Breed, sex, and litter effects in 2-month old puppies’ behaviour in a standardised open-field test

Abstract

A considerable number of studies have reported differences among dog breeds with respect to their genetic profile, cognitive abilities or personality traits. Each dog breed is normally treated as a homogeneous group, however, researchers have recently questioned whether the behavioural profile of modern breeds still reflects their historical function or if the intense divergent selective pressures and geographical barriers have created a more fragmented picture. The majority of studies attempting to assess and compare modern breeds' personality focused on the evaluation of adult dogs where the potential effects of environmental/human factors on the dogs' behaviour are hard to discern from their genetic heritage. In the following study, we aimed at investigating between-and within-breed differences in the personality of two-months-old puppies by direct behavioural observation of 377 puppies from 12 breeds. Results showed that there was no effect of sex, however both breed and litter, significantly affected all personality traits. Breed on average explained 10% of the variance, whereas the effect of litter was noticeably higher, explaining on average 23% of the variance. Taken together, our results suggest that breed does have some influence on personality traits, but they also highlight the importance of taking litter effects into account.The assessment of dogs' personality has gained increasing attention in the last decades for its potential applicability 1-4 , as well as for more theoretical aspects, such as the genetic basis of complex behaviour 5,6 . One of the topics, strictly linked to dog personality that is still being debated, is whether dogs from different breeds significantly diverge on specific behavioural traits, potentially reflecting their historical function (original selection to optimise their performance in specific tasks as stated by the kennel clubs standards) 7-9 . Breed profiling has largely been based on historical and anecdotal notions rather than scientific evidence 8 . However, more recently scientific attempts to provide reliable profiling of modern breeds, taking into account the large within-breed variability due to different selective pressures and geographical barriers, have been carried out 7,8,[10][11][12] . Svartberg 7 , for example, found that within the same breeds, irrespective of their historical function, individuals in lines selected for companionship showed high levels of playfulness, whereas selection for use in dog shows correlated positively with fearfulness and negatively with playfulness, aggressiveness, and curiosity. However, thus far, the majority of studies attempting to assess breed personality have been carried out using questionnaire-based methods 8,13,14 and have largely focused on the evaluation of adult dogs 7, 9 . Yet, behavioural variability towards different stimuli and situations can be detected also in puppies [15][16][17][18] and arguably, if there are breed differences in temperament, observing these in puppies would provide stronger evidence, since ...

Investigating risk factors that predict a dog’s fear during veterinary visits

“…environmental, previous experience or human-animal interactions) play in determining the severity of the fear response. This mirrors findings reported in previous studies investigating neuter age and stranger-directed aggression [28] or fear-related behaviours [29], source of acquisition and non-social or stranger-directed fear [42], and litter size and personality [43].…”

Improving wildlife detection dog team selection and training

“…Within breed variation is commonly highlighted in the literature (Björnerfeldt et al 2008;Barnard et al 2017), including within breed variation for odour discrimination ability (Lazarowski et al 2015). Our results also demonstrated that individual variation was prominent in all breeds.…”

“…The large degree of individual variation within breeds, both during training and accuracy testing, was not anticipated. Previous studies have highlighted the degree of individual variation within breeds (Björnerfeldt et al 2008;Barnard et al 2017), including their odour discrimination ability (Lazarowski et al 2015). Due to this study's small sample size, however, broad conclusions cannot yet be drawn on specific dog breed's trainability or working suitability.…”

Increased resistance to sudden noise by audio stimulation during early ontogeny in German shepherd puppies

“…A possible explanation for this could be the more rapid maturation of females over males of the same age [ 27 ]. However, gender was not discerned to play a role in approximately 300 puppies undergoing an open field test at the age of 8 weeks [ 28 ]. Nevertheless, responsiveness towards noise was not investigated in any of these three studies [ 26 – 28 ].…”

“…However, gender was not discerned to play a role in approximately 300 puppies undergoing an open field test at the age of 8 weeks [ 28 ]. Nevertheless, responsiveness towards noise was not investigated in any of these three studies [ 26 – 28 ]. Therefore, the question remains if the potentially stronger response to sudden noise indicated for female puppies is attributable to differences in ontogenetic development.…”