Silence is golden

My blog has been very inactive lately, as mom has been getting all kind of other hobbies for herself. Like knitting, yoga and taking walks outside. It's good for her but bad for the blog. Also the dark November month is taking all the extra energy out of the humans of this northern country. But don't you worry, I'm enjoying a pretty normal kitty life here. For example this morning I peed on her gym bag just for fun. Gave her something little extra to think about five minutes before leaving to work...

Take care!

Do Dogs Synchronize Their Behavior with People? Researcher Seeks Participation in Online Study

Please welcome today's guest contributor, Charlotte Duranton, a PhD student at the University Aix-Marseille – Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology. For this online study, Charlotte is seeking participants who own dogs as well as those who do not. Please share the study far and wide!

Our dogs are not only our best friends, they are even our shadows. When you are tired and just want to hang out at home, many dogs will lay down and sleep at your feet. And when you are full of energy and ready to go out, your companion dog is ready to go, waiting to get out, and full of enthusiasm. In both, the dog is a reflection of your own state.

While these behaviors are typically accepted by the general public, they lack extensive scientific study. This is the topic I am investigating for my PhD project: Do dogs display behavioral synchronization with their humans?

Non-conscious synchronized behaviors are found in various species and among all taxa of live beings. Synchronization is observed within intraspecific groups and dyads and has various adaptive values. Being synchronized with others helps: i. decrease the pressure of predation on offspring, ii. increase the effectiveness of anti-predation strategies, and iii. increase social cohesion (see Duranton & Gaunet 2016 for a review). 

This last point is essential when thinking about dog-human groups and dyads. In humans, synchronization helps foster relationships and social bonds between individuals. The more affiliated individuals are, the more behaviorally synchronized they will be (Duranton & Gaunet, 2016).

When considering the dog-human relationship, we know that dogs are very sensitive to our body movements, and such a sensitivity is proposed to be the basis for behavioral synchronization between dogs and humans (Duranton & Gaunet, 2015). 

Social referencing is a type of behavioral synchronization that has recently been identified between dogs and their owners. When confronted with an unfamiliar stimulus, dogs looked at their owners to see their reactions, and then the dogs reacted accordingly. Dogs used their owner’s reaction as a guide when reacting to an unknown object (Merola et al., 2012) and an unknown person (Duranton et al., 2016). Movement alone was sufficient for the dogs to synchronize with the human’s reaction (Duranton et al., 2016).

The scientific question...

We now want to investigate the existence of behavioral synchrony from the dog towards the human when they are alone together without any external stimuli. Do dogs, in a quiet place, with no external events or stimuli, synchronize their behavior with the behavior of their owners?

Get involved!

Help us investigate this question by participating in our online citizen project: www.dog2human-synchrony.fr

Study participants will watch a few short videos and report back on what you observe. The study takes approximately 10-15 minutes.

Study participants

We seek participants who own dogs as well as those who do not own dogs, so please share the study widely!

French or English, your pick!

The study is available in both French and English! 

Access the study here: www.dog2human-synchrony.fr

Please don't hesitate to contact me should you have any questions: charlotte.duranton@cegetel.net

Thank you for considering contributing to this study!

Charlotte Duranton,

www.charlotteduranton.com

University Aix-Marseille – Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology – CNRS

Association AVA

References

Duranton & Gaunet, 2015. Canis sensitivus: Affiliation and dogs' sensitivity to others' behavior as the basis for synchronization with humans? Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 10, 513—524.

Duranton & Gaunet. 2016. Behavioural synchronization from an ethological perspective: overview of its adaptive value. International Society for Adaptive Behavior.

Duranton, Bedossa, & Gaunet. 2016. When facing an unfamiliar person, pet dogs present social referencing based on their owners' direction of movement alone. Animal Behaviour, 113, 147—156.

Merola et al. 2012. Social referencing in dog-owner dyads? Animal Cognition, 15, 175–185.

The origins of Thanksgiving.... and Thanksgiving Day Dinner for Cats!

The first Thanksgiving was held in the fall of 1621 and historians believe it took place something between September 21 and November 9.  Edward Winslow, an English leader that attended the first Thanksgiving in 1621 noted that venison and waterfowl were the centerpieces of the meal as well as eels, lobsters clams and mussels.  The forest provided chestnuts, walnuts and beechnuts and they grew multicolored Indian corn, pumpkins, squash and beans.

Thanksgiving as we know it today was the brainchild of Sarah Josepha Hale, editor and publisher of a popular woman's magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book, Hale petitioned 13 presidents to make Thanksgiving an annual holiday as a way to unite the country in the midst of the Civil War and in 1863, it was made a national holiday.  Hale published many recipes in her magazine as a suggestion of what women should prepare for “Thanksgiving” such as creamed onions, roast turkey with sage stuffing, mashed squash and turnips.   

Today’s modern Thanksgiving menu is iconic and always consistent from year to year.  From roasted butternut squash, candied yams and carrots, to, a golden brown roast turkey replete with cranberry sauce followed by a richly spiced pumpkin pie.  With this in mind, I went to the www.chewy.com website to look for a special treat for my gang of five to celebrate the Thanksgiving Day holiday!

It was hard to resist the new cat food by Merrick called “Thanksgiving Day Dinner” –  it is made both for dogs and cats.  This grain free Thanksgiving Day is a classic recipe that contains everything healthy and festive for your cat  -- white turkey, turkey broth, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans and even cranberries!  Merrick sources their farm fresh ingredients locally to ensure freshness and are cooked in their five star kitchen and manufacturing facility that is in strict compliance with FDA guidelines.  I garnished it with  Freeze Dried Kiblets Chicken by Halo for an extra special treat.  These kiblets can be eaten as a topping or rehydrated as a food. They are 95% chicken, gluten and grain free providing natural nutrition for cats.

My cats went wild over this… the shredded chunks of turkey are lightly minced and in a thick wonderful gravy that my cats just couldn’t get enough of; I even added a bit of water to the mix so they could lap up more gravy and minced turkey goodness.  When looking at the mixture, that doesn’t smell like “cat food” you can see the bits of vegetables in it, I like to see what I am feeding my cats and they seem to love this Thanksgiving Day Dinner by Merrick. In addition, this cat food is loaded with lots of essential vitamins and minerals plus a protein content of 10%. 

Watching my cats enjoy this fabulous new food, Thanksgiving Day Dinner, I thought to myself, it just goes to you that “Thanksgiving” should be and can be every single day… even for my furry family. Getting this food from www.chewy.com is a click away and if you spend more than $40, shipping is free!

Easy Sunday

Another resting spot, another Christmas light. I'm spending this morning checking out the views from the window and resting my butt on a tablet. Things could be worse.

Have a relaxing day!

Good evening!

We have some Christmas lights on already! The weather has been very nice and wintery with snow and stuff, but now it's just plain rain and slush. Gotta fight the darkness with some twinkly lights.

You're in the queue...

...just hold on and wait for your turn. I'm drinking from this fountain now.

Icy and frosty

I was let outside for a while during the weekend. It's been pretty cold out here, between -6 and -10 celsius. It hasn't been snowing yet, so it's just frosty everywhere. Mom says it's bad for the plants when the temperature drops so low before the snow comes, since the snow protects the plants during winter. We'll see if there are any living plants left next summer in our garden...

But I had a good time. Have a good week everyone!

Kitten fever?

I've placed myself under the table, which is a cool place to take a nap.

Anyhow, mom says she has a case of kitten fever, meaning that she would like to have another kitten. I'm not sure what to think of that... would I like to have a brofur or sisfur? Some of the staff agree with her and some (or should I say one) of them don't. You can probably figure out who. Mom says she is just daydreaming and there are some things she thinks are a bit difficult to arrange with double kitties, but who knows... What do you think? Would I get along with another kitty?

Good morning!!

Greetings from the top of a warm fireplace! I just finished a good night sleep, had breakfast and now I'm chilling here, watching the humans leave for work and school.

It's good to be a kitty. Have a great weekend friends!