The Best Medicine: Playing with Shelter Dogs October 2, 2014 - PDF document

The Best Medicine: Playing with Shelter Dogs October 2, 2014 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ THE BEST MEDICINE: ___________________________________ P LAYING WITH S HELTER D OGS ___________________________________ Brenda Griffin, DVM, MS, DACVIM ___________________________________ Adjunct Associate Professor University of Florida ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ W HAT IS P LAY ? ___________________________________  Ethologists define play as a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities normally associated with ___________________________________ pleasure or enjoyment. ___________________________________  Involves behaviors that are modified from the performance ___________________________________ of “serious” behaviors -- exaggerated or incomplete, and repeated in similar patterns ___________________________________  Any of the following may apply: ___________________________________  Done for its own sake (not completely functional at face value); Intentional, Spontaneous; Rewarding, FUN! ___________________________________  Play is initiated when animals are in a state of well-being. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ W HY DO ANIMALS PLAY ? ___________________________________  Crucial role in behavioral development  Learning and enhancing social skills ___________________________________  Learning and enhancing motor skills and coordination ___________________________________  Dog – dog play  Learn restraint and inhibition over aggression and other ___________________________________ socially inappropriate behaviors  Puppies who play more may be more social as adults ___________________________________  Dog – Human play  Relationship and bonding ___________________________________  Reduces the incidence of behavior problems ___________________________________ ___________________________________ 1

The Best Medicine: Playing with Shelter Dogs October 2, 2014 ___________________________________ W HAT CONSTITUTES DOG PLAY BEHAVIOR ? ___________________________________  Dog play behavior is comprised of components of ___________________________________ the predatory sequence ___________________________________  Search (nose) Dog are ___________________________________  Stalk predators –  Rush ___________________________________  Chase Play behavior is  Bite/Grab/Hold ___________________________________ predatory  Tug/Shake/Kill behavior! ___________________________________  Rip/Shred/Chew  Guard your share ___________________________________  Exaggerated, incomplete, repeated in similar sequences ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ T HE LANGUAGE OF PLAY ___________________________________  “Normal” play is often ROUGH and INTENSE  Owners/caregivers often want to curb it “in case the dog ___________________________________ becomes aggressive”  Owners/caregivers are not good at ascertaining the ___________________________________ difference between play and aggression ___________________________________  Studying body language and signaling is key ___________________________________  Play involves ‘give and take’ ___________________________________  Pauses or breaks are needed to allow emotions to settle (so that over-arousal does not occur) ___________________________________  Play styles and preferences vary  Dogs are individuals ___________________________________ ___________________________________ T HE LANGUAGE OF PLAY ___________________________________  Play bow  Open mouthed play face ___________________________________  Low tail wag  Lateral movement ___________________________________  Side stance/twist/spin  Exaggerated, repetitive movements ___________________________________  Bouncing, lunging, face pawing  Approach, retreat ___________________________________  Chasing  Chase me posture – jump and tag, jumps backward and looks, nipping ___________________________________  Body slamming  Belly up (self-handicapping) ___________________________________  Wrestling/neck biting  Zoomies ___________________________________  Barking – excitement bark, higher tone – or the fun police  Growling ___________________________________  Arousal – piloerection, dilated eyes, wild eyes, high tail – loose/wiggly 2

The Best Medicine: Playing with Shelter Dogs October 2, 2014 ___________________________________ D O DOGS RESPOND TO SIGNALS TO PLAY ___________________________________ FROM HUMANS ? ___________________________________ ___________________________________  Videotaped 21 owners and their dogs  Specific actions used by humans do ___________________________________ communicate a playful context to dogs  Lunging and bowing, especially ___________________________________ combined with vocalizing were the most frequent signals to instigate play ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Rooney, Bradshaw, Robinson. Do dogs respond to play signals given by humans ? Animal Behaviour. 61(4) 715-722, 2001. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ P LAY AND WELFARE ___________________________________ “Animal welfare is usually considered primarily in terms of the animal’s negative experiences. Four of the ___________________________________ ‘Five Freedoms’ are freedoms from unpleasant experiences (hunger/thirst; discomfort; ___________________________________ pain/injury/disease; fear/distress), and only one ___________________________________ potentially addresses positive aspects of welfare (freedom to perform normal behavior). ” ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Phillips. Animal welfare: A construct of positive and negative affect? The Veterinary Journal. 175; 291 – 292, 2008. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Welfare is not merely the ___________________________________ absence of negative ___________________________________ experiences, but also the ___________________________________ presence of positive ones. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ 3

The Best Medicine: Playing with Shelter Dogs October 2, 2014 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ W ELFARE MONITORING ___________________________________  Normal, species typical behaviors  Dogs need to be able to be dogs. ___________________________________  Happy dogs PLAY! ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ P LAY AS A BEHAVIORAL MARKER OF WELFARE ___________________________________  Animals in positive affective states may play more frequently ___________________________________ ___________________________________  Positive affect enhances cognitive states, affecting how animal process ___________________________________ and learn ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Yeates and Main. Vet J . Assessment of positive welfare: a review. 175(3): 293-300. 2007. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ T HE I MPACT OF POSITIVE VERSUS ___________________________________ NEGATIVE E MOTIONAL S TATES ___________________________________  Human psychology research suggests that changes in cognitive function (i.e., how we ___________________________________ process information) is impacted by our emotional state. ___________________________________  For example, people in negative states attend to ___________________________________ threats, retrieve negative memories, and make negative judgment about ambiguous stimuli ___________________________________ more than happier people.  Emerging area of animal welfare research: ___________________________________ investigating the possibility that such affect- induced ‘cognitive biases’ also occur in animals. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ 4