Lack of standardization in reporting motor laterality in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris)

Urinary posture and motor laterality in dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) at two shelters

“…In contrast, Berg's (1944) data, which included many more urinations per dog but fewer dogs than in either our study or that by Branson (2006), revealed that only one of five dogs (20%) was ambilateral (Z-scores calculated by us using raw data provided in Berg, 1944). These discrepant findings for the hindlimb raised when urinating illustrate the difficulty of finding consistent patterns in laterality when studies vary in sample size and number of observations per dog (Tompkins et al, 2010b).…”

“…When using 20 urinations as the minimum needed, we found that 77% of dogs were ambilateral (dogs from the two shelters were pooled for this analysis). In previous studies of motor laterality in dogs, percent of dogs characterized as ambilateral has ranged from 0 to 63%, with most studies reporting 25% or lower (see Table 1 in review by Tompkins et al, 2010b). Although our finding that most dogs are ambilateral differs from most previous studies of motor laterality involving other behavioral tasks, it is consistent with one of two previous studies of hindlimb raised during urination in dogs (these two studies were not included in Table 1 of the review by Tompkins et al, 2010b, perhaps because of their more anecdotal nature).…”

“…According to Tompkins et al (2010b), the task selected to assess laterality should be noninvasive and safe for the dog, ethically acceptable, cost effective, and repeatable; the task also should allow for sufficient repetitions and be unbiased with respect to subsamples of the study population. Hindlimb raised during urination meets many of these criteria, but falls short in terms of the difficulty associated with obtaining sufficient repetitions.…”

“…Similarly, we expected no difference in the postures used by anestrous intact females and spayed females based on results reported by Martins and Valle (1948). Most previous studies of motor laterality in dogs have found no population bias but a majority of dogs exhibiting a side preference (i.e., most dogs were right or left preferent and not ambilateral, which is the term used for absence of a preference; see review by Tompkins et al, 2010b), so we predicted the same for raising a hindlimb during urination.…”

Increased attentiveness is associated with hemispheric asymmetry measured with lateral tympanic membrane temperature in humans and dogs

“…They ranged in age between 1 and 13 years (M = 4.8 years, SD = 3.2). We did not assess them for motor laterality as there is no standardized measure in dogs (Tomkins et al 2010). They were screened for indications of ear infection or indications of ill health (for example, abnormal temperature measurements indicative of ill health).…”