife project has been recruiting Kennel Club registered Labrador Retrievers (born after 1st January 2010) for over three and a half years. Some of the dogs taking part in the study will be therefore be turning four years of age this year. As the age of the Dogslife study cohort increases, the more information is being collected to help us find out what keeps dogs healthy over their lifetime.
Each time you update your dog’s record, their data is stored in our secure database. With every data entry collecting up to 100 pieces of information about your dog, and with over 16,200 completed data entries so far, including data about over 7,800 illness episodes, it amounts to a lot of information! The website has been set up especially to record a large variety of options depending on your dog’s specific health and lifestyle. To manage this data behind the scenes there is a bespoke and very complex database.
The website is not quite as simple those we use to read the news, buy products or record single pieces of information. The Dogslife questionnaire often asks questions based on answers you have detailed previously. We understand that some questions may be difficult to answer, or the website may not work perfectly each time, but rest assured we are doing our best to take on board all our members’ feedback and make the necessary amendments and updates to ensure the smooth running of the site when you visit. We are limited by our budget, which is considerably less than the popular information websites we all regularly visit, and which may actually be collecting much less complicated data than Dogslife! We would like to thank everyone for their patience and dedication in continuing to enter their dog’s data. Every piece of information is of great importance to the study.
Despite our constrained budget, Dogslife has been able to achieve a great deal in the study so far. Not only do we continue to update our website (and hope to obtain the funds so that it can be made more compatible with mobile devices such as tablet computers and phones), but we have also been able to visit some of our members, collect DNA and faecal samples, send out accelerometers to a subset of members to monitor their dog’s movements, and carry out continual telephone and postal contact to all those whom the project is of interest (for example our members, prospective members, breeders, and Breed Clubs).
This year, Dogslife will be studying the frequency of different illnesses in the cohort and the relationships between various aspects of a dog’s environment (their diet, exercise, geographical location, household type etc.) on the risk of them developing a disease. We also aim to publish more papers about the project and will keep you posted with our findings and publications through our monthly Newsletter and The study so far section of the website. We are still enrolling puppies onto the study (so please continue to spread the word!) and hope to reach nearly 5000 members by the end of the year. Dogslife continues to be the biggest ever study of dog health in the world. Thanks again for all your help and support.
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Don't forget to come back to Dogslife to update your dog's record www.dogslife.ac.uk. If you have entered data since your dog turned ten months of age, the questionnaire should be quicker and easier to complete as some of the questions will be prepopulated with your previous answers.
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