Scientists investigated whether or not dogs suffer from OCD in large numbers, and it turns out they do. In fact, larger breeds suffer from OCD (or CCD, id est canine compulsive disorder) at much higher rates, and traced it back to the chomosome 7 location within the gene CDH2.My only addition to his excellent analysis is of course dogs are OCD - we bred them for that. Anyone who's seen border collies herding sheep has seen the world's best example of Anthropogenic OCD.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Breeding
The Czar of Muscovy also brings the Smart, analysing why a "goofy" scientific study isn't so goofy after all:
Any animal that licks it's own backside clean for up to ten minutes at a time has some serious OCD issues.
ReplyDeleteWhy does a dog lick himself?
ReplyDeleteIs THAT much cleanliness a sign of OCD??
Owning retrievers I can understand that. Throwtheballthrowtheballthrowtheballthrowtheball. . . .
ReplyDelete...and my Jack Russell Terrorista is mad for one particular orange ball. It's her one and only and will have no other. And yes, we bred them for that. Fortunately for us, they love us in spite of that fact.
ReplyDeleteNot exactly. A Border Collie herding sheep is a Border Collies doing its proper job.
ReplyDeleteA Border Collie trying to herd something else (chickens, ducks, geese, cats, people...) as if they were sheep is an example of anthropogenic OCD.
No argument on retrievers. The typical Lab will happily chase the same ball over and over until you get tired or he drops dead of exhaustion, whichever comes first.