In the eight years he had lived at the house, Sam had never before been in the bedroom.

Going downstairs with Sam, the owner looked in the kitchen and found Sally and her newly born premature puppies in distress on the floor.

The story of Sam is remarkable for many reasons! He was aware of the distress of the dogs – animals of a species different to himself. This ‘interspecies awareness’ can be used by animal scientists as an indicator of animal sentience.

The words “come one, come on!” are used to encourage action or a bit more speed from another, and often they imply some urgency. We don’t know in which context Sally’s owner uses these words to her, but the signs are that Sam the parrot chose these words deliberately to get the urgent response needed.

African Grey parrots are well known for their intelligence and quick wit, and here is yet another example of their abilities.

Dr Irene Pepperberg has carried out extensive studies of parrots’ abilities to understand. Reporting on her findings, she notes: “Given the evolutionary distance between birds and mammals, these results have intriguing implications for the evolution of intelligence, the study of comparative intelligence, and the care and maintenance of birds held in captivity in zoos and as companion animals.”

 This  short film featuring Irene with famous parrots Alex and Griffin gives a very interesting and though-provoking snapshot about these amazing birds.

Sources
Lancashire Telegraph, 8 November 2011. Darwen hero parrot helps saves premature pups’ lives
Pepperberg, I. (2006) Cognitive and communicative abilities of Grey parrots. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 100: 77-86

Professor Mike Mendl, Head of the Animal Welfare and Behaviour research group at Bristol University, who led the research, said: “We all have a tendency to think that our pets and other animals experience emotions similar to our own, but we have no way of knowing directly because emotions are essentially private”.  However, his research team was able to develop a new method to study ‘pessimistic’ or ‘optimistic’ decisions in dogs.

Dogs, like humans, can tend to optimism or pessimism

Separation-related behaviour and anxiety
Around half of all pet dogs in the UK will, at some stage of their lives, show separation-related behaviour (SRB) when left alone.  SRB can include vocalisation, destructiveness and inappropriate toileting.  Many pets are given up for re-homing for performing these undesirable behaviours; however, it is believed that dogs show SRB because they are experiencing feelings of anxiety.  The research found that dogs who display high levels of separation-related behaviour also appear to have a more negative underlying mood (affective state) when they are not separated from their owners.

The research
Twenty-four dogs from two UK re-homing centres were used in the study.  Firstly, each dog took part in a separation-related behaviour test which was designed to measure his or her response to being left alone.  The dogs were taken to a room for 20 minutes where they could interact with one of the researchers.  The next day they were taken back to the same room but this time the researcher only interacted with the dog for a few minutes, then left the room.  The researchers used video recordings to give each dog a SRB score based on how he or she behaved when alone in the room.

For the second test, the dogs were trained that when a bowl was placed one side of the room (the ‘positive’ position) it would contain a small amount of food, but when placed on the other side (the ‘negative’ position) it would be empty. The bowl was then placed at different locations between the positive and negative positions. Dogs who ran quickly to these ambiguous locations, as if expecting the positive food reward were said to have made an ‘optimistic’ judgement, and others who moved more slowly and were said to have made a ‘pessimistic’ judgement. The dogs who behaved more pessimistically tended to be the ones who also showed higher levels of SRB when left alone for a short time. But should we be surprised by this?

Emotional states influence how dogs approach a situation
Professor Mike Mendl said “We know that people’s emotional states affect their judgements and that happy people are more likely to judge an ambiguous situation positively. What our study has shown is that this applies similarly to dogs – that a ‘glass-half-full’ dog is less likely to be anxious when left alone than one with a more ‘pessimistic’ nature.”

This study provides an important insight into dogs’ emotions and suggests that at least some dogs who show separation-related behaviour may have underlying negative emotional states.  Owners should be encouraged to seek treatment for these dogs to enhance their welfare rather than give them up for re-homing.

Sources:

Mendl, M., Brooks, J., Basse, C., Burman, O., Paul, E., Blackwell, E. and Casey, R. (2010). Dogs showing separation-related behaviour exhibit a pessimistic cognitive bias.  Current Biology 20, 19: 39-40.

e! Science News (2010). Dogs may be pessimistic too [Accessed 19 October 2010].

Socialising in the village square. (c) Compassion in World Farming/Chi Keung Wong

Pigs are very chatty, communicating with grunts, squeals, snarls and snorts, champing their jaws and clacking their teeth. Sows have a special call for their piglets when it’s time for the piglets to suckle. Sows and piglets keep contact with each other and with their mother by squeals and grunts. If piglets are separated from Mum, they squeal for her. Scientists found that sows responded more strongly to the desperate squeals from cold, hungry piglets than they did  to calls from larger, more well-fed piglets.

Animals can also understand each other’s language. For example, some animals can understand the meaning of another’s alarm call.

Dogs and humans have a long history of living together. While dogs are often quick are picking up what humans are saying – perhaps by the tone of voice rather than by all the actual words – we humans often seem to struggle to understand dog ‘bark language.’ In this really interesting video, courtesy of the social networking site Petstreet ,  dog communication expert John Rogerson helps us decipher what our furry friends are wanting to tell us.

As reported in the Daily Mail, Clyde is blind, and  Bonnie leads him “to food or water, and lets him rest his head on her haunches when he feels a bit lost. They are inseparable, and if Bonnie isn’t nearby Clyde refuses to move a paw.”

Bonnie and Clyde were rescued as strays recently and now they happily have a new home. The BBC’s One Show has a special page and film about these two great friends.

The Daily Mail reports that Bonnie leads Clyde “to food or water, and lets him rest his head on her haunches when he feels a bit lost. They are inseparable, and if Bonnie isn’t nearby Clyde refuses to move a paw.”

Bonnie and Clyde were rescued as strays recently. It appears they were lost in a storm and no-one has come forward for them. Obviously these two have a vital bond and they must be rehomed together.

Mother hen and chicks. Image: Compassion/Gordon Ratcliffe

Baby chicks of only 3 or 4 days old can add and subtract. A  news article today reports that researchers tested youngsters to see if they could work out different quantities of small plastic balls.

In natural conditions, chicks and hens would live in small groups. It seems likely that their amazing ability to count at such a young age is important to help them survive.

Other research has found that some non-human primates, monkeys and dogs can count too and that “monkeys perform approximate mental addition in a manner that is remarkably similar to the performance of the college students”!