title: A sociobiological origin of pregnancy failure in domestic dogs.
abstract: Among domestic dog breeders it is common practice to transfer a domestic dog bitch out of her home environment for mating, bringing her back after the mating. If the home environment contains a male, who is not the father of the foetuses, there is a potential risk of future infanticide. We collected 621 records on mating of 249 healthy bitches of 11 breed-types. The highest proportion of successful pregnancies following mating occurred in bitches mated within their home pack and remaining there. Bitches mated elsewhere and then returned to a home containing at least one male had substantially lower incidence of maintained pregnancy in comparison with bitches mated by a home male. After returning home, housing affected strongly the frequency of pregnancy success. Bitches mated elsewhere but released into a home pack containing a home male were four times more likely to maintain pregnancy than bitches which were housed individually after returning home. Suppression of pregnancy in situations where a bitch is unable to confuse a home male about parentage may be seen as an adaptation to avoid any seemingly unavoidable future loss of her progeny to infanticide after birth and thus to save energy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Přátelství 815, 10400 Praha Uhříněves, Czech Republic.|Department of Animal Science and Ethology, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 16521 Praha 6-Suchdol Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Luděk
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bartoš
authors.affiliation: Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Přátelství 815, 10400 Praha Uhříněves, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jitka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bartošová
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science and Ethology, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 16521 Praha 6-Suchdol Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chaloupková
authors.affiliation: Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Přátelství 815, 10400 Praha Uhříněves, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dušek
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science and Ethology, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 16521 Praha 6-Suchdol Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lenka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hradecká
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science and Ethology, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 16521 Praha 6-Suchdol Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Ivona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Svobodová
mesh_terms: D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous; D000034:Abortion, Veterinary; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding / Q000379:methods*; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires