Elizabeth S Paul, Rowena Ma Packer, Paul D McGreevy, Emily Coombe, Elsa Mendl, Vikki Neville
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引用次数: 0
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.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering serves as a resource to researchers, practitioners, and students on advances and innovative ideas in computing as applicable to the engineering profession. Many such ideas emerge from recent developments in computer science, information science, computer engineering, knowledge engineering, and other technical fields. Some examples are innovations in artificial intelligence, parallel processing, distributed computing, graphics and imaging, and information technology. The journal publishes research, implementation, and applications in cross-disciplinary areas including software, such as new programming languages, database-management systems, computer-aided design systems, and expert systems; hardware for robotics, bar coding, remote sensing, data mining, and knowledge acquisition; and strategic issues such as the management of computing resources, implementation strategies, and organizational impacts.