Dogs Are Like Porn All Over the Internet and Waiting For You

Hi Mia,

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I’m coming to you hopped up on 3 cups of coffee, a chocolate chip cookie and a barrel of excitement. This weekend, I’m participating at Science Hack Day: Science in the City, an event in its second year running. The host is Francois Grey (Twitter:@FrancoisGrey) a physicist and the head of Citizen Science at NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress.

This two-day event is built on a simple premise:

Life in the city is complicated, and sometimes the only way to solve an urban problem is with a hack–a science hack, that is.

Science hacks are low-cost, elegant workarounds that create useful scientific projects. Science Hack Day is a two-day event that brings together scientists, designers, developers and innovators who will invent, build and test their projects.

On Saturday morning, thirteen hacks were pitched, and anyone who is interested can drop by to participate in Downtown Brooklyn. I’m surrounded by people either tinkering away on computers or other robotic-looking structures. Others took to the streets to record the sounds of the city or set-up hi-tech trash cans. Tomorrow I have the pleasure of sitting on a panel that will give out awards for the best Science Hacks.

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You know exactly what Im talking about because you were all jazzed after attending  Science Rewired (and covered the experience here), and a while back, I listed some of my favorite #citsci projects, including projects involving laughing babies, otters and clouds. 

For those less familiar with public participation science projects, here’s a short, quick and dirty video describing the wide range of projects that anyone can join. Being involved is not only about participating in research and helping researchers, its also about learning more about local communities, collecting relevant data (say on air quality in your neighborhood), and in some cases, making new discoveries:



But what about dogs? Much of the canine research in recent years is conducted in academic lab spaces or owner homes, but over the last few years, we’ve seen immense growth in virtual, online projects that require active participation from anyone in the world. As examples, weve previously blogged about Project: Play With Your Dog as well as Poo Power!

Here are online, public participation dog science projects that anyone in the world can join:

C-BARQ (Free)
A questionnaire designed to provide dog owners and professionals with standardized evaluations of canine temperament and behavior. 

Dognition 
A variety of science-based games that Dognition members can sign up for and play with their pup.

Emotional Content of Vocalizations (Free)
What is the emotional content of dog and human vocalizations? Listen and submit your answer (I covered this study on Scientific American, dedicating a lot of words to making fun of Bret Michaels, as is appropriate).

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Howl Coder (Free)
The Canid Howl Project is the work of a large number of scientists, trying to understand the range of different vocal behaviours of canids, primarily wolves, dogs, and coyotes. Participants listen to vocalizations and analyze the recordings.

Woof! (Free)
The Woof! experiment explores how people respond to dog barks. The study is trying to better understand how we respond to everyday sounds.

Risk factors for low-appeal shelter dogs (Free) 
This online study investigates how descriptors and physical appearance affect shelter dog length of stay and adoption success. Participants help by tagging images of dogs.

Factors contributing to aggressive impulsivity in the dogs (Free)
This is a serious welfare problem for both humans and dogs. PhD student Fernanda Fadel is trying to identify genetic risk factors in dogs which may allow researchers to develop a simple test to identify at-risk individuals. These dogs may need specific management measures to help them live happy and fulfilling lives, at minimal risk to others. Participate by completing a short questionnaire. 

Canine Researchers! Do you have an online, public participation project that we havent listed here? Email us, and let us know! doyoubelieveindog@gmail.com
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Projects often revolve around researchers and participants, and each group can have slightly different needs. 

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RESEARCHERS! I imagine that many of our colleagues are looking for study participants. Hooking up with citizen science project aggregators, like those listed below, is a great way to find interested participants. Researchers spend months and months on project design and methods, but recruiting and engaging participants is an entirely different bag of worms. Some of the below websites focus on participant recruitment and engagement. For example, SciStarter has many tools and resources for citizen science projects seeking participants.

PARTICIPANTS! Its not just about dogs, although dogs are very excellent. Many public science projects need help collecting and analyzing data on a wide range of topics. Interested in plants? Interested in birds? Interested in whale vocalizations? Theres something for everyone. Take a look below:

SciStarter

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“SciStarter is the place to find, join, and contribute to science through recreational activities and citizen science research projects. Our database of citizen science projects enable discovery, organization, and greater participation in citizen science.”

CitSci.org
“CitSci.org supports your research by providing tools and resources that allow you to customize your scientific procedure - all in one location on the internet."

Cornell Lab of Ornithology
"Anyone who watches birds, from backyards to city streets to remote forests, can help researchers better understand birds and their habits."

Zooniverse
"Zooniverse contains projects produced, maintained and developed by the Citizen Science Alliance. The member institutions of the CSA work with many academic and other partners around the world to produce projects that use the efforts and ability of volunteers to help scientists and researchers."

Scientific American
An aggregator of many public engagement projects.

Your Wild Life 
Many projects that "explore the biodiversity in our daily lives." I’m pretty psyched about the new Cat Tracker project. 

These are just a sampling of non-canine projects flying around the Internet. If anyone has contributed to public participation projects, wed love to hear about your experience.

See you in T minus 2 weeks!!!!

Julie

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Stereotypical dogs repetitive and pointless

"Im a labrador" does not = "Im hungry" (source)

Hey Julie,

its great to get an updated view of whats on the canine science cards for you in 2014 - looks like were both going to be keeping busy - and wouldnt have it any other way!

I cant believe were already into February, to be honest. There are so many great new publications coming out, its quite exciting to be able to share them with you here! You know Im always thinking about the welfare of kennelled dogs (because PhD!) and I noticed a new study from the University of Bristol titled Repetitive behaviour in kennelled domestic dog: Stereotypical or not? (reference given below). Now of course, you know were not talking about "all labradors are greedy" or "all little dogs are yappy" kind of stereotypes here, were talking about describing a specific type of behaviour.

I know youre interested in stereotypical animal behaviour too, so I wanted to share this with you! As you know, stereotypical behaviours have traditionally be thought of as repetitive and invariant behaviour patterns with no obvious goal or function. 

Typical stereotypies that many people would be familiar with, include elephants in zoos/circuses swinging their trunks and/or swaying side to side; horses weaving in stables; and bears route tracing when in captivity:

In these situations, its generally understood that the behaviour is the result of the animal feeling frustrated, fearful, restrained, stressed or lacking stimulation and when seen frequently, is often considered an indicator of poor welfare. 

Determining whether such behaviours are without function has proven difficult. Research over the past decade has shed more light on the reasons animals might develop these behaviour patterns, and suggests that performing the behaviour is not always without a function, but can actually serve a role in helping animals to cope. We have discovered that the animals showing frequent stereotypical behaviour may not be the individuals suffering the most (you know that old saying - its the quiet ones youve got to watch!).  

As such, a refined definition better separates abnormal repetitive behaviours from stereotypical behaviours (which are considered to be caused by inadequate housing that causes frustration and may be overcome with appropriate change of environment including social and/or environmental enrichment). 

Dog-focussed research in this area has shown that kennelled dogs kept in restricted environments (such as laboratories or rescue shelters) may show behaviour as pacing, circling, spinning, wall bouncing or barking:

The new research from Bristol set out to investigate if every dog observed in a working dog facility showing repetitive behaviour could really be described as stereotypical (which would suggest they were experiencing compromised welfare). 

The researchers examined the behaviour and physiology (using the urines cortisol/creatinine ratio) of 30 German Shepherd Police dogs. They saw repetitive behaviours in over 40% of the behavioural samples in response to ten deliberately arousing activities (such as a kennel staff member standing outside the kennel yard, clicking the clip of a leash - indicating exercise time; or a full food bowl being placed outside the front of the kennel enclosure; or a stranger walking through the kennel complex). Only two individual dogs were not observed performing any repetitive behaviour.

The study confirmed that dogs housed in kennel facilities long-term commonly exhibit repetitive behaviours when presented with a variety of routine activities as stimuli; also showing that individual dogs differ in the way that they respond.Some dogs only engaged in repetitive behaviours only during husbandry events when a person was there. Most dogs showed more than one of: circle, spin, bounce, pace, generally in some kind of combination (the spin and bounce as shown in video above was the most common combination seen). 

But, if these repetitive behaviours are only happening with certain triggers when people are present - are they truly stereotypical and indicative of poor welfare? 

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The behavioural & physiological responses were able to be grouped statistically, showing 17% of the dogs demonstrated repetitive behaviour during periods of minimal stimulation AND had a different physiological profile from the rest of the population. Interpreting this isnt easy though.

Theres still uncertainty whether chronic stress in dogs increases or decreases the responsiveness of the HPA system, and it may be that this is different for dogs of different personality types, historical backgrounds and/or affective states. It could be that the dogs have been externally rewarded (intentionally or unintentionally), and so the behaviours have been reinforced.

This study has highlighted the complexities of trying to understand repetitive behaviour in kennelled dogs and recognises there is unlikely to be a single reason behind apparent stereotypies. 

It certainly shows us that the relationship between such behaviours and their welfare status (and in my mind also - how this impacts on their work performance) requires further scientific investigation. And that its important, not repetitive and pointless at all.

Id best get back to reviewing my PhD data then, hey?!

Hope youre keeping well,

Mia

Further reading:

Denham H.D.C., Bradshaw J.W.S. & Rooney N.J. (2014). Repetitive behaviour in kennelled domestic dog: Stereotypical or not?, Physiology & Behavior, DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.01.007

Mason G. & NR L. (2004). Cant stop, wont stop: is stereotypy a reliable welfare indicator?, Animal Welfare, 13 S57-S70. Link: click here for abstract

Mason G.J. (1991). Stereotypies: a critical review, Animal Behaviour, 41 (6) 1015-1037. DOI: 10.1016/S0003-3472(05)80640-2

Dallaire A. (1993). Stress and Behavior in Domestic Animals: Temperament as a Predisposing Factor to Stereotypies, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 697 (1 Corticotropin) 269-274. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1993.tb49940.x

© Mia Cobb | Do You Believe in Dog? 2014

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