Assessing companion dog behavior in a social setting

Abstract

1There is a growing and important need for large-scale characterisation of dog 2 behaviour, for example to conduct genetic analyses or to assess welfare. An extensive 3 number of standardised tests and questionnaires are used for this, but few focus on the 4 normal behaviour in situations which are frequently encountered in the everyday life 5 of companion dogs. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a fast, but 6 standardised method to characterise behavioural variation in pet dogs, based on a brief 7 observation in a situation often encountered by many dogs, namely during training 8classes. The spontaneous behaviour of dogs was video-recorded during 3 minutes in a 9 standardised setting, while their owners were occupied filling in a short questionnaire, 10 and during 30 seconds of walking on leash. Behaviours, including contact seeking 11 behaviour with both the owner, a stranger and other dogs, together with general 12 activity and interaction with a novel object were later analysed and further processed 13 in two separate Principal Component Analyses (PCA). The PCs from the two test 14 parts correlated significantly with each other and aspects of both home and test 15 environment influenced several components in both PCAs. Age and sex also showed 16 significant effects on test outcome, e.g. age affected how social and explorative the 17 dog was and females jumped more on their owner, whilst males pulled the leash more. 18In addition, dogs that were perceived as cooperative by their owner, looked more at 19 their owner and pulled the leash less. In conclusion, this simple test captures essential 20 parts of the normal, everyday behaviour profile of dogs, such as owner-and dog-21 directed social behaviour, which are not usually measured in the commonly used test 22 batteries for dogs. 23 24

Intranasal oxytocin and a polymorphism in the oxytocin receptor gene are associated with human-directed social behavior in golden retriever dogs

“…We found that female golden retrievers sought significantly more human eye contact than males. This is in agreement with previous results showing that human-directed social behavior in dogs differs between sexes where females seek more physical contact from humans than males (Persson et al, 2015;Roth and Jensen, 2015). Also, oxytocin treatment has been shown to have different sex dependent effects on human directed gazing, increasing looking behavior in females (Kovacs et al, 2016a;Nagasawa et al, 2015;Oliva et al, 2015).…”

Same or different? Why establishing the range of behavioral variability matters

“…Other simple quantitative tests can and should be developed that elucidate other dimensions of how dogs interact within their social world. Roth and Jensen (2015) noted effects of age, size of dog household and living condition on social behaviors, documenting environmental aspects of plasticity in behaviors, suggesting that this test should be replicated across breeds, jobs, living conditions (e.g., shelters), countries, and cultures. One has to believe more such papers should be anticipated.…”

“…The first line of the abstract of the paper by Roth and Jensen (2015), "There is a growing and important need for large-scale characterization of dog behavior, for example, to conduct genetic analyses or to assess welfare. ", flags its affinity with papers that precede it in this issue.…”

“…We have done a poor job of illuminating and quantify behaviors in a manner that allows that question to be answered in any context for veterinary behavior and behavioral medicine. Fortunately, Roth and Jensen (2015) understand that we can start with simple, generalizable tests that anyone can perform. Using an easy to implement, functional test and a clear, nonjudgmental ethogram, the authors were able to collect quantitative data on social and exploratory M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT behavior in companion dogs.…”

Considerations for the Retirement of Therapy Animals

“…In one study, aged dogs behaved more passively, showed less interest in an unknown person during separation from owners, and had a significantly increased stress response. This indicates that older dogs may not be as adept at managing social situations, especially since age decreases the sociability of the dog [22]. Interestingly, aging dogs also transition from spending a lot of time directly interacting with humans to simply spending more time near humans [23].…”