Parenting Style Matters When It Comes To Elevating A Guide Dog : Shots – Health News A new study indicates that dogs have more attentive, active mothers, they are more prone to fail guide dog training. Well trained guide dogs are essential for visually impaired individuals who rely on them. Many dogs bred to be guide dogs flunk from training applications. A study published Monday in the Acts of the National Academy of Sciences indicates how a puppy’s mother raises that might be the key to your dog’s success, or failure. A team of investigators in the University of Pennsylvania found that dogs destined for guide dog training tend to be more inclined to fail if they are coddled by their mothers.
Accordingly, on one hand, we would think Yes, you need your own mother. Mothering should be a good thing. But for guide dogs, the mothers are with their puppies in the pen 24\/7. So then the question becomes Just what exactly is beneficial? Basically the dogs tend to be kept from a kiddie pool lined with towels. So off the hands mothers are those that are currently spending less time with their dogs rather than interacting together as much, clarifies Bray. They found that among the 98 dogs they studied, the knowingly mothered ones were more likely to neglect a guide dog training plan later.
How their puppies are nursed by mothers also influenced how puppies performed. The moms will either lie down to nurse, or sit or stand up. In case the own mother dog is sitting or standing, She’s further from the puppy. The puppy has to work for it, clarifies Bray. Those puppies are more effective as guide dogs. A own mother dog lies down while she nurses her dogs. The training for guide dogs teaches and chooses for a very specific skill set. Bray pens To one reason hands off mothering is associated with more of those traits might be that your little challenges from puppyhood prepare them for your bigger challenges of being a guide dog. It is good for the dogs to have these little challenges to overcome, like not having your own mother around, as opposed to having the mom there, around, all of the time, not let them experience things on their very own, she hypothesizes. Another possibility is that maternal stress may affect puppy development. Prior research has discovered higher levels of the related to stress bodily hormone cortisol from dogs with more active parenting behaviors.