Olfactory stimulation as an element of environmental enrichment preventing mental disorders in animals

Agata Kokocińska, Katarzyna Barłowska, Tadeusz Jezierski Institute of Genetics & Animal Breeding of Polish Academy of Sciences,

Jastrzębiec, 05-552 Magdalenka, PL

a.kokocinska@ighz.pl

Environmental enrichment is the stimulation of the brain, which involves the enhancement of an animal’s physical or social environment. It influences brain plasticity, stimulates neurogenesis, increases neurotrophic factor expression, and protects against the effects of brain injury. Environmental enrichment reduce the incidence or severity of undesirable or abnormal behaviours, such disorders like; obsessive - compulsive disorder, stereotypy, depression or anxiety and phobias. Abnormal behaviours observed in animals include locomotor stereotypies (such as weaving, pacing, and route-tracing) and mouth-based behaviours such as feather pecking, barbering or cannibalism, bar biting and many more. We distinguish 5 types of enrichment: social enrichment, occupational enrichment, physical enrichment, nutritional enrichment and sensory (or stimuli) enrichment. The last one can be: visual (e.g., television), auditory (music, vocalizations), or in other modalities (e.g., olfactory, tactile, taste). The vast majority of animals are macrosmatic. The main sense which they are used in exploration is sense of smell (chemical receptors). We can use this trend in the design of sensory environmental enrichment with olfactory stimuli. For certain animal species we can use a variety of naturally attractive odors. For example- a cats as a predators are interested in feathers. The olfactory stimulation can also use pheromones, such as DAP (dog appeasing pheromone) or feline facial pheromone, which have calming effect.

Exercises involving the sense of smell 1. You can involve interactive toys to feed the dog with, such as Snacky Ball

(Figure 1); logical hand-made toys: cardboard boxes (Figure 2); food wrapped in newspaper (Figure 3); plastic bottles filled with flavored treats; plastic bag with food hanging high to make an animal to leap up. You hinder gaining food gradually. The animal is forced to search for food and the performance of the entire sequence of exploratory behaviour in order to obtain food. In this way, mentally we stimulate dog or cat, so that you prevent boredom. You can stop administering the food from the bowl and give a food with only this type of toys. When you are working with fearful dogs you should use these toys in situations that arouse anxiety, eg. if the dog feels uncomfortable outside, you can slowly move the toys outside (Figure 1)

2. Tracking is searching for treats and toys with a particular scent. This exercise is reserved primarily for dogs. You teach the dog the command "search", while you are hiding treats or favorite toy. Initially you let the dog see where the toy is hidden. When the dog already knows the command "search", hinder the exercise, do not let the dog see where you are hiding treats. The dog should only follow the scent..

3. Relaxation training combined with essential oils (natural lavender) or with pheromone DAP. There is used classical conditioning. You massage the dog by hands sprinkled with lavender oil (or sprayed with DAP). A dog bed or blanket can be also sprinkled while massaging. The massage should be performer with repeted regularly calm command "relax". At some point, the dog will associate relaxation with command and smell. Command "relax" and the scent could be used later in stressful situations (eg. when the dog is suffering from separation anxiety, owner can sprinkle a dog's bed by lavender scent before he leave an apartment. That should automatically provide dog's relaxation). In addition, that command is also useful in dogs prone to aggression and during the dog fight to alleviate and break the conflict. Above all, it is indicated for hyperactive dogs to calm down. The dog will gradually be able to stay still longer during the massage, and relax completely (Figure 4).

4. "Targeting" is a method which can teach a dog how to focus an attention. Target is a object which makes a dog to follow it by nose. You can spread the object with something pleasantly scented for the dog eg .ham.

5. Hunting behaviour - this exercise is used mainly in cats kept only at home. As a smell of birds is very attractive to cats, you can scatter or hang feathers in different places in room to make the cat play and reduce boredom.

Dog appeasing pheromone (DAP), known as apasine, is a mixture of esters of fatty acids released by the sebaceous glands in the inter-mammary sulcus of lactating female dogs. In behavioural therapy, and as a preventive measure behavioural disorders are used a synthetic equivalents of DAP. It is usually used to keep dog calm under stressful situations. Feline facial pheromone is a pheromone used by cats to mark places, objects, and persons as familiar, by rubbing their face on surfaces. There are also synthetic feline facial pheromones used in the treatment of anxiety, as well as to calm down the animals. They prove correct in case of introducing a new cat to home and in veterinary offices.

Tracking is a technique in which dogs are trained to locate certain objects by using the object's scent. Tracking has always been an essential skill for dogs to survive in the wild, through hunting and tracking down potential prey. There are three phases of tracking: 1. searching; dogs attempt to find a track. They

move quickly, and take short, quick sniffs. 2. Deciding; dogs move more slowly and take

longer sniffs to determine the direction of the track

3. Tracking; dogs follow the track by sniffing and moving at a speed similar to that of the searching.

When a cat sees a potential prey, lowers body as close it is posible to the ground, and folowing a prey ("stalking run"). Often the cat does not attack immediately, but it is waiting for the right moment. It is associated with a common among cats hunting strategy: sit-and-wait, that makes prey to move away from the entrance to the burrow. The cat bounces from the ground by hind limbs and jump on the prey. Often attack involves detaching only the front limbs off the ground, while the hind provide a safe support and balance. During the attack the cat strikes its prey by paw and pulls it into the mouth. The killing of the prey is done by deep bite in the neck, interrupting the spinal cord.

Olfactory behavioural therapy The therapy can be based on a emotional system associated with a natural desire to explore. All exercises performed by the animals is good to combine with the organ of smell. The smell is the most important sense for macrosomatic animals, such as dogs and cats.

Figure 3. Hyperactive dog looking for food wrapped in newspaper

References 1. Fares R.P., Belmeguenai A., Sanchez, P.E., Kouchi H.Y.,Bodennec J., Morales A., Georges B., Bonnet C., Bouvard S., Robert S. Sloviter, Laurent Bezin, Standardized Environmental Enrichment Supports Enhanced Brain Plasticity in Healthy

Rats and Prevents Cognitive Impairment in Epileptic Rats. PLoS One, 2013 2. Woo C.C.,Leon M., Environmental Enrichment as an Effective Treatment for Autism: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Behavioral Neuroscience- American Psychological Association, Vol. 127, No. 4, 487–497, 2013, 3. Mench J., Newberry R., Millman S., Tucker C., Katz L., Chapter 4: Environmental Enrichment [in:] Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Research and Teaching, FASS, Third edition, January, 2010 4. Graham L., Wells D.L., Hepper P.G.,, The influence of olfactory stimulation on the behaviour of dogs housed in a rescue shelter, Applied Animal Behaviour Science 2005 , Elsevier 5. Wilde, N. Help for your fearful dog, Phantom Publishing2006

Figure 2. Apprehensive dog (black one) and dog with dementia seeking food in cardboard box.

Figure 1. Apprehensive dog rolls the snack ball outdorr. Focusing on gaining food it forgets about anxiety.

Figure 5. Cat with rolling skin syndrome (Feline Hyperesthesia) is engaged in play with feather

Figure 4. Hyperactive dog with separation anxiety during relaxation training combined with essential oils (natural lavender)