Dogs’ Sociability, Owners’ Neuroticism and Attachment Style to Pets as Predictors of Dog Aggression

Abstract

A dog’s aggressive behavior is influenced by external and internal factors, including its psychological profile. In this study, dogs’ and owners’ personalities and the owners’ attachment style to their dogs were identified and associated with owner-reported dog aggression towards humans and animals. Forty Slovenian owners participated with their dogs, of different breeds and aggression history, sorted into three groups (non-aggressive dogs, dogs aggressive towards humans, and dogs aggressive towards animals). The owners filled out three separate questionnaires that assessed dog aggression history towards different targets, owner’s personality and degree of insecure attachment styles to dogs; namely anxious and avoidant attachment. Dog personality was characterized using a standardized dog mentality assessment test, during which the dog was exposed to nine tasks, performed outside, and dogs were scored based on behaviors they exhibited. The results indicated that dogs which were aggressive towards humans were less sociable than non-aggressive dogs and this was associated with the higher neuroticism scores of their owners. We also found that dogs which were aggressive towards strangers had owners with lower scores for anxious attachment and that dogs which were aggressive towards owners had owners with higher scores for avoidant attachment. These results imply that the psychological profiles of both a dog and its owner influence dog aggression towards humans.

Neuroendocrine and Cardiovascular Activation During Aggressive Reactivity in Dogs

“…Our dogs were tested during real-time aggression, whereas previous studies compared SER and CORT in dogs with or without owner-reported aggression history. Due to the fact that aggressive dogs are under the influence of an emotional attachment to their owner/handler ( 61 ), the owner/handler could represent a stress buffer for our dogs, influencing the dog's behavior and physiology, as previously observed for stimuli with a threatening approach ( 12 ), potentially masking the physiological changes that resulted from the aggression.…”

Where Do We Stand in the Domestic Dog (Canis familiaris) Positive-Emotion Assessment: A State-of-the-Art Review and Future Directions

“…There is an increasing amount of evidence suggesting that the unique characteristics of the human-dog relationship, owner's personality, emotional state, or behavior have been shown to affect the behavior, cognition, emotion processing, and expression of pet dogs (Prato-Previde et al, 2008;Handlin et al, 2012;Merola et al, 2012;Gácsi et al, 2013;Konok et al, 2015a;Cimarelli et al, 2016;Schöberl et al, 2016;Huber et al, 2017;Dodman et al, 2018;Gobbo and Zupan, 2020;Salamon et al, 2020).…”

Two Ends of the Leash: Relations Between Personality of Shelter Volunteers and On-leash Walking Behavior With Shelter Dogs

“…As for the dogs, they take longer to obey a command if owners score high on neuroticism (Kis et al, 2012). Dogs of owners scoring low on agreeableness, emotional stability, extraversion and conscientiousness are more likely to display owner-directed aggression, stranger-directed fear, and/or house soiling (Dodman et al, 2018;Gobbo and Zupan, 2020).…”