effect of prenatal environment on learning abilities in puppies and in adult dogs
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Abstracts 253
working dog duties, it is essential to collect and store semenfor future use. Breeding colonies can create small local, butpotentially isolated gene pools so the cooperative exchangeof such genetic material at the international level isessential to retain and improve on desired phenotypes,while minimizing the risks associated with inbreeding.Several centralized semen bank locations with semenappropriately certified for export would facilitate network-ing and provide a means of maintaining accessible geneticvariability. Frozen Puppies Dot Com is a worldwidenetwork providing semen freezing, implantation, trans-portation, storage, and database management. FrozenPuppies Dot Com is part of Genetic Technologies–GTPets for DNA testing.Note: The author is the sole proprietor, executive officer ora majority stockholder of the company listed in the address.
Key words: frozen semen; semen transport; canine DNAtesting
EFFECT OF PRENATAL ENVIRONMENT ON LEARNINGABILITIES IN PUPPIES AND IN ADULT DOGSHelene Leroy1, Eric Depiereux2, Jean-Marie Giffroy1,Claire Diederich1,*1Laboratory of Anatomy and Ethology of DomesticAnimals, University of Namur (FUNDP), Namur, Belgium2Laboratory of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, URBM,University of Namur (FUNDP), Namur, Belgium*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Prenatal stress that results in emotional, behavioral, andlearning alterations has been observed in rats, humans, andmonkeys. In this study, 5 beagle bitches were exposed to 3environments in late pregnancy using a Latin squaredesign: prenatal stress (social isolation and spatial restric-tion; the PS group), enrichment (1 hour daily humancontact; the E group), or basic housing (the B group).Puppies (n 5 66) born to the 5 bitches were studied. At theage of 8 weeks, puppies were family homed. Advice wasgiven to owners about puppy and canine health, education,and training. To study the influence of the prenatalenvironment on their learning ability, the pups were testedfor problem solving skills at week 8 (n 5 66) with acomplex maze (7 direction shifts, 2 closed arms combinedwith a detour test) in a 2-day period (day 1: learningsessions with the dam, the littermates, and the experi-menter; day 2: 3 test trials). A subset of the dogs (n 5 17)was tested as adults with 4 obstacles in a 2-step procedure(step 1: learning session; step 2: effective test). Attentionwas tested in puppies with orientation (attention-getting)and following (attention-holding) tests using separatevisual and hearing stimuli. A plastic toy was the visualstimulus and a fire siren toy was the auditory stimulus.Puppies in the PS group were faster in finding their way outof the maze (P , 0.05), made fewer errors (P , 0.05), and
made fewer half-turns (P , 0.05) than puppies in the othergroups. Prenatal stress puppies were also less attentive thanpuppies in the other groups in the visual attention-gettingand attention-holding tests (P , 0.05). There was no differ-ence between groups in the attention tests using the audi-tory stimulus. The puppies’ results confirmed thoseobserved in other species. When tested as adults, therewas no difference between the groups’ learning abilities.We suggested that giving advice about the puppies’ educa-tion might have smoothed the differences observed at ayoung age. Our findings in the adult group’s learning abil-ity confirmed those observed in rats.
Key words: puppies; prenatal stress; enrichment; test;learning
QUICK LEARNING TECHNIQUES: DOGS USED TO DETECTNARCOTICS AND EXPLOSIVESLuis Alberto Marin Guerrero*National Colombian Police, National Carabineros School,Hacienda Las Margaritas Facatativa, Colombia*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Quick Learning Techniques is the name of a search/detection training method used to train dogs that work invarious detection and search fields. These dogs may alsohave the potential for use in other work specialties,including land mine and other explosives detection, humanremains detection, criminal evidence detection (includingpaper money), and medical condition (cancer) detection.This training method has been in use and evolving since2002. The version in use today was introduced in 2005 andhas been used successfully by the Colombian Navy andthe Colombian National Police.The features of this methodology include: (1) training ofthe response, (2) training on odorant substances, and (3)searching for the odorant. Before each training session, thedog is engaged in physical exercise followed by a 10-minute break.
Key words: quick learning; techniques; detector dogs;narcotics; explosives; response
CHANGES IN RATES OF SNIFFING IN AIR-TRAILING DOGSJohn W.S. Bradshaw*, Sara L. JacksonAnthrozoology Institute, University of Bristol, Langford,UK*Corresponding author: [email protected]
The behavioral mechanisms whereby dogs locate airbornesources of scent have received little research attention.Gun dogs (N 5 25; 125 trials) wearing a microphone torecord sniffing were videotaped locating a scented training