Scientific research for anxious dogs - UGent

Anxiety in dogs

Dogs can react in different ways when they come across frightening stimuli. They can defend themselves, walk away or freeze. These three behaviors are considered normal behavior. A very intense frightening stimulus can cause dogs to be more alert than before towards unknown situations. This increased degree of alertness is considered as fear. Anxiety often goes hand in hand with aggressive behaviour directed at objects, peers or people. Anxiety is also characterized by changes in the brain that are visible on functional brain imaging. The regional functioning of the brain can be studied with a special camera.

Analogue to humans, dogs experience anxiety as very unpleasant. Anxiety can be abnormal or pathological. Certain stimuli cause an anxiety response that is out of proportion to the incentive or causes an over-prolonged state of anxiety. The current approach to treat canine anxiety problems is similar to human depression. Very often, behavioural therapy is combined with medication. Human patients who do not respond or respond insufficiently to such treatment are eligible for neuromodulatory techniques (techniques that will influence brain function), including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The latter is an FDA approved for the treatment of depression. Since depression in humans and anxiety in dogs have a very similar neurological basis, TMS is now also used as a treatment for anxiety disorders in dogs.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a painless neuromodulating technique that can be used after the failure of traditional therapy. We are currently conducting functional brain imaging research into the effects of medication and neuromodulating techniques on anxious dogs. Initial results about TMS in anxious dogs have shown that this technique is not only capable of stimulating brain regions associated with behaviour in the dog, but also causes change in the brain which is accompanied by positive behavioral changes.