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How Old Is My Dog? Identification of Rational Age Groupings in Pet Dogs Based Upon Normative Age-Linked Processes

Behavioral development is a lifelong process where cognitive traits such as learning and memory may be expected to take quadratic or linear trajectories. It is common practice for operational purposes to reduce study subjects into chronological categories when conducting research. However, there are...

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Autor principal: Harvey, Naomi D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8110720/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33987218
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.643085
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author Harvey, Naomi D.
author_facet Harvey, Naomi D.
author_sort Harvey, Naomi D.
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description Behavioral development is a lifelong process where cognitive traits such as learning and memory may be expected to take quadratic or linear trajectories. It is common practice for operational purposes to reduce study subjects into chronological categories when conducting research. However, there are no agreed-upon thresholds for this practice, and the lack of standardization may hinder comparison between studies of normative and pathological aging. In this perspective review, chronological categories have been identified that can be considered to represent normative cognitive and neurological aging in domestic family dogs. These categories work to capture age-related developmental trajectories for the majority of dog breeds. It is encouraged that researchers studying cognition and behavior, pathological cognitive deficits, or welfare of dogs across age categories utilize the categories presented here to best enable comparison between studies. The proposed groups could also support education programs informing owners of what behavioral changes to expect in their dog as they age, but they cannot be used to reflect health-based needs associated with breed-specific morbidity. The use of the age categories proposed here highlights significant welfare issues for breeds with the shortest average lifespans (e.g., the Great Dane). Studies show no evidence of an increased rate of behavioral or cognitive aging in short-lived breeds, and the shortest-lived breeds are most likely to die when classified by the proposed categories as Mature Adults. Adoption of these chronological categories in future research would aid comparison between studies and identification of non-normative age-related pathologies.
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spelling pubmed-81107202021-05-12 How Old Is My Dog? Identification of Rational Age Groupings in Pet Dogs Based Upon Normative Age-Linked Processes Harvey, Naomi D. Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science Behavioral development is a lifelong process where cognitive traits such as learning and memory may be expected to take quadratic or linear trajectories. It is common practice for operational purposes to reduce study subjects into chronological categories when conducting research. However, there are no agreed-upon thresholds for this practice, and the lack of standardization may hinder comparison between studies of normative and pathological aging. In this perspective review, chronological categories have been identified that can be considered to represent normative cognitive and neurological aging in domestic family dogs. These categories work to capture age-related developmental trajectories for the majority of dog breeds. It is encouraged that researchers studying cognition and behavior, pathological cognitive deficits, or welfare of dogs across age categories utilize the categories presented here to best enable comparison between studies. The proposed groups could also support education programs informing owners of what behavioral changes to expect in their dog as they age, but they cannot be used to reflect health-based needs associated with breed-specific morbidity. The use of the age categories proposed here highlights significant welfare issues for breeds with the shortest average lifespans (e.g., the Great Dane). Studies show no evidence of an increased rate of behavioral or cognitive aging in short-lived breeds, and the shortest-lived breeds are most likely to die when classified by the proposed categories as Mature Adults. Adoption of these chronological categories in future research would aid comparison between studies and identification of non-normative age-related pathologies. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-27 /pmc/articles/PMC8110720/ /pubmed/33987218 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.643085 Text en Copyright © 2021 Harvey. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Veterinary Science
Harvey, Naomi D.
How Old Is My Dog? Identification of Rational Age Groupings in Pet Dogs Based Upon Normative Age-Linked Processes
title How Old Is My Dog? Identification of Rational Age Groupings in Pet Dogs Based Upon Normative Age-Linked Processes
title_full How Old Is My Dog? Identification of Rational Age Groupings in Pet Dogs Based Upon Normative Age-Linked Processes
title_fullStr How Old Is My Dog? Identification of Rational Age Groupings in Pet Dogs Based Upon Normative Age-Linked Processes
title_full_unstemmed How Old Is My Dog? Identification of Rational Age Groupings in Pet Dogs Based Upon Normative Age-Linked Processes
title_short How Old Is My Dog? Identification of Rational Age Groupings in Pet Dogs Based Upon Normative Age-Linked Processes
title_sort how old is my dog? identification of rational age groupings in pet dogs based upon normative age-linked processes
topic Veterinary Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8110720/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33987218
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.643085
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