Or exhibit addiction-like behaviours, rather. Unfortunately, there is no poochie rehab (yet).
The saying “like a dog with a bone” has taken on extra weight following new Swiss research which found that dogs with a very high toy drive – particularly terriers, shepherds, and retrievers – can exhibit addiction-like behaviours, sometimes to their own detriment.
According to the paper, which was published in Royal Academy Open Science, toy-directed play motivation “reaches such exceptional levels that it exhibits phenomenological parallels with behavioural addictions” in some canines.
The researchers reached these conclusions through conducting an online survey with the owners of almost 1700 pooches, with questions designed to identify components of addiction such as craving, lack of self-control, mood modification and continuation of the behaviour despite negative consequences.
Some of the potential adverse consequences for toy-obsessed hounds were identified as not getting much sleep during the day and having a hard time calming down.
In most cases, the owners of dogs with very high play scores reported not having actively fostered their dog’s interest in toys; it just naturally happened.
When it came to toy obsession, shepherds scored the highest on the addictive behavioural traits, followed by terriers and retrievers.
The researchers had previously defined an “addictive-like” phenotype in dogs as being “characterised by heightened arousal, persistent attempts to access an unavailable toy at the expense of consuming accessible rewards or engaging in social interaction, and difficulty relaxing for a prolonged time, even when toys were no longer present”.
“… Our previous study also showed that dogs with extreme toy motivation displayed high persistence and perseverance—traits often valued in working dogs—as well as high impulsivity when aiming to access an unavailable toy,” the Swiss researchers wrote.
“This suggests that several traits that might seem undesirable in pets (such as extreme persistence) could actually improve performance in specific working roles.
“Importantly, these findings do not necessarily imply that toy motivation itself is the direct target of selection in working breeds.
“Rather, selection for working roles likely targets a broader behavioural phenotype characterized by persistence, reward sensitivity, high task engagement and sustained arousal.”
This humble Back Page scribe is the proud owner (servant?) of a pug who largely declines to show interest in a toy unless there’s a possibility that it has peanut butter smeared on it.
The only exception to this rule is toy hedgehogs.
Being a mostly-inside pug from Australia, there is no conceivable way that Agatha has ever encountered a real hedgehog.
Yet she appears to perceive every hedgehog stuffed toy – and seemingly only hedgehog toys – as some kind of ancestral blood enemy which must be attacked on sight.
Agatha seems to want nothing more than to eat peanut butter and rid the world of plush hedgehogs.
While this by no means an addiction, it is kinda weird.
Send your stuffed hedgehog to Holly@medicalrepublic.com.au or face Agatha’s wrath.
