A quick assessment tool for human‐directed aggression in pet dogs

Abstract

Many test series have been developed to assess dog temperament and aggressive behavior, but most of them have been criticized for their relatively low predictive validity or being too long, stressful, and/or problematic to carry out. We aimed to develop a short and effective series of tests that corresponds with (a) the dog's bite history, and (b) owner evaluation of the dog's aggressive tendencies. Seventy-three pet dogs were divided into three groups by their biting history; non-biter, bit once, and multiple biter. All dogs were exposed to a short test series modeling five real-life situations: friendly greeting, take away bone, threatening approach, tug-of-war, and roll over. We found strong correlations between the in-test behavior and owner reports of dogs' aggressive tendencies towards strangers; however, the test results did not mirror the reported owner-directed aggressive tendencies. Three test situations (friendly greeting, take-away bone, threatening approach) proved to be effective in evoking specific behavioral differences according to dog biting history. Non-biters differed from biters, and there were also specific differences related to aggression and fear between the two biter groups. When a subsample of dogs was retested, the test revealed consistent results over time. We suggest that our test is adequate for a quick, general assessment of human-directed aggression in dogs, particularly to evaluate their tendency for aggressive behaviors towards strangers. Identifying important behavioral indicators of aggressive tendencies, this test can serve as a useful tool to study the genetic or neural correlates of human-directed aggression in dogs.

Human Empathy, Personality and Experience Affect the Emotion Ratings of Dog and Human Facial Expressions

“…Since the situation in which our stimuli were photographed is unknown and dog aggression is often exhibited in fearful situations [72], it is likely that some of the images of Threatening Dogs capture also fear. However, disgust provoked by a disliked taste represents a rather distinct emotion from aggression.…”

Assessment of owner-directed aggressive behavioural tendencies of dogs in situations of possession and manipulation

“…manifested in biting history) directed towards the owner or family members remains undetected (e.g. [ 24 ]), although this is a crucial aspect of the dog's behaviour. Marder et al .…”

“…In this test, the dog was tethered to a tree or fence pole by a 2 m long, sturdy rope (for detailed method see [ 24 , 30 ]). On one arm, the owner wore an artificial hand (casted from gypsum and covered with a cloth-glove, providing a life-like appearance to it), while also wearing a pressed paper forearm-guard under his/her sleeve, for further protection.…”

“…From an experimental point of view, collecting data from a sequence of tests could be subject to order effect (e.g. habituation and sensitization) [ 23 , 24 ], potentially leading to biased results. Even under controlled conditions, environmental and personnel differences may affect testing.…”

Humans attribute emotions to a robot that shows simple behavioural patterns borrowed from dog behaviour

“…We derived the basic emotional behaviours from observations of previous ethological studies of pet dogs in situations when a) dogs were observed in an emotion evoking context, b) the direction and speed of dogs' movements, changes in their postures and the position of body parts, and vocalisations could be assessed. The following concrete contexts were adopted: Joy: 'greeting the owner' (Konok, Dóka, & Miklósi, 2011;Topál, Miklósi, Csányi, & Dóka, 1998), and 'going for a walk' (Pongrácz et al, 2005); Anger: 'facing a threatening stranger' (Vas, Topál, Gácsi, Miklósi, & Csányi, 2005), 'watching a stranger through the fence' (Pongrácz et al, 2011); Fear: 'facing a threatening stranger' (Klausz, Kis, Persa, Miklósi, & Gácsi, 2014); Sadness: 'separation from owner' (Pongrácz et al, 2011;Topál et al, 1998), 'being scolded by owner' (Hecht et al, 2012); Neutral: 'mobile owner' task during which the owner moves around in a room without initiating interaction with or looking at the dog (Faragó, Miklósi, Korcsok, Száraz, & Gácsi, 2014).…”