Influence of morning maternal care on the behavioural responses of 8-week-old Beagle puppies to new environmental and social stimuli

Guardini, Giovanna; Mariti, Chiara; Bowen, Jon; Fatjó, Jaume; Ruzzante, Silvia; Martorell, A.; Sighieri, Claudio; Gazzano, Angelo

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2016.05.006

Cited by 42 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Like Foyer et al (21) and Guardini et al (22), we found an association between maternal behavior and young adult behavior in tests of temperament. However, contrary to their results, we found that increased maternal behavior was positively associated with undesirable anxiety-related behaviors and performance in young adult dogs, including high activity when isolated, a short latency to vocalize when presented with a novel object, and perseverative errors and poor performance during a problemsolving task.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

“…In dogs, high levels of maternal care have been linked to physical and social engagement, aggression, and lower levels of anxiety and fear (21)(22)(23). Furthermore, aspects of young adult temperament, as measured by behavioral observations and questionnaires after 6 mo of age, have routinely been found to affect working dog success (24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of maternal investment, temperament, and cognition on guide dog success

Bray

Sammel

Cheney

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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A continuing debate in studies of social development in both humans and other animals is the extent to which early life experiences affect adult behavior. Also unclear are the relative contributions of cognitive skills ("intelligence") and temperament for successful outcomes. Guide dogs are particularly suited to research on these questions. To succeed as a guide dog, individuals must accomplish complex navigation and decision making without succumbing to distractions and unforeseen obstacles. Faced with these rigorous demands, only ∼70% of dogs that enter training ultimately achieve success. What predicts success as a guide dog? To address these questions, we followed 98 puppies from birth to adulthood. We found that high levels of overall maternal behavior were linked with a higher likelihood of program failure. Furthermore, mothers whose nursing style required greater effort by puppies were more likely to produce successful offspring, whereas mothers whose nursing style required less effort were more likely to produce offspring that failed. In young adults, an inability to solve a multistep task quickly, compounded with high levels of perseveration during the task, was associated with failure. Young adults that were released from the program also appeared more anxious, as indicated by a short latency to vocalize when faced with a novel object task. Our results suggest that both maternal nursing behavior and individual traits of cognition and temperament are associated with guide dog success.guide dogs | nursing style | maternal style | temperament | cognition I t is often assumed that, in both human and nonhuman animals, variation in cognitive abilities contributes to variation in problemsolving skills. However, there remains little consensus about what attributes, exactly, comprise such abilities, because performance is affected not just by variation in general "intelligence" (1) or reasoning ability (e.g., refs. 2, 3) but also by variation in more affective attributes, such as impulse control, neophobia, motivation, and exploration (e.g., refs. 4-6).Similarly, the long-term effects of early life experiences remain poorly understood. There is now considerable evidence that early exposure to stress has lasting effects on physiology [e.g., humans (refs. 7-9), rodents (refs. 10, 11), rhesus macaques (ref.12 and reviewed in ref. 13)]. In rhesus macaques, mothering style is correlated with offspring cortisol and serotonin levels (14, 15), and in baboons, the male offspring of subordinate mothers exhibit higher glucocorticoid levels than the offspring of more dominant mothers (16). In rodents, experiences across the early weeks of life have lasting implications for later temperament measures, such as stress reactivity and fear (17, 18), and cognitive skills, such as spatial memory (19). Similar effects are observed in children, where negative life events in childhood are linked to later reductions in adolescent self-control (20).Guide dogs are particularly suited to research on the longterm effects of early experi...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of maternal investment, temperament, and cognition on guide dog success

Bray

Sammel

Cheney

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To gain a more accurate picture of infrequent behaviours, a more selective period may improve the likelihood of capturing the behaviour. Guardini et al (2016) for example, coded behaviour for 15 min after the dam had returned to the litter in the morning. This is likely to capture a high level of activity, given the separation period of the mother from the litter can stimulate a greater expression of maternal behaviour when the dam returns.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The behaviours documented are specific to the duration, and at times the frequency, of dam presence, nursing, contact and anogenital licking (Rheingold, 1963;Scott and Fuller, 1965;Korda and Brewinska, 1977a,b;Grant, 1987;Guardini et al, 2015;Foyer et al, 2016;Guardini et al, 2016). However, it is difficult to compare the findings of these studies due to inconsistent behavioural definitions and measurements that have been used (Table 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…As Table 2 demonstrates, the sampling methodologies used across various studies has resulted in variation in the reported duration of the behaviour. To date, studies focusing on maternal care only describe the dam when she is with the entire litter (Rheingold, 1963;Scott and Fuller, 1965;Korda and Brewinska, 1977a,b;Grant, 1987;Guardini et al, 2015;Foyer et al, 2016;Guardini et al, 2016), which ignores the interactions between dam and individual puppies. Thus, our understanding of the frequency and duration of maternal care behaviours in dogs remains relatively uncertain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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