My Pet World: Big dogs behave quite differently from their smaller cousins
BOSTON, MA -- Veterinary behaviorists and other veterinarians interested in animal behavior were among those attending the 2015 Veterinary Behavior Symposium July 10, attended by members of American College of Veterinary Behaviorists and other interested veterinarians in Boston, a day before the opening of the annual Convention of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Kicking off the symposium was keynote speaker Dr. Raymond Coppinger, professor emeritus of biology at the University of Massachusetts and author of about 50 scientific papers and various books, including "DOGS: A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution" (with Lorna Coppinger, Scribner, NY, NY, 2001; $26).
Coppinger called his talk, "What Makes Dogs Tick: The Ethology of Dog Behavior." He began by explaining how changing the size of the dog changes behavior. There's no more variability in size of any species on earth as that of the domestic dog, he noted.
"So while dogs are dogs, the size of individual dogs or dogs of various breeds accounts -- at least in great part -- for their behavior," Coppinger said. "In many ways, small dogs respond very differently than very large dogs."
He suggested that dogs act as they do because of the hard-wired motor patterns they're born with. While he begrudgingly agreed that dogs do think, and conceded that our best friends have emotions, at the same time Coppinger maintained that many of their responses are automatic.
"They do it," he says, "Even if they don't know what they're doing, or why."
Coppinger also noted that dogs may fight over resources not only based on the quality of the resource, but also on its scarcity. Food and toys are just the beginning, he said. Dogs may also tussle over a hard-to-come-by shady spot, a valued resource for street dogs feeding at a garbage dump in Mexico with few places out of direct sun.
Other symposium speakers discussed:
AUTISM IN DOGS
Bull terriers who compulsively chase their tails may be autistic, said Dr. Nicholas Dodman, director of the behavior clinic at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, Mass.
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