Macedonian Veterinary Review

Original Scientific Article

Different dynamics of sensory-motor development and behavior during the transitional period in puppies: Preliminary results

Federica Pirrone ,

Ludovica Pierantoni ,

Valerio Albizzati ,

Mariangela Albertini *

Mac Vet Rev 2018; 41 (2): 153 - 161

10.2478/macvetrev-2018-0018

Received: 12 October 2017

Received in revised form: 08 January 2018

Accepted: 03 March 2018

Available Online First: 07 July 2018

Published on: 15 October 2018

Correspondence: Mariangela Albertini, mariangela.albertini@unimi.it

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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.

Keywords: behavior, development, transitional period, puppies, dog

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Copyright

©2018 Pirrone F. This is an open-access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Acknowledgement

We thank Paolo Petrucci and the Training and Breeding Center Bau House, Via Mera 13, 20900 Monza (MB) – Italia, for making this study possible.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declared that they have no potential conflict of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Citation Information

Macedonian Veterinary Review. Volume 41, Issue 2, Pages 153-161, p-ISSN 1409-7621, e-ISSN 1857-7415, DOI: 10.2478/macvetrev-2018-0018, 2018