March 15, 2021

Study identifies factors for treating canine behavioral disorders

Age is only one of several factors that can predict how well a pet dog may respond to treatment of behavioral disorders, according to a study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

Penn Vet researchers describe in a paper published this January in Frontiers in Veterinary Science how the success of clinical intervention is influenced by a dog’s age, sex, and size as well as the owner’s personality and the bond between dog and owner.

The study analyzed the physiologic and psychological characteristics of 131 dog-owner pairs who attended a veterinary behavioral service over a six-month period. The statistical results were based on a behavioral assessment questionnaire that was given at the beginning, middle, and end of the research program, along with other baseline assessments.

Identifying the factors that predict success or failure in correcting canine behavioral problems may help veterinarians provide better guidance to owners in the future.

“Veterinarians that are able to pick out situations where dogs may be at risk for low improvement can also be more proactive during the follow-up, reaching out to the clients more frequently and empathetically,” said Dr. Lauren Powell, lead author of the paper.

Auxiliary celebrates National Pet Week 2021

The Auxiliary to the AVMA will be celebrating National Pet Week 2021, May 2-8, with the theme “Pets & Vets the Perfect Duet.”

The AVMA and the AVMA Auxiliary, an association founded in 1917 and primarily made up of spouses of AVMA members, created National Pet Week in 1981 to foster responsible pet ownership, recognize the human-animal bond, and increase public awareness of veterinary medicine.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Auxiliary is repeating its National Pet Week theme from 2020 and selling the same promotional poster as last year. The order form is at the Auxiliary's National Pet Week website.

Details about the Auxiliary’s poster and writing contests for National Pet Week 2022 are available on the same webpage. The theme, carried over from 2021, will be “Love is a 4-Legged Word.” June 15 is the postmark deadline. The contests are open to students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Grant supports artificial intelligence–based wildlife monitoring system

A research team led by Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences was awarded a nearly $700,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop a new artificial intelligence–based wildlife monitoring system.

The grant will be used by the research team to integrate camera and sensor data to create a tool to monitor wildlife typically difficult to observe, including pollinators, reptiles, amphibians, and nesting birds. The goal is to develop a low-cost, easy-to-use system that will allow landowners to monitor wildlife on their land and understand how their actions directly affect the local environment.

“Part of our grant is to make it so a typical landowner can easily use a laptop or phone app to see the information that came in from a specific camera, such as where that camera is on a map; the weather, temperature, light, and humidity there; and the critters that were at that camera,” explained Dr. Donald Brightsmith, principal investigator and an associate professor at the TAMU veterinary college.

Commercial wildlife cameras already allow landowners to monitor wildlife on a small scale, but by using artificial intelligence to aggregate and analyze data from a number of cameras and locations, landowners will be able to see a much more complete picture.

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