Cross-Sectional Age Differences in Canine Personality Traits; Influence of Breed, Sex, Previous Trauma, and Dog Obedience Tasks

Abstract

The dog has been suggested as a possible model for personality development over the lifespan, however, we know little about how aging may shape their personality or the magnitude of age-related changes. Previously we established that aging influences multiple dog demographics, which could also affect how personality traits change across different age periods. A demographic questionnaire and the Dog Personality Questionnaire were completed for a cross-sectional sample of 1,207 adult dogs living in Hungary (M age = 7.71, SD = 4.12), split into six different age groups. Results revealed three of the five factors showed significant age effects. Activity/Excitability decreased with age, and whilst Responsiveness to training also decreased, only dogs older than 12 years differed significantly from the other groups. Aggressiveness toward animals showed a quadratic trajectory peaking in dogs aged 6-10 years. The greatest magnitude of age-related change was detected between late senior and geriatric ages, likely caused by compensatory behavioral changes to biological aging and owner attitudes to aging. When the models were re-run including the other explanatory variables, age group was no longer significant for the Responsiveness to training trait. The amount of time spent interacting/playing with the owner partially mediated the relationship between age and this trait, implying that interventions to increase play and training motivation may alleviate the negative effects of aging on dogs' trainability. Fifteen out of 28 explanatory variables were significantly associated with at least one of the five factors [weight, breed (pure/mixed breed), sex, off-leash activity, diet, previous trauma, age of dog when arrived in the household, play, dog training activities, number of known commands and dog obedience tasks]. Similarly to humans, dogs that had previously experienced trauma scored higher in fearfulness and aggression. A higher level of basic obedience was linked to some desirable dog personality traits (lower Fearfulness and Aggression, and higher Activity/Excitability and Responsiveness to training). Regardless of the direction of this relationship, obedience is an important aspect contributing to dog personality questionnaires and the dog-owner relationship. This study is unique in that it considered a wide variety of demographic variables which are influenced by aging.

Behavioural and cognitive changes in aged pet dogs: No effects of an enriched diet and lifelong training

“…Dogs’ trainability is more often evaluated based on their performance in obedience training, where the dogs must respond quickly and correctly to previously learned commands or directions given by their owner or handler [ 91 ]. More recently, trainability has been included in the personality assessment of dogs, usually through owner questionnaires [ 22 – 24 ] or measured in real life situations such as in a behavioural task [ 30 ]. Trainability basically involves a combination of willingness and focus to attend to the trainer (attentiveness/motivation/dependency), comprehension of what the training goal is (general cognitive ability) and the ability to remember the tasks being taught (memory) [ 92 ].…”

“…Thus, trainability seems to encompass both cognitive abilities and basic control processes. However, trainability measured through the questionnaires focused mainly on dogs’ playfulness [ 23 ] or behaviours other than playfulness [ 22 – 24 ]. Most interestingly, we found no change in Trainability with age.…”

“…Most interestingly, we found no change in Trainability with age. Studies conducted with questionnaires have documented mixed results [ 22 – 24 ]. Chopik and Weaver [ 24 ] reported that dogs around the age of 7–8 years show more responsiveness to training than younger dogs but are similar to dogs older than 8 years.…”

“…Kubinyi et al [ 23 ] however, reported that dogs below 3 years were more trainable than over 3. Wallis et al [ 22 ] found that dogs older than 10 years tended to be less trainable than dogs aged 1–3 years but this difference became significant only above 12 years of age. Older dogs show declines in attentiveness [ 14 , 30 ], memory [ 21 ] and executive functions [ 18 ], so a decline in responsiveness to training may be due to the combined influence of all these abilities.…”

“…Similarly, in dogs, aging leads to a decline in learning, memory, attention, executive control, changes in social responsiveness and curiosity towards novel objects [ 14 – 21 ]. Studies examining normal aging in dogs have revealed reductions in their levels of sociability, boldness, playfulness, activity/excitability and trainability [ 22 – 25 ]. Interestingly, aged dogs, like humans, strongly vary in their rate of cognitive decline.…”