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Tres nuevos artículos de AEPA-Euskadi publicados en el Journal of Veterinary Behavior

Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research Volume 6, Issue 1, January-February 2011

En Julio de 2010 presentamos tres ponencias en el Canine Science Forum de Viena ante una asistencia de 250 personas, en su mayoría científicos y expertos en cánidos de todo el mundo. Esta reunión permite compartir ideas en diferntes campos tanto prácticos como de investigación.

A este segundo congreso llevamos tres presentaciones, cuyos resúmenes puedes ver en la tabla de abajo (pincha en los títulos de las presentaciones para leerlos).
Los tres han sido publicados en la revista Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research Volume 6, Issue 1, January-February 2011

La primera edición del "Canine Science Forum" (CSF) se realizó en Budapest en julio de 2008 y AEPA-Euskadi también participó con una presentación sobre "Competencia numérica humana evaluada a través de ejercicios con perros", que fue pubicada en el Journal of Veterinary Behavior.


Varios de los temas principales del CSF son:

Título
Autores
Modalidad de ponencia
Wolf-pack hunting strategy:
An emergent collective behaviour described by a classical robotic model.

Cristina Muro, AEPA-Euskadi
Ramón Escobedo, AEPA-Euskadi y Universidad de Cantabria
Raymond Coppinger, Hampshire College, USA
Lee Spector, Hampshire College, USA
Contributed talk
Dog welfare for pro-social skills conveyance to prison population.

Iñaki Linaza, AEPA-Euskadi
Cristina Muro, AEPA-Euskadi

Poster presentation
Happy Tail Wagging: a laboratory artifact?
Lateral Tail Wagging in the Field.


Benigno Paz, Kns ediciones
Ramón Escobedo, AEPA-Euskadi y Universidad de Cantabria
Poster presentation

Wolf-pack hunting strategy: An emergent collective behaviour described by a classical robotic model.
Wolf-pack social behaviours are considered highly organized social mechanisms in which a sophisticated communication system plays an essential role. Among these complex social interactions, wolf-pack hunting strategies are often presented as the proof that a social structure sustains the relation between pack members, and, still, that this social structure is based on hierarchical rules.

After the advent of Robotic Science and Artificial Intelligent models of swarms, flocks and herds, complex behaviours are known to emerge from the combination of small sets of simple rules controlling the single behaviour of each individual. In particular, multi-robot models have shown to be effective in describing capture processes often called hunts.

A robot hunting model is presented in which two simple decentralized laws for the movement of each wolf-bot account for reproducing the main features of the wolf-pack hunting ethogram: tracking the prey, carrying out the pursuit, encircling the prey and harassing it until the capture is considered over. Wolf-bots are all autonomous and indistinguishable from each other, therefore interchangeable –the geometrical position of the prey and of the other wolf-bots, especially those close to the prey, being the only information they need.

Numerical simulations are carried out for multiple combinations of the parameters: pack size ranging from 2 to 20 members, different relative positions and speeds, etc. Prey movement is arbitrarily selected to be successively still, moving describing large circles, first with constant speed and after with positive or negative acceleration, and simulating an escaping movement.

The results show that hunting in packs is an emergent group behaviour which does not necessarily rely on effective communication between the individuals participating in the hunt. With special emphasis, it is shown that no hierarchy is needed in the group to achieve the task properly.

Dog welfare for pro-social skills conveyance to prison population.
Dogs participate in our society in a large number of assisted activities designed to help human groups with specific needs. One of these groups is the prison population, which commonly suffers from a lack of pro-social skills. Generally, the activities with dogs focused on pro-social skills recovering consist of dog-training technique courses, the preparation of assistance dogs or taking care of dogs as pets. In these activities the transmission of prosocial skills is not direct and dogs’ welfare is subject to the development of the activity.
Furthermore, dogs live permanently inside the prison.

Since 2007, AEPA-Euskadi has been developing a program of dog assisted activities with prison inmates consisting in the direct transmission of pro-social rules. This program extends across the reintegration process, from prison to halfway flats, and the welfare of dogs is guaranteed along all the activities. The main activity of the program takes place inside the prison and consists in a course on Positive Canine Education, the contents of which are precisely the human-to-dog/human pro-social skills. Attendants are twenty to forty years old men convicted mostly for drug-related offences, but also for robbery, rape and murder. The program continues outside the prison in escorted outings and halfway flats. Importantly, all the activities are carried out by the same specialists of AEPA-Euskadi and the same dogs, which moreover are their own family-dogs.

Our approach has shown to be especially beneficial for the inmates for three main reasons:
First, the transmission of pro-social skills is direct as it is based on the similarity of the way we treat and educate dogs and the way humans have to be respected.
Second, dogs’ welfare is guaranteed along the activities, as dogs’ welfare is precisely the subject matter of the course, and dogs are always under the care and supervision of their owners (AEPA-Euskadi trainers) and are never left inside the prison.
Third, to be present throughout the reintegration process (inside and outside the prison) reinforces the confidence, tranquillity and stability of the inmates.

Happy Tail Wagging: a laboratory artifact? Lateral Tail Wagging in the Field.
Brain lateralization, the specialization of the left and right side of the brain, has been shown to induce side preference in behavioural outcomes in a wide range of species. In dogs, behavioural lateralization has been reported in paw preference and tail-wagging or head-turning responses to visual, acoustic and emotive stimuli.

Behavioural outcomes reflecting dog emotional state are of particular interest as animal welfare indicators (anticipating stress situations) for dog owners and handlers, provided they can be detected rapidly and unambiguously by simple observation. Although clear tail-wagging biases have been observed in the laboratory, where dogs are kept still while recorded with a zenithal camera, this is difficult to check outside the lab; see [1] cited in [2].

We wanted to know if tail-wagging biases can be detected in the field and to what extent this information can be useful. Data collection therefore consisted in video tracking individual dogs in day to day situations from the dog handler viewpoint. Everyday scenarios were considered: at home, in the park, at work (assistance dogs) etc. for N = 200 dogs. Among them the often stressing visit to the veterinary was specifically analyzed (29 dogs). We expected a clear left bias when the dog is asked to enter the clinic.

Our results show that, outside the lab, tail-wagging asymmetries in daily situations do not allowed us to infer the dog’s emotional state, the 15º angle bias obtained in the lab being not perceptible at all in the field; only in extreme situations of dog reluctance a clear and definitive lateral tail movement to the left was observed. Thus, dog handler attention should be focussed on body and calming signals, those being better indicators of the emotional state of a dog. Deep observation skills allowing owners highly familiar with a specific dog to establish a reliable link between tail movements and emotional states should however not be discarded.

References:
[1] Quaranta A, Siniscalchi M, Vallortigara G, 2007. Asymmetric tail-wagging responses by dogs to different emotive stimuli. Curr Biol. 17, R199-R201
[2] Whitfield J, 2007. 'Here boy' makes dogs wag to the right. Nature News 070319. http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070319/full/news070319-6.html DOI: 10.1038/news070319-6


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