Dogs with hearing and/or visual impairment are as capable as any dogs to communicate and cooperate with humans.

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Dogs with hearing and/or visual impairment are as capable as any dogs to communicate and cooperate with

humans.

Sophie Savel, Emma Lemaitre, Patty Sombé

To cite this version:

Sophie Savel, Emma Lemaitre, Patty Sombé. Dogs with hearing and/or visual impairment are as

capable as any dogs to communicate and cooperate with humans.. XXVII International BioAcoustics

Cogress (IBAC 2019, Aug 2019, Brighton, United Kingdom. �hal-02394869�

Dogs with hearing and/or visual impairment are as capable as any dogs to communicate and cooperate with humans

Sophie SAVEL ¹ , Emma LEMAITRE ² and Patty SOMBE ²

1

Aix Marseille University, CNRS, Centrale Marseille, LMA UMR 7031, Marseille, France

2

Non- profit organization “Blanc Comme Neige”, Saint -Denis-sur-Scie, France

Acoustic communication between dogs and humans is a growing subject of research [1].

INTRODUCTION METHODS

XXVII International Bioacoustics Congress (IBAC), Brighton, UK, 31 ^th Aug – 6 ^th Sept 2019

[1] Miklósi Á (2015). Dog behaviour, evolution, and cognition. 2nd ed. Oxford (UK): Oxford University Press. Chapter 12, Communication, play, and collaboration; p. 252–269.

PERSPECTIVES

[2] Strain GM, Clark LA, Wahl JM, Turner AE, Murphy KE (2009). Prevalence of deafness in dogs heterozygous or homozygous for the Merle allele. J. Vet. Intern. Med. 23:282–286.

Improper breeding practices increase the number of dogs with congenital deafness, abnormally white coat and blue eyes. These troubles are observed in dogs with homozygous genotype for either the Merle or piebald gene [2], which code for coat color patterns. Homozygous Merle dogs also show ocular disorders and vision impairment [3].

[3] Tamilmahan P, Zama MMS, Pathak R, Muneeswaran NS, Karti K (2013). A retrospective study of ocular occurrences in domestic animals: 799 cases. Vet. World. 6:274-276.

[4] Farmer-Dougan V, Quick A, Harper K, Schmidt K, Campbell D (2014). Behavior of hearing and vision impaired or normal hearing and vision dogs (canis lupis familiaris): Not the same, but not that different. J. Vet. Behav. 9(6):316-323.

The 31-question survey, published online in French and English languages, was about the following 7 points:

● General information (age, breed…) ● Coat and Eyes* color

● Ocular disorders

● Hearing and Vision sensory status

● Dog-Owner Communication

● Canine activities

● Health and Behavior*

Flash this code to access to the English version of the survey → A total of 277 dogs’ owners from 15 countries participated.

The dogs, aged at least 6 months**, were sorted into 4 groups***:

● Increase the size of the control group to about 200, for the same breeds and countries as those surveyed for sensory-impaired dogs

● Communicate with breeders, veterinaries, dog trainers and owners about abilities of impaired dogs to communicate and practice activities

● Perform video and audio recording of communication signals between sensory-impaired dogs and owners in a referential communication task

● Develop simple behavioral tests to assess the left and right sensory status separately for dogs with no access to BAER or ophthalmic tests

REFERENCES

A and B: Dogs with typical Merle and piebald coats.

C: “Double-merle” dogs with white coat and ocular disorders.

RESULTS

There is very little data about communication abilities, which are believed to be poor, in impaired dogs [4]. We addressed a survey to owners of dogs with congenital hearing and/or vision impairment, and, as a control group, of sensory-normal dogs.

● HNVI: Hearing Normal Vision Impaired (n = 22)

● HIVN: Hearing Impaired Vision Normal (n = 64)

● HIVI: Hearing Impaired Vision Impaired (n = 144)

● HNVN: Hearing Normal Vision Normal (n = 47)  NORMAL IMPAIRED (n = 230)

The y-axes in graphs below represent the rate of dogs obtained within each group by response category. Two-by-two group comparisons were assessed using Khi

tests. Color brackets show significant differences (two-tailed p < 0.05 following Holm’s correction).

* Not presented here ** Data from 12 dogs aged less than 6 months excluded

● Total, bilateral sensory impairment is more frequently reported for hearing than for vision. Vision impairment and ocular disorders are linked

● Hearing- and hearing-and-vision impaired dogs would produce more barks and grunts than other dogs to communicate with their owners

● The sensory modality(ies) of the dogs used by their owners to convey communication and training signals differ(s) between the four groups

● 59% of impaired vs. 87% of normal dogs practice at least one activity, but with no impaired/normal difference for tracking and visiting dog

● Olfaction of impaired dogs is much less frequently involved in owner→dog communication than in canine activities

*** Rates of males and females balanced in all 4 groups

Communication between dog and owner

(*) AS: Australian Shepherd, BC: Border Collie

1-3 3-5 5-7 7-9 9-11 11-13

years 0.8

0.6 0.4 0.2

6-11 months

Mean age ±1 s.d (years) 8

6 4 2

Age range Breed

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 1.0

AS and BC ^(*) Other pure

Other mixed

Rate of white on head

< 0.50 0.50-0.75 > 0.75 0.8

0.6 0.4 0.2

microph- talmia misshapen pupil no eyeball cataract none

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 1.0

Ocular disorders

Hearing

Vision

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2

none partial

partial both sides

total both sides none

total partial

total Unilateral Bilateral

Severity of impairment

0.8 0.6

0.4 0.2

bark moan whine whimper

grunt growl groan yelp yap

none 0.8

0.6 0.4 0.2

sound touch sound touch touch all gesture

+ +

odor + gesture

Owner→dog signals Dog→owner vocalizations

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

agility none

herdingsheep frisbee flyball treiball

visiting aged persons cani-

cross bike scoot

dog

dancing tracking other assisting epileptic /diabetic persons

Canine activities