My dogs are a lot of things: sweet, cuddly, stubborn, food-motivated, and yes, sometimes impulsive, inattentive, and hyperactive. But does that mean that, like both their human parents, they have attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD)? Surely that couldn\u2019t be the case. <\/p>\n
I mean, do we even have a way to measure this in pups? Is there even such a thing as a neurotypical versus neurodivergent dog? I\u2019ve spent much of my own life coming to terms with \u2014 and now embracing \u2014 that I am neurodivergent, as are many other smart and talented people in creative fields. But in the four years I\u2019ve worked in pet care, I have never heard experts refer to an official ADHD diagnosis in dogs. In fact, our vet expert Alycia Washington has written<\/a>, \u201cADHD is a human diagnosis.\u201d But that doesn\u2019t mean ADHD-like symptoms aren\u2019t present in dogs. <\/p>\n Get 20% off \u2028PrettyLitter, just for our kin<\/p>\n Save on the litter with color-changing tech that helps you better care for your cat.<\/p>\n Get Your Coupon<\/p>\n In fact, studies have found that 20 percent of dogs display hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity \u2014 all primary traits of ADHD. (Nemo, a dog featured in Netflix\u2019s documentary Inside the Mind of a Dog was classified in the film as one of those dogs.) And now, Hungarian scientists have now developed a new way to screen dogs for ADHD behaviors and determine if they are \u201cat risk\u201d for ADHD symptoms. <\/p>\n Their studyopens in new tab<\/a>, published in July, looked at 1,872 family dogs and their humans. They used the \u201cDog ADHD and Functionality Rating Scaleopens in new tab<\/a>\u201d (DAFRS), which looks at ADHD-related behavior in two ways: the presence of common ADHD symptoms and the extent to which these symptoms interfere with the dogs\u2019 everyday activities. <\/p>\n How much do you spend on your pet per year?<\/p>\n Less than $1,500<\/p>\n $1,500-$2,500<\/p>\n Over $2,500<\/p>\n If this sounds like something a school psychologist might employ to diagnose a child with ADHD, as someone who underwent that diagnosis process, I can tell you from experience: It\u2019s incredibly similar. These dog researchers are applying the same approach they might take with a child by asking the question: How are these symptoms actually affecting the dogs and their ability to function?<\/p>\n \u201cIn human diagnostics, the presence of symptoms such as inattention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity alone does not necessarily indicate ADHD. A key element is functional impairment \u2014 that is, whether these symptoms have a negative impact on everyday life,\u201d Dr. N\u00f3ra Bunford, clinical psychologist and human ADHD researcher, told Elite Institute of Biologyopens in new tab<\/a> from E\u00f6tv\u00f6s Lor\u00e1nd University. Dr. Barbara Csibra, first author of the study, says that the researchers\u2019 aim was \u201dto establish a reliable diagnostic system that enables more accurate identification of at-risk dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n Per their published findings, this is how their system worked: \u201cDogs were classified as at-risk if they scored at least 26 points on the ADHD symptom scale\u00a0and\u00a0showed noticeable problems in at least one functional area.\u201d Of all the dogs studied, 79 of the over 1,800, or just over four percent, dogs studied met this criterion. <\/p>\n \u201cThis prevalence rate is surprisingly similar to what has been reported in adults with ADHD, while the prevalence is somewhat higher in children and adolescents,\u201d Dr. M\u00e1rta G\u00e1csi, lead researcher of the study said to Elite Institute of Biology. She added, though, that several factors impact this. For example, some dog parents may not recognize these severe ADHD symptoms in their dogs, while others do simply because they are more observant. <\/p>\n She added whether a dog is at risk of ADHD behaviors requires experts to weigh in: \u201cWhen possible, we also include input from the dog\u2019s trainer. This multi-faceted approach helps rule out other behavioral problems that may cause similar symptoms and reduces the chance of misdiagnosis,\u201d she told the publication. <\/p>\n So, what happens if your dog does exhibit these behaviors? As Kinship has writtenopens in new tab<\/a>, there are certain things you can do to help your pup if they are struggling with training because of inattention or hyperactivity. These tactics include: making training sessions shorter and combining them with calming activities like enrichment activities, like scent work<\/a>. And if, during the training session, your dog gets frustrated, try to implement breaks or work on an easier skill that day. <\/p>\n As far as this research, there is no information that I can find that states whether the average public can access the ADHD-behavior screening any time soon. But for now, it sounds like experts may actually have found a workable way to diagnose ADHD behaviors in dogs. What does that mean? Well, in my case, if my dogs end up testing at-risk for ADHD traits, it\u2019ll only further cement the fact that we are family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My dogs are a lot of things: sweet, cuddly, stubborn, food-motivated, and yes, sometimes impulsive, inattentive, and hyperactive.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,72526,84,44],"class_list":["post-133237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dog-behavior","tag-health","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}