Black Dog Syndrome A Bad Rap

Hi Mia & Julie –

Firstly, thanks so much for letting me drop a verse in the rap song of your blog! I feel so awesome being featured. It’s like being Lil Wayne or something. Anyway…

I’m just recently back from ISAZ 2013, where I had a most excellent time chatting with other anthrozoologist-y types. 

As you know, I just graduated from the Anthrozoology Master’s Program at Canisius College, so I was uber-excited to have a chance to share my research with colleagues in the field. ISAZ did not disappoint. 

Pauleen Bennett & Heather at ISAZ 2013

Now I get to share with you two and it just gets better and better! :-)

My master’s thesis research project (advised by the oh-so-awesome Christy Hoffman) looked to answer the question: “Does Black Dog Syndrome Exist?”

Animal welfare folks are probably familiar with the concept of Black Dog Syndrome (BDS) that Julie introduced last week: it’s the idea that dogs with black coats have a harder time than other dogs getting adopted, and as a result, may face higher rates of euthanasia and longer stays in adoption programs. 

Popular media - but is it correct?

A lot of popular media articles focus on this concept (like here, here, here and here) but the research results have been mixed: in a study published earlier this year, participants rated an image of a black dog as significantly less agreeable, less conscientious, and less emotionally stable than a yellow dog (Fratkin & Baker, 2013). Yet research into factors influencing shelter dogs’ lengths of stay (LOS) found that LOS was not significantly correlated with coat color (Brown, Davidson, & Zuefle, 2013; Protopopova, Gilmour, Weiss, Shen, & Wynne, 2012).

To dig deeper into the questions of whether potential adopters discriminate against black dogs in a shelter and whether black dog discrimination is reflected in shelter stats, I conducted a two-part research project:

Shelter Visitor Pilot Study – examined interaction between potential adopters and shelter dogs

Shelter Data Analysis Study – investigated relationships between LOS and coat color, age, sex and breed, as well as the impact of these variables on likelihood of euthanasia

And what I found may surprise you.
There was very little evidence to support the concept of Black Dog Syndrome!

From Heathers ISAZ 2013 poster

I know animal shelter workers are going “WHAT!?” right now – I know because I AM a shelter worker – but the truth is, even if many potential adopters come to the shelter with a negative bias toward black dogs, it’s not resulting in crazy-long shelter stays or greater risk of euthanasia for black dogs. In fact, according to analysis of shelter statistics, black dogs were adopted out faster than average at both shelters in my study. Black dogs were also less likely than expected to be euthanized (good news for black dogs, eh?).

When shelter visitors video-recorded their walk through the adoption area, I found that they spent about equal amounts of time looking at every dog, regardless of coat color. Visitors also rarely made specific comments with regards to coat color, although one guy did say: “I like black. Black dogs are cute.” Interactions like petting or feeding dogs also occurred as frequently between visitors and black dogs compared to dogs of other coat colors.

Still, I can’t deny that a few different studies show that people rate images of black dogs more negatively than other colored dogs. That being so, can I really say there’s no such thing as Black Dog Syndrome? Well, I think there’s evidence for a negative bias against black coats when viewing still images of dogs of different coat colors. However, this bias just isn’t impacting the adoption rates or in-person interactions with black shelter dogs. Granted, my video study sample was very small – it was a pilot study, after all – but the shelter stats were quite clear (and my sample there included 16,000+ individual dogs).

So, yes, I’m saying Black Dog Syndrome ain’t no thang. Like, really, it’s not a thing. 

But I certainly am open to the idea of a Black Dog Bias, and I think that’s the next step for this type of research – teasing out whether preconceptions are truly influencing adoption decisions. 

My head’s swimming with ideas about how to do this and if anyone is working/has worked on this kind of research, I’d love to hear from them!

Thank you ladies for giving me the mic.
Now picture me dropping it on the floor without a care. Svo. Out.

No really, you two are super RAD. Keep doin’ what you’re doin’! 

And thank you for letting me be a part of it.

Heather Svoboda, MSc

Communications & Development Manager, Cat Adoption Team

Infrequent Blogger, Anthrozoologist Real Gosling // Reasons My Cats Are Sleeping

Further reading:

Brown W.P., Davidson J.P. & Zuefle M.E. (2013). Effects of Phenotypic Characteristics on the Length of Stay of Dogs at Two No Kill Animal Shelters, Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 16 (1) 2-18. DOI: 10.1080/10888705.2013.740967

Fratkin J.L. & Baker S.C. (2013). The Role of Coat Color and Ear Shape on the Perception of Personality in Dogs, Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, 26 (1) 125-133. DOI: 10.2752/175303713X13534238631632

Protopopova A., Gilmour A.J., Weiss R.H., Shen J.Y. & Wynne C.D.L. (2012). The effects of social training and other factors on adoption success of shelter dogs, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 142 (1-2) 61-68. DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2012.09.009

Svoboda, H.J. & Hoffman, C. (2013). A novel empirical test of Black Dog Syndrome. Poster. International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ) Conference. July 18-19, Chicago, USA.

© 2013 Do You Believe in Dog?

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Dog Loses Ear at Dog Park and There Was Nothing We Could Do About It

#SPARCS2014 Day 1

Hi Mia!

Looking forward to the upcoming SPARCS conference in June! We’ll be in Newport, Rhode Island from June 20-22, 2014 with the live audience doing the play-by-play (my dad is going to have to give me baseball reporting tips beforehand), but ANYONE on planet Earth can watch the conference live for free!

Each day of the conference is dedicated to one general topic, and thats not something you often see at conferences. Usually, one person gives a keynote, maybe there’s time for Q&A, and that’s the end! This time, multiple experts will weigh in on the same topic. 

#SPARCS2014 Day 1: June 20, 2014 covers "Aggression and Conflict." Expert speakers (bios here) join the day of talks with takeaways like:

• Patricia McConnell: To be able to recognize the visual signs of conflict and agonistic behavior  
• Ray Coppinger: To understand motor patterns when interpreting aggression  
• James Serpell: To draw attention to what we do and don’t know about aggression in dogs 
• Simon Gadbois: To learn the richness of the concept of behavioral and social “rules” 
• Kathryn Lord: To understand how the broader scientific field of animal behavior and comparison to other animals can inform us about dog behavior

Reading about what will be covered, I couldn’t help but think about people who are personally dealing with companion dog aggression or conflict issues -- not the most warm and fuzzy thing to have to deal with. And then I remembered that while many dogs may be dealing with aggression and conflict issues, many people are not necessarily aware that there’s even an issue in their midst!

Let me back up and explain:

Just this month I learned about a paper, Situated activities in a dog park: Identity and conflict in human-animal space, at The Science Dog (Blog / Facebook), a blog maintained by Linda Case, M.S., (author of numerous books on dog behavior, nutrition and training). Case recently reviewed the paper, and you can read her review here.  

Flickr Creative Commons, Justin Beckley

Patrick Jackson, the author of Situated activities in a dog park, is a sociologist at Sonoma State University. At a general level, his paper explores “how people and their dogs do things (activities) together (situated) in the dog park environment.” A ‘situated activity’ is one that bring people together not because they are best best best friends, but because they share a common interest, and in this case, that interest is dogs.

At the dog park, people spend a great deal of time talking about, well, dogs. Jackson describes dog park conversations that we are all familiar with: “Which one is yours?” and “What’s his/her name?”, with follow-up questions about age and habits.

We know that people readily talk to and through their dogs. Over at The Dodo, Alexandra Horowitz recently covered the different types of things we say to dogs (my favorite: “We dont need you to fix everyones problems.”) I’ve discussed our one-sided conversations with animals over at Scientific American: Did You Have A Good Pee, Mr. Rhino? (I swear the post is about dogs).

But back to Jacksons paper: My ears perked up in the section “Control management.” Jackson comments that the dog park can be a hodgepodge of many dogs doing many different things. Meanwhile, dog owners don’t always know whether something ‘should be done’ and if so, what that ‘something’ should look like. Per Jackson, “it is also ambiguous how caretakers are supposed to manage their own and others’ dogs in the dog park. If a dog is about to enter the park and is snarling at yours, should you intercede?”

And because dog parks don’t come equipped with species-specific referees (think on-site social workers, psychologists and animal behaviorists), dog parks can be chaotic, even unsafe. ?
 
Dogs are confusing. People are confusing. Put them together in a public space, and it’s like all the circuses came to town on the same day.?

To add insult to injury, dogs also come with teeth. Again, Jackson:
 
“It is difficult to know, for example, when untoward behavior like aggressiveness is imminent (King & Long, 2004). In the dynamic dog park environment, knowledge about aggression may only be gained through experience.”

Hmm
 
Hmmm
 
Hmmmmmm
 
WHAT?!? 
 
The first sentence I get. 

“It is difficult to know, for example, when untoward behavior like aggressiveness is imminent.”
 
Thats true. People are not innately able to recognize fear and stress behaviors in dogs, even a dog that they live with. And with dogs coming in all shapes, sizes and ‘ways of displaying canid behaviors,’ detecting fear and stress is even more challenging. Many distance-increasing signals can easily go unnoticed. So far, so good, Mr. Jackson.
 
But the second part:
 
“In the dynamic dog park environment, knowledge about aggression may only be gained through experience.”

Makes zero sense. Scratch that. It makes less than zero sense.
 
The field of animal behavior is all about studying what animals do. Some researchers study play in goats, while others might study aggressive displays in chimps, ants, stickleback fish, or even cranes (such as what aggression and its precursors look like in each of these species). As Mugatu from Zoolander might say, “Dogs are so hot right now.” Many are investigating why dogs do what they do, and veterinarians, veterinary behaviorists, trainers, ethologists, comparative psychologists, behavior analysts, and anthrozoologists are hot on the trail.

Aggression and conflict is an area that many animal behavior researchers investigate. Which is to say, people who live with dogs are lucky: science-based resources on dog aggression and conflict exist and are only growing.

For dog owners, "aggression” doesn’t have to be this strange, unknown, out-of-the-blue thing. You don’t have to wait until your hand is bitten to learn about aggression. Heck, we could even argue that we learn less about aggression and conflict through actual experience. Ever hear anybody say: “OOOOoh! Now I get it! I now clearly see all the things that led up to that dog biting that other dog’s ear off. I will certainly not miss it next time”? To an untrained eye, witnessing conflict is usually very upsetting and scary, not something where you walk away with a deeper understanding of what actually went down or how it could have been avoided.

SPARCS website

Here are some free, science-based ways to learn about dog aggression & conflict: 
 
1) #SPARCS2014 Day 1: June 20, 2014 Aggression and Conflict
Anybody in the world can tune in live for this day of research into conflict and aggression. Join Patricia McConnell, Ray Coppinger, James Serpell, Simon Gadbois and Kathryn Lord as they examine this topic from different angles.
 
2) Free Dog Behavior Webinars (watch live or watch the recordings)
For the last few years, The Center for Shelter Dogs (Twitter / Facebook) and ASPCA Professional (Twitter / Facebook) have been holding free Webinars on companion animal behavior, care and sheltering. Many of the Webinars focus on dog behavior, and they are led by trainers, practitioners, veterinarians and researchers who work with dogs from hoarding and fighting cases, as well as companion, street and shelter dogs. These hour-long Webinars are free, archived and available online now!
 
ASPCA Pro Archived Webinars (search by topic, select few below)

• Identifying and Managing Food Guarding 

• Canine Body Language 

• Canine Behavior and Acoustics

• Human Body Language and Dog Behavior

• Defensive Dog Handling

• Canine Communications: Dog Introductions

The Center for Shelter Dogs Archived Webinars (search by date, select few listed below)

• Wondering About Food Aggression in Shelter Dogs?, February 2014

• Fear of People, May 2013

• Optimizing Canine Welfare, February 2013

3) CAAB Chats 
Online CAAB chats are new to the scene. These free monthly talks are hosted by Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists, people with a PhD (or ACAABs with a Masters) in an Animal Behavior field. Learn more about CAABs and ACAABs here. These monthly talks are free to watch live with a small fee for the recording. The initial two talks covered ‘Canine Communication’ and ‘Response Prevention.’ Next up, ‘Social Roles and Relationships in Dogs’ on March 27, 2014. Sign up for updates about future talk topics here.

~~~

You and I know this is not an exhaustive list (we could add books, blogs, websites and more webinars another day — for this I focused on resources that are available and mostly free). Aggression and conflict are not all that straightforward, and hearing about it from another person, especially in the form of a Webinar, can make the topic a lot more manageable.

When #SPARCS2014 Day 1: Aggression and Conflict comes around, I hope people show up open to the idea that there are many ways to learn about aggression and conflict, and that “knowledge about aggression may only be gained through experience” won’t serve anyone, dog or person.

Oh, and why is the post titled, Dog Loses Ear at Dog Park and There Was Nothing We Could Do About It? Check out The Science Dog post Dog Park People for more on those unfortunate details.
 
Hope all’s well! I think theres a meta-analysis on your horizon...
 
Julie


Reference
Jackson P. 2012. Situated activities in a dog park: Identity and conflict in human-animal space. Society and Animals 20, 254-272. DOI: 10.1163/15685306-12341237

Case, L. 2014. Dog Park People. The Science Dog Blog



Copyright Do You Believe in Dog? 2014

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