Tag Archives: Dogs

The Therapeutic Power Of Dogs

Posted on November 6, 2017 by | 5 comments

Dogs, with their unconditional love for us, have a huge impact in our lives. They make us feel loved and secure at all times. But did you know that their love can be used in therapies?

Fig 1. Image of a Golden Retriever, from flickr

Dogs are commonly used in therapies, namely in the animal assisted therapy (AAT), to benefit human’s mental health. Hoffman and his team claim that dogs help us reduce anxiety in particular.

To determine how dogs can help reduce anxiety, Hoffman and his team carried out an experiment on a group of participants with depression. They were provided with two 30 minute interaction with a dog and a research assistant. During each session, they talked with the research assistant, such as about their hobbies, and their previous experience with pets. They could pet or hug the dog during the session.

Their state anxiety was measured for data analysis by having the participants complete the state anxiety inventory (STAI) before and after each session.

It turns out that the participants showed significantly reduced anxiety when a dog was present, which was not the case for when the dog was not present. As shown in the graph below, there was a significant decrease of -2.402 in mean STAI score after the dog assisted condition, while the controlled condition showed statistically insignificant change in score of -0.981.

Fig 2. STAI score before and after the therapeutic session with a dog

Hoffman’s team concludes that even a short 30 minute interaction with a dog is highly effective in reducing anxiety. Clearly, dogs are not only the best companion, but also a powerful therapeutic source. Having realized how much impact dogs have in our lives, I wish more people could recognize their importance and treat them better.

-Clair Yoon

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Toxicity in Chocolate

Posted on October 23, 2017 by | 5 comments

If you own or plan to own a dog, you may have heard the horror stories about dogs accidentally eating chocolate. How can something so delicious be so harmful to dogs?

One can only imagine that dogs crave chocolate as much as we do. Photo Credits: Dr. Mark

The toxic component of chocolate is cocoa powder, processed from cocoa beans. Cocoa powder contains theobromine, a compound which stimulates the nervous system and increases feelings of arousal. Whereas theobromine has no adverse side effects to humans, it can cause discomfort to dogs; over-consumption of chocolate can lead to vomiting, diarrhea, seizures, and sudden death.

Breaking down the components of chocolate.
Photo Credits: Andy Brunning

Chocolate is known for its euphoric and addictive qualities, even becoming comparable to that of a drug. Although most people recognize chocolate as a harmless sweet, ‘the dose makes the poison‘ is crucial to evaluate when chocolate consumption becomes toxic. Canine digestive systems can only process theobromine in small amounts.

There are two main factors influencing the toxicity of chocolate to dogs: chocolate type and dog size.

Baking chocolate and chocolate chips contain the highest milligrams of theobromine per kilogram of chocolate than other chocolate types. The whiter the chocolate, the less theobromine is present, so white chocolate causes the least amount of internal damage per ounce.

Average theobromine levels in different types of chocolates. Photo Credits: PetPlan

In terms of dog sizes, larger dogs can consume more chocolate compared to small dogs because they weigh more. For example, a 75 lb golden retriever will reach the theobromine limit at after 15 ounces of milk chocolate (roughly 10 Hershey bars), whereas a 5lb pomeranian will reach the theobromine limit at 2.5 ounces of milk chocolate (roughly 1.5 Hershey bars).

There is an algorithm to determine the amount of theobromine a dog can safely consume. Photo Credits: PetPlan

Unfortunately white chocolate is not completely safe for dogs. Although it contains the lowest level of theobromine, white chocolate contains high fat and sugar levels since it uses cocoa butter instead of cocoa powder. Dogs do not process sugar or fat easily, and overconsumption of white chocolate could result in enteritis or pancreatitis!

As long as this dog does not consume the entire box, he or she will be alright. Photo Credits: dogsaholic.com

The most important fact is that chocolate consumption, like all food in life, is dose-dependent. There is no need to panic if your dog breaks into the snack cupboard and gobbles down a small chocolate bar.

Jessica Shi

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Why are dogs so friendly?

People started raising dogs about 14,000 years ago. Dogs are believed to be the very first domesticated animals. I have a dog as well, a 4-year-old German Shepherd called BeiBei. BeiBei came to my home when he was only three months old. At first, he was naughty and a little bit ‘aggressive’ (because nobody had ever told him not to bite and biting was his particular way to play with others), but finally he became a clever, loyal and friendly grown-up.

A photo of BEIBEI and me. (credit to baojing Jin, My mum)

For centuries, dogs are considered as the best friends of humans. When it comes to dogs, ‘friendly’ must be the first word popping up in most people’s heads. However, wolves, another species from canis, were first cultivated by humans due to some evolutionary advantage but nobody succeeded at all. And even baby wolves were not likely to be docile.

So have you ever thought about why, exactly, dogs are much more friendly than wolves or other kinds of animals? The answer remained unknown until 2010, when a study on DNA of dogs and wolves was published by Bridgett, a geneticist from vonHoldt of Princeton University, and colleagues.

The core difference was discovered in a gene related to social behaviours called WBSCR17, which claimed that the gene difference makes dogs so friendly and influences dogs’ domestication. Gene difference is also the reason why dogs can be trained to sit or shake hands using food rewards while you might be dead right away if you are trying to do the same things to wolves.

He sat down in order to get the frisbee from my hand. (credits to myself)

So a new project comparing the DNA of domestic dogs and wolves raised by humans was carried out then. In the experiment, dogs seemed to pay more attention on humans than wolves. Analyzing the DNAs of them, genes called GTF2I and GTF2IRD1, other than WBSCR17, are different. In addition, these genes are also related to the social behaviours in humans. What’s more, WBSCR17 genes help dogs adapt themselves to live with humans. Similar, other domestic animals, namely cats and mice, have genes of the same functions enabling them to be tamer than wild animals.

So now you can answer the question: Why are dogs so friendly? The reason is just a handful of changes in special genes, GTF2I and GTF2IRD1 and WBSCR17. From the perspective of genetics, dogs are indeed good friends of humans.

-Xinyue Chen

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Posted on October 2, 2017 by in Analysis

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