64 Saber Tails Winter 2016
Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America
AKC Canine Health Foundation grants funded
by the PBGV Health & Rescue Foundation
by Laura Liscum
The PBGV Health & Rescue Foundation has received prog-
ress reports from four investigators whose research is
funded by the Foundation. The reports are the following:
Grant 01995
Understanding the Flexibility and Limitations of How Dogs
Acquire Knowledge and Understanding: Application to Ser-
vice Dog Emotional Health and Selection
Duke Canine Cognition Center
The Duke Canine Cognition Center is directed by Dr. Bri-
an Hare, an evolutionary anthropologist and author of
the bestselling book, The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are
Smarter Than You Think. The Center is dedicated to the
study of dog psychology and improving programs that
breed and train dogs to assist individuals who are blind
or visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, need mobil-
ity assistance, need to be alerted to a medical situation,
or have psychiatric needs. Dr. Hare notes that “the current
supply of assistance dogs falls far short of the demand,
and those in need are frequently placed on long waiting
lists for access to certified dogs. The primary limiting fac-
tor is the high attrition rate from training programs (50-
70%), which underscores the need for systematic research
on enhanced screening criteria that can lead to a larger
supply of certified dogs.” In other words, the Center hopes
to develop a test to predict which dog will ace a training
program and become an outstanding service dog and
which will flunk out.
In the first phase of their project, the Center tested 200
candidate assistance dogs (Canine Companions for Inde-
pendence) in the Dog Cognition Test Battery, which as-
sesses a wide range of problem solving skills in dogs. They
then determined which of the problem solving skills were
associated with dogs that did well in assistance training.
Based on these results, they designed a shorter diagnostic
battery of tests and assessed a novel cohort of 90 candi-
date assistance dogs. They found that they were able to
predict training success with 77% accuracy. For approxi-
mately one-third of the dogs they were able to predict
the probability of graduation with 86% accuracy. In the
final six months of their grant, they plan to test and make
predictions for an additional cohort of ~100 candidate as-
sistance dogs. Dr. Hare states that, “if successful, this short
format test has the potential to increase public access to
assistance dogs by identifying dogs most likely to suc-
ceed in training.”
Grant 02002
Defining the Genetic Basis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Dr. Karin Allenspach, University of London
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a gastrointestinal dis-
ease that is characterized by diarrhea, weight loss, fatigue,
depression, vomiting, gas, and abdominal pain. The exact
cause is not fully known, but the disease may be initiated
by a dog’s hypersensitivity to bacteria or food allergens.
It is more common in middle-aged and senior dogs but
can affect dogs of any age. Typically, IBD cannot be cured
but it can be controlled by antibiotics and immunosup-
pressive drugs. Some dog breeds show a genetic suscep-
tibility to IBD and Dr. Allenspach’s goal was to identify the
genetic factors that contribute to the disease. She ana-
lyzed DNA from German shepherd dogs because they are
particularly susceptible. Remarkably, she found 17 can-
didate genes. This means that when the DNA of control
and affected dogs were compared, there were differences
in 17 genes. Twelve of the genes were already known to
be involved in inflammatory or immune response path-
ways and have been linked to human IBD. These results
will allow Dr. Allenspach to identify the specific mutations
in those genes that contribute to IBD. Further work will
be needed to determine if the same genetic markers are
linked to IBD in other breeds, such as the PBGV.
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