Do Dog's Get Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)?

Do Dogs Have Winter Blues or Suffer from SAD?

Data suggests that dogs and cats can suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. 

Today my three dogs are lying around like lumps. They show little motivation to do anything, and Dancer, the oldest of the group (and the most predictable) even shows little enthusiasm when it comes to barking at the postman. My usually alert dog arrives at the door well after the mail has already been dropped into the box and the postman has already descended the stairs and is halfway back to the street. Even my grabbing the leashes and preparing for a walk doesn't seem to bring a lot of joy to my pets. Furthermore, other than sleeping for many more hours than is customary each day, the only thing that my dogs seem willing to do is to bump my leg with their noses and whimper—a sure sign that they are begging for a treat.

As a psychologist, any changes in the usual behaviors of the people or pets that I live with attracts my attention. Thus it happened that while I was musing about the situation the answer appeared on the television. It actually came from the mouth of the local weatherman. He was complaining that in the last five weeks in the area where I live there had only been 28 hours of sunshine. Now if I were considering human behavior under similar environmental conditions I would probably be seriously considering the possibility of "Seasonal Affective Disorder" or SAD. You probably know of this as the "Winter Blues". It is a form of depression which millions of humans suffer from, especially in the winter months when there is little sunshine and the overall daytime light levels are low. In humans the symptoms include lethargy, depression, social withdrawal, fatigue and craving for comfort foods – exactly the same symptoms that I was seeing in my dogs.

 The fact that these symptoms are related to light levels is well-established. For example, in Florida the incidence of SAD in the wintertime is only about 2%, as opposed to an incidence of 10% in New Hampshire where the winter light levels are considerably lower. Thus it is not surprising that one standard treatment for SAD symptoms is increased exposure to full spectrum light that mimics the light composition of normal daylight.

 Do dogs suffer from SAD? Some data comes from a survey conducted by a leading veterinary charity in the UK.  PDSA (The People's Dispensary for Sick Animals) found that approximately 40% of dog owners saw a considerable downturn in their pet's moods during the winter months. In addition half of the dog owners felt that their dogs slept longer, with around two in five reporting their pets to be less active overall. According to the survey, the symptoms are not specific to dogs, since one in three cat owners also claim that their pet seemed "sadder" and less playful during the wintertime. For both dog and cat owners one in four of those surveyed reported that their pet's appetites increased in the winter.

READ Dr. Coren's discussion on melatonin and serotonin on the link:https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine-corner/201301/do-dogs-have-winter-blues-or-suffer-sad

More Interesting Dog-reads by the author: Born to Bark; Do Dogs Dream? The Modern Dog; Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses? The Pawprints of History; How Dogs Think; How To Speak Dog; Why We Love the Dogs We Do; What Do Dogs Know? The Intelligence of Dogs; Why Does My Dog Act That Way? Understanding Dogs for Dummies; Sleep Thieves; The Left-hander Syndrome