Research on dogs and human-dog relationships have become rich areas of exploration across university settings. Here are 10 studies conducted at institutions across the U.S. and Europe since 2021 – most of which seek to better understand various health issues for both dogs and humans.
ROBOTIC DOGS FOR DEMENTIA CARE
Researchers at the University of Utah developed a therapeutic protocol for using robotic dogs for older adults with dementia who live in long-term care facilities. These pets have synthetic fur and operate with programmed movements and sounds, and can get around many of the drawbacks of keeping live animals in residential facilities. All five residents enrolled in the study connected with these robotic pets, with some even accessing and articulating memories about childhood pets from long before.
DOGS CAN DETECT COVID-19 IN HUMANS
A study from the University of Helsinki confirmed that in a matter of several weeks, scent-detection dogs can be trained to identify COVID-19 infections in humans by sniffing skin swabs. Four dogs were presented with 420 infected swabs to sniff over the course of a week, including over 300 negative samples, identifying these correctly 92% of the time. The inclusion of virus variants was the largest factor contributing to incorrect identification. Researchers said that this failure was actually impressive, showing that the dogs could distinguish between the initial COVID-19 strain and its variants. They said that scent dogs could become a valuable testing tool, as PCR tests are not well suited for screening large masses of people due to their high cost and other factors.
A DISEASE-SNIFFING DEVICE THAT RIVALS A DOG’S NOSE
Many studies have shown that trained dogs can detect diseases simply through their sense of smell, but it takes time to train them, and their availability is limited. A team at the Massachusetts Institute and Technology is developing a compact device that they said can detect the chemical and microbial content of air samples with even greater sensitivity than a dog’s nose. Using 50 human urine samples, the device’s sensor determined whether they contained molecules that indicate prostate cancer. Researchers then applied a machine-learning program (an application of Artificial Intelligence) to interpret the results – i.e. a diagnosis. The team said they envision a day when smart phones have scent-detectors built in, which could pick up on diseases sooner than typical screening regimes.
WILD WOLVES’ GUT MICROBES COULD HEAL DOGS’ GASTRO ISSUES
Researchers at Oregon State University found a novel strain of Paenibacillus bacteria with characteristics of a probiotic – an organism that conveys a health benefit to the host – in wild wolves. If introduced to the GI tracts of domesticated dogs, they say it could head off canine inflammatory bowel disease – a chronic illness characterized by vomiting, weight loss and other symptoms. The team collected gastrointestinal matter from a wolf’s body after it had died from being stuck by a car. They isolated 20 different bacteria that were on record for having probiotic qualities, sequencing the genome of the Paenibacillus strain and finding that it inhibits the growth of pathogens.
WOMEN SHAPED THE SOCIAL STATUS OF DOGS
Several factors have likely played a role in building the mutually beneficial relationship between humans and dogs, including temperature, hunting and somewhat surprisingly –gender. Using the Human Relations Area Files database, researchers at Washington State University sourced ethnographic data written about 144 subsistence-level societies from around the world. They found that the more women were involved with dogs, the more likely it was for communities to regard dogs as a type of ‘person’ – giving them names, allowing them to sleep in humans’ beds, and mourning them when they died. The study also found that societies were less likely to form relationships with dogs when temperatures were high or hunting conditions were good.
TIME WITH DOGS CAN LOWER STUDENTS’ STRESS LEVELS
Dog-assisted interventions can lead to significantly lower stress in children both with and without special needs, according to a study from the UK. Researchers tracked levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the saliva of 105 students, ages 8-9 years old, including 44 kids with special needs. When they interacted with trained dogs in eight 20-minute sessions a month, their cortisol levels decreased – especially right after the sessions. The study did not find the same to be true for kids who engaged with dogs individually, rather than in groups.
DOG BEHAVIOR MORE ALIGNED WITH CHILD BEHAVIOR
Dogs synchronize their behavior with the children they’re around, and not as much with adults, a study from Oregon State University found. Researchers recruited 30 kids, 8-17 years old and many with developmental disabilities, to take part in the study with their family dogs. They walked with their unleashed dogs along colorful lines of tape on the floor of a big, empty room. Researchers recorded their movements and analyzed the videos, finding that dogs followed kids’ movements more closely than they would those of adults. The team said the results have implications for the ways that dogs can help kids – including with social development, managing anxiety, or as a source of attachment in the face of changing family structures.
RECONSTRUCTING HOW DOGS SEE THE WORLD
Researchers at Emory University’s Canine Cognitive Neuroscience Lab recorded neural activity from two dogs’ brains while they watched 30-minute videos in an fMRI machine, including videos of deer crossing an outdoor path, cats walking in a house, and humans eating. They used a machine-learning algorithm to analyze patterns in the data, with results showing that dogs are much less object-oriented than humans – meaning they seem to be less concerned with who or what they are seeing, and more concerned with the action itself. About a decade ago, this research team pioneered training techniques for getting dogs to walk into fMRI machines and hold still while watching videos, which opened the door to The Dog Project – a series of studies that investigate how dogs’ brains process vision, words, scents, and rewards.
MAPPING THE MICROBIOME OF DOGS
Although the microbiome of dogs has been investigated extensively, these studies have mostly been limited to dogs housed in vets’ clinics or research facilities, who are vaccinated and eat processed pet food. In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign sampled the fecal microbiomes of dogs across diverse geographical populations – including household dogs, stray dogs and shelter dogs from South Africa, India, and Laos. They also compared these samples with ancient microbiomes obtained from fossilized dog feces, finding that the microbiomes from ancient dogs more closely resembled dogs from non-U.S. locations.
MAPPING AN EXPANDED DOG REFERENCE GENOME
A team at Uppsala University and the Swedish University is applying new methods for DNA sequencing in order to build a more complete dog reference genome. A key part of their work was moving from short- to long-read technology, reducing gaps in the genome from 23,000 to a mere 585. "We can think of the genome as a book," one of the researchers wrote. “In the previous assembly, many words and sometimes whole
sentences were in the wrong order or even missing. Long-read technology allowed us to read whole paragraphs at once, greatly improving our comprehension of the genome."
The team said that the improved genome will aid in a better understanding of the link between DNA and disease in dogs.
