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Separation anxiety is a common behavior disorder, but our understanding of its etiology and underlying neurochemical mechanisms remains limited. The purpose of this study was to compare serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in dogs with and without separation anxiety. BDNF, one of several neurotrophins, is prevalent in the limbic region and prefrontal cortex, which are key areas related to the regulation of mood, emotion, and cognition. Although an enriched environment increases BDNF levels, stress and glucocorticoid exposure decrease the expression of BDNF in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. As separation anxiety is associated with chronic stress, we hypothesized that BDNF levels in dogs affected by separation anxiety would be lower than BDNF levels in nonaffected dogs. A total of forty-eight dogs were classified by a board-certified behaviorist as affected (n = 15) or nonaffected (n = 33) by separation anxiety based on review of video clips of the dogs when left alone and owner reports of the dogs’ behavior. Groups did not differ in regard to age, body weight, body condition score, or sex, and most dogs were mixed breed. Fasted serum samples were analyzed with a canine BDNF ELISA. Nine (60%) dogs in the affected group and 12 (36%) dogs in the nonaffected group had a BDNF level

Physical rehabilitation (PR) is recommended following spinal cord injury to help improve and maintain muscle elasticity, joint mobility, and nerve health. It can also be used to relieve pain and improve cardiopulmonary fitness in an immobile patient. There is evidence, in human medicine, that PR plays a critical role in mental health and the psychological state of the patient. As part of the assessment phase, human physical therapists often identify psychosocial symptoms and barriers at the start of PR that ultimately may affect improvement in human patients suffering from injury and the loss of mobility. Patient psychological state plays an integral role in healing and outcome during treatment and rehabilitation. Specific interventions set to address these symptoms can better outcome. Arguably, one of the most emotionally traumatizing injuries suffered by a canine patient can be immobility secondary to spinal cord injury. Poorly understood is the role the canine cognitive state plays in the success of rehabilitation following spinal cord injury. Should breed, age, sex, physical fitness, personality, previous experiences and history or home lifestyle, affect the PR assessment of these patients? Do these factors affect eventual outcome following PR? The purpose of this manuscript is to explore psychosocial barriers encountered during injury rehabilitation in humans and determine if the similar barriers need to be considered when assessing a canine patient for spinal cord injury rehabilitation.

The use of a standardized physiological measure in veterinary behavior evaluations would improve both accuracy of the diagnosis and monitoring of the treatment response. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a noninvasive, remote assessment tool used primarily in research to evaluate changes in surface body temperature resulting from underlying physiological processes. IRT has not been examined widely in a veterinary behavior clinic setting, and its clinical validity requires testing. In this pilot study, patient data were reviewed retrospectively from a veterinary teaching hospital's behavior clinic population to determine if surface eye temperature as measured by IRT differed in dogs with fear-based aggression compared to dogs with various other behavioral diagnoses. Forty-six dogs were subdivided into groups with fear-based aggression toward unfamiliar people (n = 32) or no fear-based aggression but with other behavioral diagnoses (n = 14) to compare surface eye temperature and behavioral responses in the clinic setting. The potentially provocative stimulus was the presence of unfamiliar people in the consultation room (clinician and student). The primary outcomes of interest were change in surface eye temperature and behavioral responses between 2 time points 45 minutes apart during the 60-minute consultation. It was hypothesized that in contrast to dogs with fear-based aggression, IRT-measured mean surface eye temperature in dogs without fear-based aggression would decrease between the 2 time points. Instead, surface eye temperature increased in both groups of dogs without significant difference between the groups (P = 0.16). Dog's posture and proximity to the owner in the consultation room at the start of the evaluation also were not significantly different between the 2 groups. However, 27% of the fear-based aggressive dogs compared with 0% of the dogs with other diagnoses exhibited aggressive reactions to unfamiliar people who stood up to leave the consultation room at the end of the visit. Study design factors likely contributed to the negative findings. First, the study population was derived from clinic behavior patients, and dogs in both groups had multiple behavioral diagnoses that may have impacted their response to stress in the clinic setting. In addition, all dogs were tethered during the consultation visit, and this may have triggered underlying anxiety in both groups of dogs. A future study that addresses these study design factors would be needed to determine whether IRT-measured surface eye temperature in a clinical setting is a helpful measure.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of two concurrent randomized controlled interventions based on social cognitive theory to increase walking. A second purpose was to compare the efficacy of the intervention between two distinct groups: dog owners and non-dog owners. Adult dog owners ( n = 40) and non-dog owners ( n = 65) were randomized into control or intervention groups. Intervention groups received bi-weekly emails for first 4 weeks and then weekly email for the next 8 weeks targeting self-efficacy, social support, goal setting, and benefits/barriers to walking. Dog owner messages focused on dog walking while non-dog owners received general walking messages. Control groups received a 1-time email reviewing current physical activity guidelines. At 6 months, both intervention groups reported greater increases in walking and maintained these increases at 12 months. The greatest increases were seen in the dog owner intervention group. In conclusion, dog owners accumulated more walking, which may be attributed to the dog–owner relationship.

Background. The aims of this study were to describe the development of and investigate the feasibility and acceptability of a pilot randomized controlled physical activity intervention based on social cognitive theory that used a dog walking strategy. Method. Participants ( n = 49) were randomized into an intervention or control group. Overall, participants were middle-aged ( M = 45.7 ± 13.4 years), Caucasian, and on average considered obese with a mean body mass index of 30.0 ± 5.5. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize participant characteristics and analyze the feasibility and acceptability data. Regression models were used to (a) examine significant differences between intervention and control groups across time (baseline to post-intervention) and (b) examine if changes in theoretical constructs from baseline to post-intervention resulted in changes in dog walking in both the intervention and control group. Results. Participants agreed that the intervention e-mails were easy to read and understand ( M = 4.3 ± 0.7). Participants reported that the frequency of e-mails was adequate ( M = 4.3 ± 0.8), but there was lower agreement that the e-mails encouraged an increase in dog walking ( M = 3.6 ± 1.2). Post-intervention, the control group increased weekly dog walking to 19.4 ± 4.9 minutes, whereas the intervention group increased it to 79.3 ± 11.2 minutes. Conclusions. Preliminary results suggest that this pilot intervention is an acceptable and feasible strategy for promoting dog walking among dog owners.

Background: To facilitate physical activity (PA) adoption and maintenance, promotion of innovative population-level strategies that focus on incorporating moderate-intensity lifestyle PAs are needed. Objective: The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to evaluate the Dogs, Physical Activity, and Walking intervention, a 3-month, social cognitive theory (SCT), e-mail-based PA intervention. Methods: In a longitudinal, repeated-measures design, 49 dog owners were randomly assigned to a control (n = 25) or intervention group (n = 24). The intervention group received e-mail messages (twice weekly for 4 weeks and weekly for 8 weeks) designed to influence SCT constructs of self-efficacy, self-regulation, outcome expectations and expectancies, and social support. At baseline and every 3 months through 1 year, participants completed self-reported questionnaires of individual, interpersonal, and PA variables. Linear mixed models were used to assess for significant differences in weekly minutes of dog walking and theoretical constructs between groups (intervention and control) across time. To test self-efficacy as a mediator of social support for dog walking, tests for mediation were conducted using the bootstrapping technique. Results: With the exception of Month 9, participants in the intervention group accumulated significantly more weekly minutes of dog walking than the control group. On average, the intervention group accumulated 58.4 more minutes (SD = 18.1) of weekly dog walking than the control group (p < .05). Self-efficacy partially mediated the effect of social support variables on dog walking. Discussion: Results indicate that a simple SCT-based e-mail intervention is effective in increasing and maintaining an increase in dog walking among dog owners at 12-month follow-up. In light of these findings, it may be advantageous to design dog walking interventions that focus on increasing self-efficacy for dog walking by fostering social support.

Monoamine transporters have roles to regulate the monoamine concentrations in synaptic clefts in the central nervous system and are the targets of antidepressants and psychostimulants. They include transporters for norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin, which are encoded by the SLC6A2, SLC6A3, and SLC6A4 genes, respectivily. We sequenced the full lengths of the coding regions of these genes for dogs and identified four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in SLC6A2 and four in SLC6A3. One SLC6A3 SNP was non-synonymous and caused an amino acid substitution from threonine to serine. The genotype frequencies of these polymorphisms differed significantly among five breeds with different behavioral traits, suggesting that novel SLC6A2 and SLC6A3 SNPs would provide additional useful information for behavioral genetic studies in dogs.

Attempts have been made in many studies to measure canine behavioral traits, but the results cannot be compared, because no standardized methods exist. The purpose of this study was to standardize the fear-eliciting stimuli (i.e., a conditioned stimulus) to assess a particular behavioral trait, namely fearfulness. We applied a Pavlovian aversive conditioning protocol and measured autonomic parameters, in addition to making behavioral observations. Fear-related autonomic responses, such as increased heart rate and increased body temperature, rose consistently in response to a conditioned stimulus, but behavioral changes did not consistently correlate with the physiological responses. Our findings show that dogs clearly respond to conditioned stimuli and that their autonomic reactions assessed in objective indices can be more reliable and consistent measures than some behavioral measures. Based on these results, we propose that associative learning between fear-inducing conditioned and unconditioned stimuli can be assessed accurately in dogs.

Thirty-six cases of feline urine marking problem were collected through the cooperation of veterinary practitioners in the Kanto, Chubu, and Kansai areas in Japan, for an assessment of the clinical effect of treatment with a synthetic analogue of a feline cheek gland pheromone-like product. The mean frequency of urine marking was 14.2 times/week (median, 10; range, 1-77) at pre-treatment week (preW), and decreased significantly from the first week of treatment, dropping to 4.2 times/week (median, 2; range, 0-44) at the fourth week of treatment. This effect continued until the fourth week after cessation of treatment. These 36 cases were divided into 3 groups based on the effectiveness of treatment as demonstrated in the fourth week of treatment; 37% was categorized as the totally eliminated group (urine marking was not seen), 40% as the reduced group (the frequency of urine marking was equal to or less than 50% that of the preW), and 23% as the unchanged group (the frequency of urine marking was more than 50% that of the preW). Effectiveness of treatment in these groups was 38%, 24%, and 38% at the fourth week after the cessation of treatment, respectively. The decreasing rate of urine marking was compared between cats with and without intercat aggression, and it was revealed that the frequency of marking was sustained at high level in cats with intercat aggression. These results suggest that this pheromone treatment is as effective in Japan as has been reported in other countries for solving feline urine marking problems.