Page 116 - JRT Magazine - 2023 Issue 2

Science

Once-daily feeding may be better for a dog’s health

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-022-00575-7

The Dog Aging Project is a large-scale research less likely to have gastrointestinal, dental/oral,
initiative following thousands of companion dogs orthopedic, kidney/urinary, and liver/pancreas
over their lifetimes to better understand how health conditions than dogs fed more frequently.
biology, lifestyle, and environment impact healthy It is plausible that once-daily feeding tends to
aging. One of the aspects analyzed from the data result in lower overall caloric intake compared
was feeding intervals. All different ages, sizes, and to more frequent feeding since caloric intake
breeds were included to investigate associations data were not collected. Caloric restriction has
between feeding frequency and cognitive function been previously reported to extend lifespan and
as well as nine broad categories of health. improve health in Labrador retrievers maintained
in a laboratory setting. Further studies will be
It was found that adult dogs fed once daily needed to confirm the relative importance of
had better average cognitive scores and were feeding frequency.

Canine intelligence

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-022-01736-z

Dogs are exquisite It was found that pet dogs were sensitive to
readers of our behavior. what others see and know as well as what others
An important question intend and believe.
in the study of canine
cognition is how dogs In the past, it was believed that dogs may have
understand humans, simply learned that certain behaviors of humans
given that they show lead to certain outcomes. However, recent
impressive abilities research seems to challenge this low-level
for interacting and explanation. Dogs have been shown to solve
communicating with several perspective-taking tasks instantly and
people. Studies of dogs’ reliably across many variations.
perspective-taking abilities
have been conducted, Another study found dogs reacted differently to
showing evidence that misleading suggestions of human informants that
dogs are not only sensitive had either a true or a false belief about the location
to the gaze of others, but of food. A surprising result was found in terms of
also their attention. Studies the comprehension of reality-incongruent mental
have specifically addressed the states, which is considered the hallmark of Theory
question of whether dogs can of Mind acquisition in human development. This
take the perspective of others ability seems to have evolved not just in the
into consideration and, thus, corvid (avian) and primate lineages, but also in
understand what others can or cannot perceive. dogs. Dogs, thus, are a promising species to test
Then, do they infer what others know and use the hypothesis that non-human mammals might
that to anticipate what others will do next. possess theory-of-mind abilities.

116 | A Worldwide Magazine for the Jack Russell Terrier / Russell Terrier • Issue 2/2023