Daily rhythms of blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature in fed and fasted male dogs.

Daily or circadian rhythmicity in physiological processes has been described in a large number of species of birds and mammals. However, in dogs, most studies have either failed to detect rhythmicity or have found that rhythmicity reflects merely an acute exogenous effect of feeding rather than an autonomous rhythmic process. In the present study, we investigated the rhythmicity of body temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate in dogs fed daily as well as in dogs deprived of food for 60 h. Our results document clear rhythmicity in all three parameters and demonstrate that the rhythmicity is independent of the feeding schedule. The failure of various previous investigations to document daily rhythmicity in dogs is probably due to lack of experimental rigour rather than to weakness of daily rhythmicity in dogs.