<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Many studies have analyzed the behavior of puppies during their socialization period, while little attention has been paid to the transitional period, when vision and hearing develop. Here, we compared the average age of sensory and motor development, and the behavior among a total of 25 puppies. Each litter was videotaped during 1-hour daily sessions on postnatal days 10-21 and coded for the following mutually exclusive behavioral categories: sleeping, suckling and moving. The moving category included side-to-side head swinging, exploring, rolling and allogrooming. The opening of the eyelids, appearance of the startle response and ability to stand up with either the front or hind legs were identified. The duration and frequency of puppy behaviors varied significantly with breed and season of birth. Breed and gender differences in gross motor and sensory development were also observed. These findings may turn out to be crucial to enhance the welfare, standards of rearing, and behavioral interventions aimed at improving adaptability to novel stimuli in pet dogs.</p></abstract>

Many studies have analyzed the behavior of puppies during their socialization period, while little attention has been paid to the transitional period, when vision and hearing develop. Here, we compared the average age of sensory and motor development, and the behavior among a total of 25 puppies. Each litter was videotaped during 1-hour daily sessions on postnatal days 10-21 and coded for the following mutually exclusive behavioral categories: sleeping, suckling and moving. The moving category included side-to-side head swinging, exploring, rolling and allogrooming. The opening of the eyelids, appearance of the startle response and ability to stand up with either the front or hind legs were identified. The duration and frequency of puppy behaviors varied significantly with breed and season of birth. Breed and gender differences in gross motor and sensory development were also observed. These findings may turn out to be crucial to enhance the welfare, standards of rearing, and behavioral interventions aimed at improving adaptability to novel stimuli in pet dogs.

Different Dynamics of Sensory-Motor Development and Behavior During the Transitional Period in Puppies: Preliminary Results

Macedonian Veterinary Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Many studies have analyzed the behavior of puppies during their socialization period, while little attention has been paid to the transitional period, when...

Different Dynamics of Sensory-Motor Development and Behavior During the Transitional Period in Puppies: Preliminary Results

Published Online: Oct 29, 2018

Page range: 153 - 161

Received: Oct 12, 2017

Accepted: Mar 03, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/macvetrev-2018-0018

Keywords
behavior, development, transitional period, puppies, dog

© 2018 Federica Pirrone et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Different Dynamics of Sensory-Motor Development and Behavior During the Transitional Period in Puppies: Preliminary Results

Published Online: Oct 29, 2018

Page range: 153 - 161

Received: Oct 12, 2017

Accepted: Mar 03, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/macvetrev-2018-0018

Keywordsbehavior, development, transitional period, puppies, dog

© 2018 Federica Pirrone et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
behavior, development, transitional period, puppies, dog