That brachycephalic look: Infant-like facial appearance in short-muzzled dog breeds.

IF 1.4 4区 农林科学 Q2 VETERINARY SCIENCES
Animal Welfare Pub Date : 2023-01-26 eCollection Date: 2023-01-01 DOI:10.1017/awf.2022.6
Elizabeth S Paul, Rowena Ma Packer, Paul D McGreevy, Emily Coombe, Elsa Mendl, Vikki Neville
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Abstract

Brachycephalic dog breeds are highly popular, yet their conformation-related disorders represent a major welfare concern. It has been suggested that the current popularity of such breeds can be explained by their cute, infant-like facial appearances. The concept of 'kindchenschema' refers to the observation that certain physical features of infant humans and other animals can automatically stimulate positive and nurturant feelings in adult observers. But the proposal that brachycephalic dogs possess heightened 'kindchenschema' facial features, even into adulthood, has never been formally investigated. Here, we hypothesised that relative muzzle shortening across a range of breeds would be associated with known 'kindchenschema' facial features, including a relatively larger forehead, larger eyes and smaller nose. Relative fronto-facial feature sizes in exemplar photographs of adult dogs from 42 popular breeds were measured and associated with existing data on the relative muzzle length and height-at-withers of the same breeds. Our results show that, in adulthood, shorter-muzzled breeds have relatively larger (taller) foreheads and relatively larger eyes (i.e. area of exposed eyeball relative to overall face area) than longer-muzzled breeds, and that this effect is independent of breed size. In sum, brachycephalic dog breeds do show exaggeration of some, but not all, known fronto-facial 'kindchenschema' features, and this may well contribute to their apparently cute appearance and to their current popularity as companion animals. We conclude that the challenge of addressing conformation-related disorders in companion dogs needs to take account of the cute, 'kindchenschema' looks that many owners are likely to be attracted to.

短头犬短嘴犬种婴儿般的面部外观。
颅脑发育不良的犬种非常受欢迎,但与它们的体型有关的疾病却成为一个重大的福利问题。有人认为,这类犬种之所以受到欢迎,是因为它们的面部外形像婴儿一样可爱。所谓 "亲切感"(kindchenschema)的概念,是指观察到婴儿时期的人类和其他动物的某些外貌特征会自动激发成年观察者的积极和养育情感。但是,关于肱骨犬即使在成年后也会拥有更强的 "亲切感 "面部特征的说法,却从未得到过正式研究。在这里,我们假设一系列犬种的口鼻相对缩短会与已知的 "亲切感 "面部特征有关,包括相对较大的前额、较大的眼睛和较小的鼻子。我们测量了 42 个常用犬种的成年犬示范照片中的相对正面面部特征尺寸,并将其与相同犬种的相对口吻长度和身高相关联。我们的结果表明,在成年期,较短口罩的犬种与较长口罩的犬种相比,前额相对较大(较高),眼睛相对较大(即眼球外露面积相对于整个面部面积),而且这种影响与犬种的大小无关。总之,肱骨头型犬种确实夸大了某些(但不是全部)已知的正面面部 "kindchenschema "特征,这很可能是它们看起来可爱的原因,也是它们目前作为伴侣动物受欢迎的原因。我们的结论是,在解决伴侣犬体型相关疾病的挑战时,需要考虑到可爱的 "kindchenschema "外观可能会吸引许多主人。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Animal Welfare
Animal Welfare 农林科学-动物学
CiteScore
2.30
自引率
8.30%
发文量
43
审稿时长
18-36 weeks
期刊介绍: Animal Welfare is an international scientific and technical journal. It publishes the results of peer-reviewed scientific research, technical studies and reviews relating to the welfare of kept animals (eg on farms, in laboratories, zoos and as companions) and of those in the wild whose welfare is compromised by human activities. Papers on related ethical, social, and legal issues and interdisciplinary papers will also be considered for publication. Studies that are derivative or which replicate existing publications will only be considered if they are adequately justified. Papers will only be considered if they bring new knowledge (for research papers), new perspectives (for reviews) or develop new techniques. Papers must have the potential to improve animal welfare, and the way in which they achieve this, or are likely to do so, must be clearly specified in the section on Animal welfare implications.
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