Assertive, trainable and older dogs are perceived as more dominant in multi-dog households

Abstract

Social dominance is an important and widely used concept, however, different interpretations have led to ambiguity in the scientific literature and in popular science. Even though in ethology dominance is an attribute of dyadic encounters, and not a characteristic of the individual, 'dominance' has often been referred to as a personality trait in animals. Since few studies have specifically examined the link between personality traits and dominance status, we investigated this in dogs living in multi-dog households using a questionnaire, which required owners to specify whether the dog had a dominant or submissive status, and comprised items of both the features of the individual (i.e. personality traits) and previous social experience (interactions with group members and strangers). Four distinct personality factors emerged from 23 behavioural items by principal component analysis, labelled as assertiveness, trainability, intraspecific aggression and independence. Binomial logistic regression was used to examine how the demographic information of the dogs and the personality factors predicted the owner's estimate of the dog' status as dominant or submissive. The personality factor assertiveness accounted for 34% of the variance in dominance status, trainability 5% and dog age contributed 4%. Dogs perceived as dominant scored more highly on the factors assertiveness and trainability, which can help explain why 'dominance' has often been suggested to be a personality trait, rather than a dyad-specific social status according to different traditions in behavioural research. Similar to the 'social dominance' trait in humans, owner ascribed dominance showed a quadratic trajectory in cross-sectional mean change across the lifespan, increasing during adulthood and then maintaining high levels until old age. Overall, our study proposes a multifactorial background of dominance relationships in pet dogs, suggesting that not only previous experience of social interactions between individuals but also age and personality traits influence owner perceived dominance status in multi-dog households.

Genetic distance from wolves affects family dogs’ reactions towards howls

“…Harrington and Mech found that the responsiveness of wolves can increase with social status, which in wild packs also correlates with age 3 . In our sample, the individuals from ancient breeds older than approximately 5.2 years had a higher tendency to reply with howls to the stimuli, hence making it unlikely that this age effect is linked to sexual/hormonal maturation but rather an experience-or some age-related personality effect might be a more plausible explanation 56,61,74,75 . Wolves may also become more aggressive and active in territory defence with ageing 54,55 .…”

Review on Selected Aggression Causes and the Role of Neurocognitive Science in the Diagnosis

“…), diseases (such as cancer, brain disorders or diet, etc.) or genetics [9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Recently, apart from the use of appropriate training for behavioral disorders, the diet and physiology (including the endocrine system) of dogs have also come to be seen as an aspect of the disorders [14].…”

Grumpy Dogs Are Smart Learners—The Association between Dog–Owner Relationship and Dogs’ Performance in a Social Learning Task

“…Although the manifestation and sometimes even the existence of social rank systems are heavily debated in the framework of companion dogs [ 29 , 30 ], the biological relevance of inter-individual relationships that affect the dogs’ access and monopolizing potential of relevant resources is hardly questionable [ 31 ]. There is ample evidence that social dominance in dogs is associated with personality traits such as impulsivity, assertiveness, trainability and amicability [ 32 , 33 , 34 ], and these traits have an impact on behaviours in everyday life including owner-directed and problem behaviours, thus ultimately even on the quality of dog–owner relationship. As it can be assumed that the presence and attention of the owner might be one of the most valuable resources for a dog [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ], therefore, it may also generate competition among dogs.…”

“…The social rank of dogs seems to be associated with the quality and efficacy of a wide array of social interactions, including the dog–dog [ 26 ] and dog–human dimensions of social learning [ 26 , 27 ] as well as the broader aspect of personality traits and various behavioural problems [ 32 ]. However, it is not known so far, whether dogs’ performance in individual and social problem-solving tasks (i.e., trial-and-error and social learning) would be also connected to their individual-specific behavioural patterns during their interactions with their human partners.…”