BEHAVIOUR
Development of Compulsive Disorders tific support through research 2 .
Compulsive disorders initially originate from behav-
ioural arousal, stress, conflict and frustration, which
can lead to anxiety or displacement behaviours.
Arousal and anticipation are physiological states that
are vital to normal behaviour and are linked to anxi-
ety and normal expectations of reward. When an an-
imal anticipates a positive outcome and the outcome
is less rewarding or never happens, frustration is the
result. When an animal anticipates threat or danger,
there is a negative emotion which is unpleasant and
leads to anxiety. Frustration and fear are essentially the
same emotional state in animals. Both anticipation of
a threat or danger and the anticipation of frustrated
non-reward are therefore negative emotional experi-
ences involving anxiety 1. Compulsive behaviours can be classified in groups.
There appear to be at least two different mechanisms
by which compulsive disorders arise.
• Locomotor CD (tail chasing, pacing) tend to de-
velop in situations of stress, anxiety, conflict or
frustration and tend to be displayed in situations
of high arousal.
• Oral and self-directed CD (licking) may develop
more acutely without any obvious conflict, and are
most likely displayed in situations of minimal stimu-
lation. They may even help to calm the pet 3.
Possible etiologies for a compulsive disorder might
include 3. :
• Insufficient stimulation
• Changes in routine
• Inconsistent or improper training
• Anxiety inducing situations
• Household changes, including change in family
members or pets
• Situations of conflict or frustration
Compulsive behaviour appears to develop when the
animal discovers that multiple repetitions of a ritual-
ised behaviour produces a reduction in arousal and
frustration. The behaviour provides a faster, more re-
liable, and more effective escape from the negative
emotions. The experience of reduction of arousal re-
wards the behaviour, reinforcing it.
Compulsive behaviours generalize to other contexts
in which the animal experiences a high level of arous-
al. As the number of eliciting contexts increase, the
threshold of arousal needed to elicit the compulsive
behaviour decreases and the animal appears to lose
the choice whether to perform the behaviour or not 4 .
Any attention from owner inadvertently reinforces
the behaviour.
There is a thought that compulsive behaviour may be
self-reinforcing, caused by the release of endogenous
opoids in the CNS, which may allow some animals
to cope with conditions that don’t meet their spe-
cies-specific needs. This theory however lacks scien-
vet360
Issue 05 | OCTOBER 2017 | 18
They are 4 :
•
Behaviours involving locomotion: spinning, tail
chasing, pacing
• Oral behaviours: self-licking/chewing, flank sucking,
pica, licking/chewing of objects
• Vocalisation: howling, barking
• Hallucinatory behaviours: staring at shadows, fly
snapping, air licking
• Aggressive behaviours: aggression directed at inani-
mate objects or towards self
Malfunctional vs. Maladaptive
Compulsive behaviours are abnormal as they are dis-
played out of context and are repetitive, exaggerated
or sustained 3. Captive animals however, controversy
as to whether CD represent a normal response of a
normal animal to an abnormal environment (mala-
daptive) or whether they are abnormal in the sense of
lacking in function and/or being the expression of an
underlying pathology (malfunctional) 3 . In maladaptive
behaviours the animal attempts to find a surrogate for
a missing normal behaviour, to escape from confine-
ment or to otherwise alleviate a problem. They are
abolished immediately by a specific change in hus-
bandry. Malfunctional behaviours are a product of pa-
thology, may occur with a range of other effects and
may involve source behaviours that do not closely re-
flect the original cause of repetition 5, 7 .
Historical Findings
The age of onset of compulsive behaviours normally
correlates with social maturity with a median age of
onset of 12 months. Male dogs over represented and
there appears to be a genetic predisposition. The type
of compulsive disorder may be affected by breed. Ex-
amples of breed specific compulsive behaviours in-
clude:
• Bull terriers: tail chasing
• Doberman pinchers: flank sucking
• Border collies: chasing of shadows
• Large breed dogs: acral lick granuloma
Behaviour to gain attention can look similar to com-
pulsive disorder. Dogs can simulate medical signs and
display other behaviours that get a response from the
owner. Attention (albeit negative) from the owner re-
inforces the behaviour. Negative attention increases
dog’s anxiety and the need for further reassurance.
This kind of attention seeking only occurs when own-
er is present but not directly attending to the dog.
Compulsion arising from hyper-attachment (separa-
tion anxiety) causes behaviour when owner is unable
to attend to the dog, including times when they are
away, and is therefore different from attention seeking
behaviour.