Abstract

KOSCINCZUK, P.; ALABARCEZ, M.N.  and  CAINZOS, R.P.. Social play traits and environmental exploration in beagle and fox terriers' puppies. Rev. vet. [online]. 2015, vol.26, n.1, pp.33-37. ISSN 1669-6840.

Play is one of the most frequent behaviors during the development of animals. Socialization games as well as the use of different objects during games were observed in 32 weeks-old beagles and fox terriers´ puppies to evaluate differences among breeds and sexes. All the mothers belonged to the same kennel. Three sessions of 15 min each were recorded at 12:00 h in three consecutive days. All the puppies were video recorded at the same time covering all the area where they were playing, without a blind spot. Then, each individual was observed from a PC monitor using a focal, direct and continuous sampling. Activities were divided in social (when interaction took place between two or more puppies) and individual (when only one puppy was involved). At 45 days old, 8 types of social activities (visual contact, tactile contact, race, jump, bite, chase, pull, competition) and 3 types of individual situations (gnawing, exploring, and sniffing) were registered. Among all the interactions (1,269), we identified 875 (76.48%) as social activities and 394 (23.51%) as individual activities. Only one activity (sniffing) was statistically different between sexes. Females sniffed the environment more often than males (p<0.007). In both breeds, social activities occurred more frequently than individual activities (p=0.96), but breeds do show differences during games. The ranking of activities for beagle puppies (n=16) according to frequency was: tactile contact, races, visual contact, bite and exploration. When comparing activities, beagles performed more activities such as pulling and winning objects (p≤0.01), and they showed higher interest in gnawing ornamental plants and grass (p<0.05) than the fox terriers. Ranking of frequency for fox terrier puppies (n=16) was: race, tactile and visual contact, exploration, and chase. Social activities of visual contact, race and chase were more significant in fox terrier puppies (p≤0.01). When considering individual activities, fox terrier puppies were more interested in exploring the garden compared to beagles (p=0.01). At this age, the observations of natural or spontaneous play behaviors could be considered as an approach for future behavioral patterns, taking into account the differences considering gender and breed for beagle and fox terrier puppies

Keywords : dog; behaviour; social and individual activities; sexes and breeds differences.

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