Overweight Dogs Have Similar Food Preferences And Eating Habits As Obese Humans: Study

Dogs are known as man's best friend for a lot of reasons and a brand new reason has just been uncovered in a research study. A team of Hungarian scientists conducted a study which concluded that overweight dogs behave much like their human counterparts, when it comes to gaining access to quality food. The study, which was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, said that dogs were ideal candidates to study behaviours leading to obesity in human beings. For the study, scientists selected 'obesity-prone breeds' and 'not obesity prone breeds' of dogs and studied their responses to foods that were delicious, exciting and high-quality or less interesting and low-value foods. These responses may form the basis for future models of studies on the causes and impacts of obesity on human beings, suggested the study.

Explaining the premise of the study, the authors said, "Dogs, due to their shared living environment with humans, may provide a beneficial model to study the causes and consequences of obesity." They added: "Here, we make use of two well-established research paradigms (two-way choice paradigm and cognitive bias test), previously applied with dogs, to investigate the role of obesity and obesity-prone breeds for food responsiveness." For the experiment, researchers put bowls containing two good and bad quality foods in front of a series of dogs. In all the cases, the owners of these dogs were asked to command the dogs to wait for both the bowls to arrive. They observed behaviours similar to those in human beings, in these dogs.

It was observed that the overweight dogs proceeded to indulge in even low-quality food, if they saw that first. Moreover, if the situation was 'uncertain' and the dogs couldn't find food, the obese or overweight dogs were unwilling to expend any energy in looking for food. The researchers concluded that for the overweight dogs, the main objective was to find the right food, which was attained by investing the least amount of energy. Researchers drew parallels between this behaviour of obese dogs with obese humans, who have also been known to prefer to immediate gratification over better rewards.

Talking about obesity statistics in humans and dogs, the study said, "Just as in humans, obesity and overeating represent a steadily growing problem in companion dogs. A recent survey from the USA reported 34% of the examined dogs being overweight or obese." Although the results of the study are indicative of a future mapping of obesity in humans through dogs, there is still a lot of research that is required to reach an ultimate conclusion. This is because scientists are not cent per cent certain about the similarity in behaviours between humans and dogs. Previous research has found dogs to be capable of detecting certain cancers, including colorectal cancer and melanoma.