Overweight in Dogs: What the Evidence Shows and Which Lever Actually Works
Six in ten dogs are above ideal weight when they are measured; seven percent have it recorded. What that costs, and why more walking is the weaker of the two levers.
unterHUNDs Research
Health and body
A large share of behavior cases has a physical component, and pain is the one most often missed. These reviews cover what chronic pain, poor sleep, diet, gut function and aging do to behavior – and what the evidence supports about each.
Looking for practical help with your own dog? Our guides for dog owners put this research into plain, everyday steps.
These articles are written in English and aimed at trainers, behavior consultants and veterinary professionals. Deutschsprachige Beiträge findest du im Hunderatgeber.
Diet and Behavior in Dogs: Mechanisms, Trials and What Holds Up
Can you calm an anxious dog by changing its food? The question is reasonable, the recommendations are everywhere, and most of them rest on an argument that sounds compelling: certa…
Sleep and Learning in Dogs: What Polysomnography Has Established
A dog learns two new commands, then sleeps for three hours with electrodes on its head, and afterwards performs better than it did before. That sentence describes an actual experim…
Neutering and Behavior in Dogs: What the Evidence Shows
Neutering is still widely recommended as a treatment for behavior problems, aggression above all. Three large questionnaire studies do not support that: longer exposure to gonadal…
Pain Masking in Dogs: Why Discomfort Is Hard to See
Dogs do not report pain in words. What they do is show changes in behavior, and those changes can be gradual enough to be attributed to age, character or training. The most common…
Neurochemistry in Dogs: How Cortisol, Oxytocin, Dopamine and Serotonin Shape Behavior
A dog's behavior is not solely the product of training, breed, or personality. Beneath every learned cue, every emotional outburst, and every moment of calm runs a complex, tightly…
Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome (CDS) in Dogs: Neuropathological Mechanisms, Behavioral Expression, and Translational Insights
Aging brings gradual neurobiological change across mammals, but in dogs a subset of individuals develops something beyond normal aging: a pathological condition called Cognitive Dy…
Visceral Pain and Behavior in Dogs: When the Body Changes Behavior
Behavioral problems in dogs are often framed as issues of training, socialization, or environmental stress, and aggression, restlessness, hypervigilance, or a sudden loss of appeti…
The Neurophysiology of Sleep in Dogs: Memory Consolidation and Emotional Regulation
For many owners, a sleeping dog is simply a resting dog — sleep read as a passive pause, a period of physical recovery and quiet. From a neurobiological standpoint it is nothing of…
The MDR1 Defect in Dogs: ABCB1, P-Glycoprotein and Drug Sensitivity
The MDR1 defect is one of the few canine genetic findings with an immediate, practical consequence: a four-base-pair deletion in the ABCB1 gene truncates P-glycoprotein, the transp…
Chronic Pain and Behavior: The Neurobiological Link Between Osteoarthritis and Aggression in Dogs
In veterinary behavioral medicine, aggression, irritability, and sudden behavioral change are often approached as behavior problems first and medical problems second — or not at al…
The Gut–Brain Axis in Dogs: Microbiome–Behavior Interactions and Clinical Implications
Over the past decade, the gut–brain axis has moved from the fringes of neuroscience to its center, reframing the gastrointestinal tract and the brain as one continuously communicat…
Telomeres and Stress: How Chronic Anxiety Accelerates Cellular Aging in Dogs
Two dogs of the same age can be biologically very different, and telomeres are one of the few ways that difference becomes measurable. The idea that follows is attractive: a dog's…
Oxytocin in Dogs: Bonding, Trust, and Stress Regulation — What the Evidence Shows (and What It Doesn't)
Oxytocin, a nine–amino-acid neuropeptide synthesized in the hypothalamus, is frequently invoked to explain the closeness of the dog–human relationship. A growing body of work shows…
For dog owners: the unterHUNDs guides cover behavior, training, health and everyday life in practical terms, with the same sources behind them.