Association of Puppies’ Behavioral Reaction at Five Months of Age Assessed by Questionnaire with Their Later ‘Distraction’ at 15 Months of Age, an Important Behavioral Trait for Guide Dog Qualification

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Guide dogs help visually impaired persons both physically and psychologically. More than half of all candidate dogs do not qualify, mainly for behavioral reasons. Improved training efficacy is desirable, and earlier prediction of qualification-related traits would be beneficial. In a previous study, we identified 'Distraction', assessed during the training period, as an important behavioral trait for judging the qualification of guide dogs at the Japan Guide Dog Association. As a second step, we aimed to develop an index that can predict during the puppy period. In this study, candidate guide dogs, 5-month-old Labrador retrievers, were assessed by puppy raisers using a newly developed questionnaire that consisted of 20 items. The same dogs were assessed later, at 15 months, by trainers to determine 'Distraction'. In principal components analysis, nine items, including excitability toward strangers, initiative while out for a walk, and exploration, composed the first principal component (PC1). When we compared PC1 points with 'Distraction' points, the two categories were positively correlated (n=110, r s =0.31, P=0.0009). Although the accuracy of the questionnaire should be increased, the results of the present study suggest that it may be possible to assess and predict 'Distraction', which is associated with disqualification for guide dogs, early in the puppy-raising period. KEY WORDS: behavioral traits, Distraction, guide dogs for visually-impaired people, puppy-raising period, questionnaire.

“She’s a dog at the end of the day”: Guide dog owners’ perspectives on the behaviour of their guide dog

“…When attentiveness and obedience were lacking, problematic characteristics of the dog such as distraction, are viewed as developing into problems that disrupt the GDO’s work and relationship with the dog. Distraction appears to be an important characteristic in qualifying as a guide dog [16,17,18, 26] and indeed this study shows that this remains an important characteristic for GDO satisfaction post qualification.…”

“…Questionnaires administered to handlers or volunteer caregivers with knowledge of a dog in training have also been used to assess suitability for guide dog training[12,13,14]. Such assessments focus on behavioural suitability for the future role and highlight suitable levels of the following behaviour as being important for guide dogs: responsiveness to or cooperation with a handler (trainability), reactivity or attention to environmental stimuli (often referred to by guide dog organisations as distractions or suspicions), low aggressiveness, fearfulness and stress behaviour, not having high energy levels, and showing affiliate or attachment behaviour[10,13,14,15,16,17,18]. Studies that consider behaviour of working guide dogs are less common (although see Caron-Lormier et al in press for an exception)[19].…”

The Personality of Dogs

“…Only a low percentage of dogs are able to qualify in special tasks. For example, at the Japan Guide Dog Association, more than half of allalready considerately selected-candidate dogs fail (Kobayashi et al, 2013).…”

“…They found that dogs concentrating on the handler, showing stable behaviour, obeying commands, and showing little interest in other dogs were more likely to pass the exam. These correlated traits (named 'Distraction') could be predicted at the age of 5 months by evaluating exploration, excitability towards strangers, and similar items (Kobayashi et al, 2013). The predictive power of the puppy test applied by the Czech Law Enforcement Canine Breeding Facility is also reliable for predicting future service ability and is used for selecting dogs at the age of 7 weeks.…”

Spotlight on Assistance Dogs—Legislation, Welfare and Research

“…Another common approach to the assessment of predictive behavioural traits is through questionnaires, investigating specific dimensions (distractibility [ 49 ], or personality at large [ 41 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ]), mainly with the aim of creating scales that could guide the early selection of dogs to be sent to training. Questionnaires are a relatively quick and inexpensive way of collecting information about the dogs’ responses to a variety of naturally occurring situations.…”