Is this love? Sex differences in dog-owner attachment behavior suggest similarities with adult human bonds

Abstract

Sex differences in the behavioral responses of Labrador Retriever dogs in the Strange Situation Test were explored. Behaviors expressed by dogs during seven 3-min episodes were analyzed through a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The scores of factors obtained were analyzed with a Generalized Linear Mixed Model to reveal the effects of the dog’s sex and age and the owner’s sex. In Episode 1 (dog and owner) and 5 (dog alone), the PCA identified three and two factors, respectively, which overall explained 68.7% and 59.8% of the variance, with no effect of sex. In Episodes 2 (dog, owner, and stranger), 3 and 6 (dog and stranger), and 4 and 7 (dog and owner), the PCA identified four factors, which overall explained 51.0% of the variance. Effects of sex were found on: Factor 1 (distress), with lower scores obtained by females in Episode 2 and higher in Episode 3; Factor 2 (sociability), which was overall higher in females; Factor 3 (separation-distress), with females, but not males, obtaining higher scores when left with the stranger than when with the owner. Therefore, females were overall more social but seemed more affected than males by the owner’s absence. Parallels can be traced between our results and sex differences found in adult human romantic attachment, suggesting that the dog-owner bond has characteristics that are not found in the infant-mother relationship.

Physiological Indicators of Acute and Chronic Stress in Securely and Insecurely Attached Dogs Undergoing a Strange Situation Procedure (SSP): Preliminary Results

“…This role was always played by a person of the same gender as the owner. Previous studies have used either female and male strangers, regardless of the owner’s gender [ 10 , 44 , 45 ]. Although no effect of the stranger’s gender on dog attachment behaviour was observed by Parthasarathy and Crowell-Davies [ 46 ] in the context of the SSP, there is some evidence that the owner’s gender may affect how dogs react towards strangers of different genders [ 47 ].…”

Development of the Dog Attachment Insecurity Screening Inventory (D-AISI): A Pilot Study on a Sample of Female Owners

“…A third limitation is that factors related to the dogs, such as breed, age, sex, and past experiences may affect the way they behave towards the owner [ 8 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. A study including a very large and heterogeneous sample is needed to explore these variables in more depth.…”

Analysis of factors affecting the behaviour of both dogs during a Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) to assess intraspecific attachment

“…With regard to sex, the majority of previous studies on dog-owner attachment found either minor (Prato-Previde et al, 2003) or no differences (Fallani et al, 2007;Gácsi et al, 2001;Topál et al, 1998) in the attachment behaviour of female and male dogs tested in the SSP. However, a very recent study by D'Aniello et al (D'Aniello et al, 2021) found that female dogs showed higher levels of sociability towards both the stranger and the owner, as well as higher levels of separationdistress when the owner was absent, compared to male dogs. Different from the dog-human relationship, an important aspect to consider when exploring adult dog intraspecific attachment is the lack-or reduced degree-of asymmetry in the roles, as well as in the dynamics of interactions that characterize the relationship between the two individuals (Riggio, 2021;Savalli and Mariti, 2020).…”

“…A second researcher helped with moving the dog who played the attachment figure in and out of the room, according to the protocol. Different from some previous studies on dog-owner attachment (Palmer and Custance, 2008;Prato-Previde et al, 2003;Topál et al, 1998), but similar to others (D'Aniello et al, 2021;Mariti et al, 2017Mariti et al, , 2014, our protocol required the human stranger to remain passive in the interactions with the dog. This is because the behaviour of dogs towards a human stranger is not easily predictable by the way the latter behaves (Tan et al, 2018), possibly making passive behaviours preferable for the role of the stranger in the current study.…”