Dogsey

Researchers at the University of Manchester are to embark upon a study looking at the relationship between people and dogs. The £500K study - 'Pedigree Chums: Science, Medicine and the Remaking of the Dog in the Twentieth Century’ - will examine the impact humans have had on the characteristics of domestic dogs through elements such as breeding, feeding, training and socialising.

Professor Michael Worboys, a project leader from the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Faculty of Life Sciences believes that dogs have been neglected by social scientists and in animal medical studies, despite companion animals now dominating modern veterinary practice.

He went on to add, “furthermore, the dog was transformed in the 20th century by the application of science and medicine: no animal species has been more altered in size, shape, colour or temperament by human selection; no species has a closer relationship with humans; no species is fed a more processed, industrialised diet, and no species has their health treated in a manner so close to what humans enjoy.

“We will study how changing ideas and practices with breeding, feeding, training and treating have essentially remade the modern dog, whether as pet, show dog or working animal.”

Focussing on the factors of human influence and human-dog interactions, the study, which is funded by a Wellcome Trust grant, will explore the effects of these in relation to stray and dangerous dogs, the rising numbers of pure bred dogs and the use of dogs in medical research that benefits humans and dogs.

Co-investigator on the project, Matthew Cobb, Professor of Zoology in the Faculty of Life Sciences, said: “Veterinary medicine and animal health has been poorly served by researchers despite the subject being given priority funding for many years.

“We will also explore how aspects of human-dog relations have been increasingly medicalised, to the point where dogs are called 'patients' and vets' records list them by their names, not those of their owners.”