Majority of dogs suffer from anxiety

2020-06-18李璐

疯狂英语·新读写 2020年5期

关键词：篇幅发动体裁

狗的生活可能看起来无忧无虑，但是根据新的研究，它们经常处于焦虑状态。

题材体裁篇幅建议用时动物新闻报道383词 7分钟

难词探意

1.trait/treɪt/n.特点；特性

2.trigger/΄trɪgə/n.发动；引起；触发

3.prevalence/΄prevələns/n.流行；盛行；普遍

4.hypothesize/haɪ΄pɒθəsaɪz/v.假设；假定

The life of a dog may seem carefree,but according to new research,the animals are often dealing with anxiety.The struggles of being a dog were discovered through a study conducted by the University of Helsinki in Finland,which found that a majority of the pets exhibit anxioustraits.

According to the researchers,who studied the behaviour of more than 13,000 pet dogs in Finland,72.5 percent of the pups exhibit traits such as noise sensitivity,fearfulness,fear of surfaces and heights,inattention,impulsivity,compulsion,separation-related behaviour,or aggression.To understand how dogs experience anxiety,researchers asked pet owners to fill out an online questionnaire.

After analysing the 13,715 responses from owners of 264 dog breeds,including Bernese Mountain Dog,Labrador Retriever,Spanish Water Dog,Border Collie,researchers found the most common anxietyrelated behaviour was noise sensitivity,with 32 percent of dogs exhibiting the trait.According to the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, fireworks are frequently thetriggerfor the behaviour,with the explosions causing fear in 26 percent of the dogs.General fearfulness was also common among pet dogs,with the trait affecting 29 percent of canines in the study.“Specifically,17 percent of dogs showed fear of other dogs,15 percent fear of strangers,and 11 percent fear of novel situations,”the authors wrote.Separation-related behaviour and aggression were found to be the least common traits.

According to the researchers,gender did have a slight impact on anxiety,with male dogs found to be more often aggressive and impulsive,while female dogs were more often fearful.Age also played a part in the findings,withprevalenceof noise sensitivity and fear of heights found to increase as the dogs got older.Breed impacts anxiety traits as well,with Spanish water dogs,Shetland sheepdogs,and mixed breed dogs most commonly displaying fearfulness,while fear of heights was most common in rough collie and mixed breed dogs,according to the study.From the findings,researchers havehypothesizedthat genetic makeup plays a large part in different types of anxiety,according to Medical News Today.

The researchers said that behaviour has a major genetic component.To decrease dogs'anxieties,researchers suggest selecting non-anxious animals for breeding.What's more,changes to living environment could help pets currently living with anxiety.