Mutts are enamored with open spaces in which they can go around and play. Lamentably, for some pooch proprietors, it is difficult to have colossal houses with loads of carport and nursery. They need to manage with the restricted space accessible. Canine wall are hindrances set up to keep hounds from running out into the road and either getting lost or meeting with an appalling mishap.

Canine wall can be made the customary way, out of materials like wood or aluminum. While introducing a pooch fence, it is imperative to guarantee that there are no holes left in the fence through which the pet can lurk out. It ought to likewise be guaranteed that there are no low plunges going back and forth, over which the pooch can hop.

In the market today, there are numerous new kinds of wall accessible that are made utilizing the most recent innovations accessible. Fences, for example, underground fences and electric wall are well known. They have wires spread out on the ground, which could be covered up. As the pet methodologies the zone, a sign is transmitted to its neckline, delivering a mellow stun. In this way, the pet is naturally contained inside the territory.

It takes hounds roughly two weeks to figure out how to stay inside the cutoff points of the fence. It is as significant for the fencing organization to give administration all things considered to guarantee that the gear and fencing is hearty and made utilizing the most recent innovation.

Canine wall are accessible in nearby shops that sell pet embellishments. They are additionally accessible on the net. Getting them on net is advantageous as the greater part of them accompany free delivering, free batteries forever, rock solid redesigned wire.

The expense of pooch wall differ dependent on the material utilized and the zone secured. An underground fence costs around $300 to $1300 for a normal estimated hound for a border of around 500 to 1000 feet, which works out to be less expensive than conventional fencing. A decent canine fence gives adequate opportunity and space to a pooch and keeps its proprietor free of any pressure in regards to the pet.

I trust that the accompanying article will assist you with bettering understand subject.

There are likely more pooch breeds on the planet as of now than there are unique strains of microbes! OK, that was an unstable embellishment, yet just a slight one as you may have guessed. There truly are an amazing number of canine breeds or so with all the more being perceived each year.

It isn't so much that new canine breeds are being found from the four corners of the earth, it's that new pooch breeds are coming into being a direct result of cross reproducing programs. The subsequent mutts aren't constantly contemplated to be another canine breed, yet some of them do pile up to the norms to be contemplated as one of the pooch breeds, and this is the point at which the quantity of canine breeds begins to develop.

Since hound is alleged to be man's closest companion, it really is no surprisal that the more impassioned of pooch darlings proceeded to cross breed different mutts to get what they very much considered to be the perfective canine for them.

This necessary numerous long stretches of devotion with respect to these raisers just as an adoration for the canines. Also, the result of such a significant number of, numerous long periods of rearing projects by such a significant number of, many pooch reproducers is the huge assorted variety of canine breeds we have about us today.

Also, of these, probably the most recent release to the blend is none other than a valuable cross breed known as a Puggle who is crossed with a Beagle mother and Pug father. Of the most recent new pooch breeds to go to the consideration of the open this adorable, wrinkle confronted hound with the huge pendulous ears and the deep eyes, is one of the most looked for after.

Also, similarly likewise with these Puggles, there are numerous new pooch breeds which appear on a relentless premise. A few people conscious that these cross reproduced hound breeds are preferable much over their unmixed reared guardians as the cross breeds will have less possibility of conveying the equivalent transmissible ailments and maladies which the unadulterated breeds convey in their hereditary cosmetics.

In case you're vigilant for a decent pooch to suit you and you find that the exceptionally number of canine breeds to take from is unreasonably overpowering for you to investigate, the best thing for you to do is to separate your decisions down contingent upon what your prerequisites of a canine are... to peruse more on this theme, if you don't mind click on our connection underneath...

The strategy where a pooch or feline enters and turns into a significant piece of your immediate family is an encounter to be felt. You might be one among those pet proprietors who feel glad in giving their pets a great deal of adoration and love. In such case, the wellbeing and security of the pet ought to be the prime most worry at the forefront of your thoughts. The main way you can hope to protect a pet in your house is by utilizing profoundly productive canine control frameworks in and around your home.

The Latest Ones Are The Highly Efficient Ones - Here is How

The canine regulation frameworks that are accessible in the market nowadays are intended to incorporate remote controlled hand-held coaches. These are expected to prepare the pooch or some other pet in your home and guarantees that they get an unmistakable thought of the manner by which these canine regulation frameworks work. Among the most recent items accessible in the market, there are hound regulation frameworks that are likewise alluded to as undetectable pooch fencing or petsafe remote control frameworks. These are so named since the whole fencing isn't obvious to the unaided eye. The main unmistakable piece of your undetectable fencing will be the neckline which holds the recipient in it. Let us investigate how these frameworks are introduced and how the various pieces of the framework work.

The electric wire that lines the border of the region that your pooch ought to meander in fills in as the electrical field limit that the transmitter perceives. In the event that the pooch attacks into regions past the line, the transmitter quickly motion toward the collector present in the neckline of the pet. As is clear, the transmitter and the beneficiary are significant pieces of these pooch control frameworks. The recipient is run on battery and gives a blare or vibration when the transmitter sends ready sign.

The vast majority of these canine regulation frameworks are introduced by specialists taking care of these items. The frameworks can be introduced both inside or outside to your home. Numerous mortgage holders wonder with respect to how successful or essential these frameworks are when utilized inside the home, at that point you can be guaranteed of a certain something. The preparation that your pooch gets because of the framework, averts any undesirable mishaps inside the home. These mishaps incorporate falling of valuable items present in the family room or nourishment run over by the pet. In this manner, utilizing the most recent items in hound control frameworks can be of tremendous advantage to you, particularly when you don't have the opportunity and assets to commit individual thoughtfulness regarding their developments in and around the house.

A most recent development in pet gadgetry has extended and is growing still. Presently, as far as canine regulation, underground pet fence is in. It is essentially an electronic control framework exceptionally intended to teach hounds in their physical confinement around your yard. Since most pet pooches don't feel great being confined or tied for a really long time while home alone, underground pet fence guarantees them opportunity to play around the yard while as yet being remained careful inside the undetectable remote fence around it.

The underground pet fence has significant bit of leeway on both the pet and the proprietor. Why? For the pet's part, obviously chains, ropes, or confines which mutts abhor are never again expected to keep him in affability. In addition, who wouldn't need his pet blissfully playing around fairly desolate around the bend? Additionally, conventional wall make your zone littler hence the pooch has less space for work out.

For the proprietor's part, hound regulation frameworks give your canine the fundamental limitation without you exhausting a lot for a fence. Ordinary wall are once in a while incapable in light of the fact that they can be hopped over or burrowed under. So it is affordable and viable simultaneously. In addition, undetectable underground fence are savvy purchases and being underground won't cover the magnificence of your home!

Thinking about how this magnificent gadget functions? It is straightforward. At the point when a canine methodologies the fence, it delivers an admonition tone. At that point if the pet proceeds with two seconds after the fact, the gadget transmits a sign to the neckline put around its neck. The neckline at that point bit by bit emanates an innocuous electric heartbeat. Try not to stress, the beat is ensured sheltered and easy. In any case, it is necessitated that framework establishment is restricted to associate with doggies not more youthful than sixteen to twenty weeks of age. If the pooch demands to cross the underground pet fence, the framework consequently levels the beat higher to keep the canine from fleeing.

Canines are normally uproarious hyperactive; they would go across the road and run over other home's yard or pursue a few children. Presently you can escape from home, go to the workplace, drop by the staple, or do different stuffs that you regularly manage without stressing that your pet has left and did those shrewd tricks. The underground pet fence will work as it instructs the pooch his fundamental do's and don'ts rule.

In the past nobody had ever known about 'pet style'. Who knew what creator hound beds, planner hound garments, or fashioner collars were? In this day and age, after various examinations, tributes and so forth, it has been demonstrated that having a pet, especially one of the canine assortment, is helpful for all around better heath and welfare.

With the regularly expanding significance put on one's pet, hound proprietors specifically, are consistently on the chase for the most recent in hound configuration product this incorporates the canine neckline.

Most everybody has known about style week in New York city; on the off chance that you haven't, it's one of the most foreseen a long time of the year where all significant garments architects march their most recent products. Bodes well, correct? There is a need all things considered, to realize what will be 'hot' for next season. Imagine a scenario in which I revealed to you that throughout the previous three years, New York City has facilitated pet design week. Where over a time of two days, all the most recent in "poochie couture" is exhibited? One gets the chance to perceive what extremely popular in doggie garments, collars, rope, and items (bolstering bowls, bearers, to give some examples) are.

Try not to mess with yourself into believing that by purchasing the well known creator hound neckline, your canine will all of a sudden create hero power and run off and spare the planet. Planner hound collars are the same than some other pooch neckline (aside from the intentional chain neckline). They are commonly a bit of material that fits around your canine's neck like every single other neckline available. Furthermore, similar to all different past unremarkable canine collars, its capacity is to hold labels for recognizable proof (and conceivable prescription alarms) and control (both physically and with the chain) your pooch.

Some would contend that creator collars are a finished misuse of cash and a narcissistic, senseless guilty pleasure in your canine. In any case, for those that hold their canines in the most elevated regard and treat them like individuals from the family, they don't think architect collars are crazy by any stretch of the imagination. On the off chance that canine design is your thing, it's most likely the most affordable approach to treat [yourself] and your pooch without using up every last cent however, on the off chance that that is the manner in which you truly need to go, you can buy a Louis Vuitton neckline for several dollars.

It is safe to say that you are in scan for the most recent in hound apparel? Searching for that ideal outfit for your doggie? Need to give your doggie the best makeover? You can have everything here and that too with a tremendous scope of assortment. Here at this specific doggy boutique we offer the best that will be found as far as quality for your adorable doggy.

Pooch design has grown significantly throughout the years. Proprietors of canines are presently cognizant about the presence of their mutts and little dogs. Nowadays pets by and large are treated in a lot of a similar way as one does with youngsters. You need the best for little dog and we have it here. This has expanded to such a level, that nowadays a few canine boutiques have opened and are offering the most recent in hound design. The strength about our outlet is that we offer an amazingly redid and customized administration design. You can pick over various originator equips and get the one that suits you. Doggy outfits can be either fashioner hound dress or even an increasingly handy and calm one. On the off chance that you are into the most popular trend we can offer you various intriguing alternatives with the range beginning from the most recent in extravagance hound attire. There are apparel accessible in a wide range of hues and with the most heavenly finish and cut.You can be certain that once you are at our boutique you will discover picking a solitary dress for your doggie a troublesome choice to make.All these and more are accessible at extremely moderate costs.

We offer not just heavenly and cool dresses for all types of mutts yet additionally some truly staggering numbers saved for any extraordinary event. We have an enormous assortment and on the off chance that you take your young doggie to our boutique, that tail of his in not going to quit swaying.

Frequently you will in general build up an uncommon sort of bond with your little dog and need to get that person the best in the most stylish trend. Going to our boutique will guarantee that not just you get the best apparel for your little dog yet additionally a similarly out of control hound neckline to coordinate the outfit. Our boutique is the ideal one stop look for any sort of doggy wear. Your doggy will be in for the best shock of his life when he gets such an adorable and a truly dress to wear.

Extravagance hound dress

Poshpuppyboutique is extravagance hound boutique which has gigantic assortment of pooch stuff or embellishments for pet sweetheart. It is upscale boutique which has wide scope of originator material and all necessary stuff which is usable in his every day use.

So you want your dog training school to have an active social media presence – a feed full of useful and informative posts, not a bunch of pictures of cute puppies (as much as we all love those). How do you find those meaty posts to share with your audience and give them food for thought? The internet is a big place these days, and finding that first doorway into the active world of dog science and behavior writing can be hard.

Maintaining a feed packed with shares about the most recent and interesting dog science is something I have done for fun as well as for pay, and I have a few suggestions to get you started in the right direction.

• To share a lot, you have to read a lot! There is no getting around this one absolute requirement: you must follow a long list of interesting people. This list must be dynamic, because bloggers come and go, so maintaining a healthy list of them involves continually adding new entries. Start with Zazie Todd’s excellent and slightly overwhelming list of the Pet People to Follow in 2018. When someone on your new list shares something from someone you haven’t heard of, check them out. If you’re not sure, default to following them. You can always unfollow them later.
• Check your feed frequently. When you're following a bunch of people, interesting links will rapidly scroll past and be lost in your timeline. When I was being paid to maintain content in a dog science laboratory’s Twitter feed, I checked Facebook and Twitter three times a day at least. (I will admit that with my smart phone I often did it more often than that, but three times was my minimum.)
• There are, however, some tools out there to help you keep the fire hose of posts under control. Nuzzel is an app that curates your friends lists on Facebook and Twitter and generates the list of links that those friends shared today. It prioritizes links shared by multiple people as those most likely to interest you. This app has been invaluable to me during dry spots when I was having trouble finding good dog posts because everyone was posting about recent crazy happenings in American politics.
• Another great app is Buffer (and there are others like it). This app lets you schedule your tweets so that you can browse and collect good content all at once, but parcel out sharing it over time. This keeps your audience from being overwhelmed by bursts of content and then losing interest during dry spells. (Although one morning I was catching up on sharing information out of my Twitter feed, and noticed one person responded to my sudden deluge of shares with the tweet “@dogzombieblog is on fire this morning!” That was a good thing. But not if you can’t maintain it!) This app is particularly nice because you can set a schedule and just pile your tweets on the stack for it to share out over hours or even days, without telling it when to share each one. Facebook lets you schedule individual posts, but you have to plan when each individual one will happen, rather than having a set “three times a day” schedule to fill up with posts.
• I usually just share links without comment – this is much faster and can make the difference between my feeling I don’t have time to share a moderately-interesting post, and just doing it. On the other hand, if you do have time to comment, it can lead to more engagement with your audience, which is a good thing.
• Always look at a post before sharing it; never share based on the title alone. If it’s from a new source who you don’t know well, you should read the entire post to make sure there isn’t something buried deep inside it that you don’t want to share. (I’ve often been surprised halfway through reading a post to encounter advice to use force on a dog.) If it’s someone I trust, though, I do sometimes share after just skimming, if it’s on a topic I already understand well.

Have fun! If you share stuff that you find really interesting and engaging, your audience will feel the same way. I share a lot of science, but I do share funny stories or cute animal photos from time to time. I try to make them unusual, though – for example, photos of canid puppies that aren’t dogs, like wolf, dingo, or hyena babies from ZooBorns. Recently I mixed it up by sharing a post about plant behavior. (Plant! Behavior! It’s not dogs, but surely dog behavior folks must find it interesting!) Don’t take it all too seriously – it’s part of your business, but it’s also a way to meet new friends and learn some cool new stuff about dogs.

Note: this post was originally published on the Dog International Blog.

What can we do about the welfare problem of flat-faced dogs?

The health problems associated with brachycephalic (flat-faced) dogs are no secret. Dogs bred to have ultra-shortened muzzles often have significant breathing problems, dental problems, bulging eyes prone to injury, and skin disease from deep facial wrinkles. The welfare problem of brachycephalic dogs has been covered before, including here, here, here, and here. The solution is simple: breed dogs with longer muzzles and wider nostrils. They can still have their distinct breed look, but with a real muzzle instead of a flat face. And yet the word isn’t getting out, and dogs with extremely flat faces are still popular with breeders and dog owners. Some of the most common brachycephalic breeds in question are the English bulldog, French bulldog, pug, Boston terrier, Pekingese, boxer, Shi Tzu and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

What can be done? What tools do those concerned with the welfare of breeding for extremely flat faces have to convince breeders to breed more moderate animals? What tools do we have to help the general public—the ones who don’t seek out news stories about the welfare of different dog breeds—to find breeders who produce more moderate dogs? As a veterinarian, I really want my profession to be part of the solution to this problem. In veterinary school, I was taught that part of the veterinarian’s job is to be an advocate for the animal. The owner may be the one who pays the bills, but it’s the animal who is the patient, and a good vet should speak up for the animal even when what she has to say is not what the owner wants to hear. However, I also learned that veterinarians, at least in the U.S., are extremely averse to conflict. We may be told to advocate for the animal, but we are trained not to upset the client. This isn’t just about money. If you upset your client too much, they will take their animal away, and your chance to help the animal will be lost. It’s a fine line, but not one that veterinarians are trained to balance. In my experience, much of our training plays lip service to the idea of standing up for the animal while demonstrating a strict policy of non-interference in a client’s decisions about what kind of dog to acquire.

A new policy about brachycephalics from the British Veterinary Association

French bulldog – 2014 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
By Pets Adviser from Brooklyn, USA (2014 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show) [CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons

Things are a little different on the far side of the pond from the U.S., however. In the U.K., the British Veterinary Association (BVA) recently published a new policy statement about brachycephalic dogs. It is a quite forward-thinking document, taking a multi-pronged approach to the problem.

The document begins with CT scans of a brachycephalic and a normal dog, showing the dramatic difference in skull shape. Even their brains are differently shaped! It continues with a policy position, which contains a list of goals beginning with “ensuring healthier future generations of dogs.” It describes an action plan, including campaigning in the media and a ten-point plan for veterinary practices to address engagement with owners of brachycephalic dogs. It concludes with a list of resources for those who want to know or do more.

This is not a document that will shake the foundations of British veterinary medicine. Its description of the health problems with brachycephalic dogs is based on solid evidence, and is not phrased in inflammatory fashion. Its goals are all positive, focused on education and research. Importantly, however, it provides veterinarians with guidance and resources on how to engage with prospective pet owners on the health problems with brachycephalic dogs. And it takes a strong stance: extremely flat faces in dogs aren’t healthy, and we should be moving away from them.

A weak policy from the American Veterinary Medical Association

Contrast the BVA’s policy to the approach taken by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), which recently passed a three-sentence position statement related to inherited disorders that does not even go so far as to mention brachycephalic dogs specifically. The AVMA’s animal welfare committee had initially proposed a slightly stronger policy that did specifically mention brachycephalics, along with other conditions, but this phrasing was seen as overly controversial. It was particularly opposed by the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club, the Bulldog Club of America, and the American Kennel Club. The final policy phrasing names no specific disorders, targeting only “genetic and inherited disorders” generally.

In failing to call out specific problems, the AVMA missed a chance to make the point that extreme brachycephaly is a disorder. The general public often perceives extremely flat-faced animals as normal, and as a result continue to purchase them without recognizing the numerous health problems these dogs face. Simply framing extreme brachycephaly as a disorder is a powerful tool to changing this perception.

The AVMA policy also fails to provide specific guidance to veterinarians. The policy encourages veterinarians to educate themselves, breeders, and owners “on the responsibilities involved with breeding and selecting companion animals.” Compare this to the BVA’s ten-point plan for veterinarians, with guidance on how to interact with owners during pre-purchase examinations, to breeders considering breeding an affected dog, recommendations of specific tests for assessing the health of dogs from brachycephalic breeds, and the provision of resources for veterinarians, such as health surveillance programs for gathering data on the health of brachycephalic animals, a #BreedToBreathe video, and infographics for social media. U.S. veterinarians receive little guidance in veterinary school about how to communicate with clients over difficult topics such as these. Providing resources to help them grapple with the problem in practice is key.

Who are veterinarians afraid of?

The AVMA’s approach to the brachycephalic welfare problem falls far short of the BVA’s. Why didn’t the AVMA at least pass a stronger policy statement, even if providing real guidance to U.S. veterinarians was not on the table? Who are they afraid of?

Note that, according to the news release about the policy statement in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, complaints about the original proposed policy that identified brachycephaly as a disorder came from clubs of breeders of brachycephalic dogs (the Bulldog Club of America and the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club) and the umbrella club for many U.S. breed-specific clubs, the American Kennel Club (AKC).

I can’t speak for these clubs, but my understanding is that their concerns are two-fold: first, that if dogs such as bulldogs are bred to have more defined muzzles, the unique character of the bulldog breed will be lost; and second, that if public opinion turns against brachycephalic breeds, these breeds may actually be banned. The second fear is not as far-fetched as you may think, given the existence of a petition to ban bulldogs and pugs in the U.K. The U.K. government does have a history of banning dog breeds that it considers “dangerous” and ear cropping and tail docking are banned in England and Wales for welfare reasons. I can’t predict if this current petition might have teeth, but history suggests it might. For what it’s worth, I believe entirely banning flat-faced breeds goes too far.

However, in no way do I believe that breeding bulldogs, pugs, and other brachycephalic breeds to have a more defined muzzle goes too far! The extreme flatness of these dogs’ faces is a recent phenomenon—look at pictures of French bulldogs from fifty or a hundred years ago and you’ll see a dog with a muzzle who still looks uniquely Frenchie. I wager it is in the show ring that a truly flat face—the kind where the muzzle is flat beneath the eyes, almost as flat as a human’s—is prized. The pet owner is much less likely to find dogs with a bit more muzzle unattractive or to feel that they don’t resemble the breed to which they belong.

The AVMA should take a stronger stance on brachycephalic dogs

Finding the right wording in position statements like these is difficult, and alienating the very people you want to convince is an ever present danger. However, I believe the AVMA’s stance is unnecessarily watered down. Surely veterinarians can take the position that health problems due to breeding for extreme body shapes are something to work against. It must be possible to spread the word that ultra-flat faces are harmful to dogs, and that moderation in muzzle length won’t destroy the unique characteristics of a beloved breed. But we do have to try harder to get that message out there, and U.S. veterinarians are lacking strong leadership bringing us forward. How can we help to fix these breeds? One step is a new policy from the AVMA, providing real guidance to the veterinarians on the front lines about how to talk to the owners and breeders of brachycephalic dogs. The Veterinarian’s Oath includes a promise to work for the protection of animal health and welfare, and prevention and relief of animal suffering. Extreme flat faces cause life-long suffering in animals who need a longer muzzle in order to breathe properly, and veterinarians have a responsibility to take action to prevent that suffering.

Extreme flat faces cause lifelong suffering. It’s time for the AVMA to take a stronger stance on breeding for flat faces.

---

Resources

• Can the Bulldog Be Saved?
• Why breeding bulldogs is borderline inhumane
• Fighting for air their whole lives
• Brachycephaly: it’s more than just the pretty face
• Stop normalising suffering: vets speaking out about brachys
• I really like your beans but… (Brachycephalics in advertising)
• The Cambridge BOAS research group

This blog post is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

We encourage you to copy and share this blog post! But please respect the author by complying with his or her chosen Creative Commons license. View human-readable license summary. (Note that this license only applies to the text of the blog post, not to any media files embedded in the post, including images and videos, as some of these may contain a third-party copyright license.) Alternatively, you may share the post freely via social media by clicking on the social icons elsewhere on this page.

I’ve been cogitating recently on the statement I’ve seen in a few places that “it makes sense to show a dog in conformation shows before breeding it to make sure a judge has a chance to say that the dog has good or bad conformation.” I just posted this to a breed-specific mailing list in response to that statement, and am curious what y’all think of it:

I think the real question is whether a judge selects a dog based on healthy structure or based on something else. I suspect it varies by judge, but the concern is that, given a ring of dogs all with good structure, the dog with some other flashy attribute will win (thick coat, particular head or ear shape). Then people start breeding for that attribute in order to win. Then that attribute gets valued over good structure. I think the fear that this will happen in any given breed is valid, given what we've seen in other breeds - take the show German Shepherd with its very sloping backline or the tastefully plump show Labrador.

What it comes down to for me is, what is the best way to evaluate healthy structure in a dog before breeding? I don’t think conformation shows are that way. I suggest a) making sure the dog is able to work well and without pain b) giving the dog time to mature to see if it has any structural unsoundness and c) having the dog examined by a veterinary orthopedic specialist. There are plenty of structural issues that are just not going to show up on physical exam (whether performed by vet or by judge), which is why (a) and (b) are so important.

Thoughts from the blogosphere?

Bonus dog photo because every post needs a photo (of a purebred dog out of parents who were never shown in coformation shows, and a mixed breed whose parents were probably not selected with any sort of care at all):

Today I’m working on revisions for my DNA class at IAABC, which starts Monday, April 24. This will be the second time I’ve offered this class; it’s the first in a series of four classes (which you can take in any order, so this one isn’t required for later classes). And the auditor’s price is still super low to encourage people to take it just for fun.

I’m never sure how to promote this class. Will it offer you direct insights into how to modify behavior? It won’t, of course. It will tell you what DNA is and what genes are and how at a low level DNA differences affect traits. For how to apply this stuff to behavior consulting, you should refer to the fourth class in the series, which is about behavioral genetics.

But while the fourth class has that stuff we all want to know in it, to really understand how all that stuff works you really want to take this first class. Sometimes I think of this one as the vegetables class: you have to eat your veggies before you can have your dessert. But I hope it’s not just because I’m a genetics geek that I do think this class has some fascinating material in its own right. It’s not overcooked frozen peas, it’s heirloom tomatoes from the farmer's market. In later classes I’ll talk about the weird ways our DNA can affect our personalities, and in order to deeply understand what I mean, you want to know how DNA is put together and how the body reads the genetic code and how things can go wrong.

And by the way, I make sure all of my classes have something in them for everyone, so if you are a genetics geek too, come take the class for the optional resources, which have loads of articles with new research findings in which we (surprise!) realize DNA is more complicated than we at first thought, and getting more complicated the closer we look at it.

And if anyone can help me explain how to market this funny little class and explain to people that this really is stuff it’s good to know (for behavior consulting but also just for life in the middle of the Genomics Revolution) then please tell me!

Why are some dogs better at paying attention to humans, particularly human gestures like pointing, than others? We know genetics has something to do with it, because some breeds (like border collies) are a lot better at responding to human signals than others like beagles. To better understand the biology driving differences in ability to respond to human signals, researchers at the Family Dog Project compared dogs and wolves as they grew up. They knew that wolves can respond to human signals, but that they are better at this when they have been extensively socialized, whereas dogs can understand human signals with much less socialization. But at what age do these differences manifest?

Image from the Family Dog Project

The researchers used a pointing test to measure ability to respond to human signals. This test has been used on dogs before: if a dog is given a choice of two bowls, only one of which contains food, and he can't see where the food is, will he follow a person's pointing gesture to pick the right bowl? (The bowl with no food in it is rubbed with food so the dogs can't use their noses to get the right answer.) This test has been done in the past with dogs versus human children (dogs do about the same as two year old kids on this task), dogs versus wolves (dogs generally outperform wolves, unless the wolves have a whole lot of experience with humans), and dogs versus chimpanzees, our closest primate relatives (dogs outperform chimps!).

For this study, the researchers compared hand-reared (i.e., well socialized) 8-week old dog and wolf puppies; 4 month old dog and wolf puppies; and adult dogs and wolves. They tested the animals' abilities both with "proximal" pointing (putting their finger right up to the bowl) and "distal" pointing (standing farther away and indicating the bowl) - except that, since very young puppies and wolves don't see well, they didn't test the distal pointing in the 8 week old babies. What they found:

• The 8 week old puppies (dogs and wolves) had similar ability to follow the proximal pointing gesture with the researcher's finger right next to the bowl. However, 6 of the 13 wolf puppies tested had to be removed from the trial because they couldn't be held on the start line or didn't go choose a bowl. Of the 9 puppies, only one was removed for similar reasons.
  
• 4 month old dogs did better at distal pointing (with the researcher standing away from the bowl and indicating it) than 4 month old wolves did. In fact, the 4 month old wolves seemed to do no better than chance.
  
• Adult dogs and wolves did equally well with both proximal and distal pointing.
  
• At all three ages, wolves needed more time to establish eye contact with the pointing human than dogs did.

So all the animals at all ages were able to understand a pointing gesture when the human put their hand right up to the bowl. But pointing from farther away was harder, as you'd expect. Very young puppies (dog and wolf) were not tested on that task. At four months, wolves hadn't figured it out yet, but dogs had. As adults, the wolves had caught up. These were highly socialized adult wolves with a great deal of experience with humans.

It's interesting that dogs seem to develop the ability to understand a more difficult human pointing gesture at a younger age than wolves - and particularly interesting that this may have to do with the fact that wolves are not as eager to look us in the eye as dogs are. (If you don't look at someone, it's hard to follow their pointing gesture!)

So what does this mean for differences in different dog breeds? Do different dog breeds have differences in the timing of their cognitive development? Does this affect how much attention they pay to us, and perhaps how easy they are to train? We don't know, but I think this is one direction dog research needs to go.

(By the way, check out the original paper - it's open access, and has some great videos of dog and wolf puppies at the end!)

Gácsi, Márta, et al. "Explaining dog wolf differences in utilizing human pointing gestures: selection for synergistic shifts in the development of some social skills." PLoS One 4.8 (2009): e6584.

This post was originally published with slight modifications at Darwin's Dogs.

Thanks to Julie Wurth for a great interview with me and Linda Case of The Science Dog in our local paper, the News-Gazette.

Since the article was about getting a new puppy and provided pointers to this blog I figured it was a good idea to suggest some old posts to any new readers. As always, for a constant stream of interesting dog science articles not written by me, follow me on Twitter or like my page on Facebook!

• The Replacement Dog: how a veterinarian / dog rescuer / geneticist searched for the right puppy

• The history of dog breeds: Victorians, genetics, and the importance of diversity

And an update on Dash - he is turning into a fine young man. Here he is from a few days ago.

Dashiell, aged six months

It's been hard to train two dogs at once. My old dog, Jack, never minded when I trained my young dog, Jenny. He was happy to chill out on the couch. But Jenny is different now that she's the old dog and Dash is the young dog: she wants to be part of whatever I'm doing, especially if it involves food. If I baby-gate her in another room while I train the puppy (and puppies take a lot of training) then she will sit right up against the gate and obsess. (Up side: gates have become much less scary to her recently, even though they are just as likely as they always were to fall down and go boom.) When I try to put her upstairs, she goes reluctantly and is ramped up and anxious when I let her out.

I read "A Secret to Training Two Dogs" by Eileen And Dogs, and determined that I would use mat training. I'd been told time and again that I should be mat training Jenny anyways: take the mat to the scary new place, and you have a safe haven for your shy dog. (Jenny is still extremely shy, though hugely improved from when I got her.)

I got a Mutt Matt for Dash and pulled a tiny old area rug out of storage for Jenny. Dash picked up the mat concept quickly: you lie down on it and get treats. In fact I now have trouble prying him off of it to put it away.

Dash on his mat.

But Jenny couldn't seem to do it. She eventually learned to lie down on her mat, but didn't like to stay on it. I tried asking them both to stay on their mats while I walked around them: Dash was glued to his, but Jenny would come off of hers and wander away.

This morning I unrolled Dash's mat and asked him to go to it, and Jenny went and hopped on the couch. The light bulb went off: this is my dog who refused to touch foot to ground unless absolutely necessary for the first months I had her. She lived on couches. I had to train her to get off of them. I used target practice with a yogurt lid that I moved farther and farther from the couch; she came up with the solution of picking the lid up and putting it back on the couch so she could keep getting rewarded without having to leave her safe space. The first time I saw her sleeping on the floor, four years after coming to live with me, I almost cried from joy. She even already has a "go to your couch" command which is quite strong.

Jenny training on her couch, shortly after she came to live with me.

So I trained Dash while she was on her couch, and then trained her while Dash was on his mat, and it was lovely. Both dogs were stuck in place until I asked them to get off. I was able to train something fun (a tunnel) working one dog at a time (with frequent treats thrown to the other).

The moral, as Denise Fenzi tells us in her excellent blog post, is to Train the Dog in Front of You. See what works for her, not what you think should work for all dogs.

Which leaves me to figure out how I will take a couch with me to the next strange place I need to bring Jenny...

Jenny on her couch two years ago.