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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