Can Dogs Have AD/HD? Rachel Wood A.R. MacNeill Secondary Floor Location : M 178 L

Can dogs have AD/HD? To find out, I surveyed 40 dog owners from sample populations based on 3 dog types: 20 mixed breeds (controlled experiment); 10 Portuguese Water Dogs (PWD); and 10 Border Collies (BC). Both were work dogs and intelligent (AD/HD is more common in intelligent people) with the major difference being that PWDs are calm while BCs are excitable. There were 2 subsets from the purebreds. The first was specially-trained dogs (herding for BC, showing for PWD) and the second, normally-trained (house pets).

I compared purebreds to mixed breeds and BCs to PWDs. I compared special to normal within the purebreds then special to special comparing the two breeds to one another then normal to normal comparing the two breeds to one another. I then compared normal to special of both breeds in one graph to show the biggest differences. The biggest differences were between specially-trained and normally-trained BCs with the answers almost opposite. BCs as herding dogs were much more calm and listened to everything very well, while BC house pets were extremely excitable and didn't listen nearly as well.

Borders are genetically predisposed towards hyperfocus; a valuable herding trait (nature) and an AD/HD trait but overcome it through their environment (nurture). By the time Regionals have begun, I will have attempted to prove that all Border Collies are predisposed towards AD/HD and that they can overcome it by their environment after conducting further observations.