[Sabina88]

(sorry if this is in the wrong spot)

I have to right a research paper for my psychology class, and we have to pick a topic that pertains to our future careers or at least what we plan on doing. At the moment all I know is that I want to work with animals so I want to write my paper on dog psychology (or wolves). However for some reason im having a hard time coming up with psychology topics pertaining to dogs. I was thinking about doing rage syndrome but there's not really enough info and every one has different theories on it.

The only other ones I can think of are,
Separation Anxiety
Alzheimers in dogs (Canine Cognitive Dysfunction)
OCD/ADHD

I know those ones will be the easier ones to right about, but none of them really catch my interest. I was also thinking about epilepsy in dogs but I don't think that would really be considered psychology. Can any one else think of other topics?

 

[KayWilson]

What about genetic vs environmental reactivity? It could be a paper based both on psychology and bio-psychologgy. I did a similar paper for my bio-psych class only it was regarding children's nature vs nurture reactions to the outside world.

 

[Sabina88]

Hmm that does sound interesting, thanks for the idea. Ill have to look into it some more.

I just looked at the paper and it says, the paper will focus on the connection between psychology and your chosen profession. What specific aspect of psychology need to be understood to be successful in your field. How does that knowledge translate into application. Its also only a 5 page paper (5 page max).

 

[traciek88]

I think you would find the most information on Separation Anxiety. I don't believe there is any sort of ADHD diagnosis in dogs, but I could be wrong. OCD can exist but it's...probably not as well studied. I'm not sure about the cognitive function thing. But you'd probably be good looking up Separation Anxiety.

 

[Sabina88]

I agree separation anxiety would be my best bet for information, especially since I know a lot about it in general. Aperantly (just from some quick general reading and skimming) there has been some research into Canine Cognitive Dysfunction.

 

[thecurlyone]

What about what happens to a dog when they're removed from their litter too early? my neighbors dog is NUTS and when I asked when they got her, they got her at 4 weeks old(the breeder didn't want that One puppy for some reason and was about to shoot it when they offered to take her) , she's dog reactive, bites too hard, she gaurds her food, she doesn't listen to a thing they say and she is terrified of strangers. She also has no idea how to play with other dogs, gets too excited and then becomes aggressive

 

[Gnostic Dog]

I would go with PTSD in dogs. This diagnosis does not just affect military dogs, I have read that there could be up to 6 million dogs in the US that are suffering from PTSD. In humans it is thought that up to 8% of the population who have suffered trauma suffer from PTSD.

There is no database that shows the percentage of dogs that have experienced trauma, but when you figure the number of dogs abandoned, brought to shelters, injured in fights with other dogs or mistreated by their owners, mishandled by vets, groomers, etc, gotten lost, hit by a car, etc. I would say that could add up to a large number of dogs suffering from PTSD to some degree.