Sex of Walker Influences Scent-marking Behavior of Shelter Dogs

Abstract

Interactions with humans influence the behavior and physiology of other animals, and the response can vary with sex and familiarity. Dogs in animal shelters face challenging conditions and although contact with humans typically reduces stress and behaviors associated with stress, evidence indicates that shelter dogs react differently to unfamiliar men and women. Given that some aspects of canine scent-marking behavior change under fearful conditions, we examined whether sex of an unfamiliar walker would influence scent-marking behavior of 100 shelter dogs during leash walks. Male dogs urinated at higher rates when walked by unfamiliar women than when walked by unfamiliar men; female dogs urinated at similar rates when walked by unfamiliar women and unfamiliar men. Sex of walker influenced urinary posture in male dogs, but not in female dogs. Both male and female dogs were more likely to defecate when walked by unfamiliar women than by unfamiliar men. Based on our findings that shelter dogs behave differently in the presence of unfamiliar men and women, we suggest that researchers conducting behavioral studies of dogs record, consider in analyses, and report the sex of observers and handlers as standard practice. We also recommend recording the sex of shelter staff present at behavioral evaluations because the results of these evaluations can impact dog welfare.

Influence of Walker Sex and Familiarity on Scent-Marking Behavior of Juvenile and Mature Shelter Dogs

“…Consistent with this finding relating changes in urinary behavior to stressful conditions, we previously reported that under the challenging conditions of shelter life, the percent of urinations in which mature male dogs used the raised-leg posture was 73% [26] as compared to 94-97% reported for mature male dogs living in other situations [27][28][29][30]. Further, in another study, we showed that some scent-marking behaviors exhibited during leash walks by mature shelter dogs (adults and seniors) differed when the dogs were walked by an unfamiliar man versus an unfamiliar woman [31]. When walked by an unfamiliar man, male dogs were more likely to use the juvenile lean-forward posture and urinate less frequently (another characteristic of juvenile males) than when walked by an unfamiliar woman.…”

How Different Personalities Affect the Reaction to Adoption of Dogs Adopted from a Shelter

“…Determining a dog’s personality in a dog shelter environment is a challenge not easy to deal with, because the variables that can influence the behavior of dogs are significant; in addition to the more intuitive ones, such as the availability of space, housing alone or with other dogs, the frequency of contact with human beings, the frequency of going out from the cage and so on [ 32 ]; for example, McGuire et al [ 33 ] found that, in a shelter, even the sex of the walker influences dog’s elimination behavior. Furthermore, the structure is not designed to perform behavioral test batteries properly.…”

Canine Olfaction: Physiology, Behavior, and Possibilities for Practical Applications

“…Although wolves use feces for territorial marking [ 70 ], defecation is thought to play a less important role in communication in dogs [ 69 ]. However, when walked by an unfamiliar man, shelter dogs defecated less than when walked by an unfamiliar female [ 76 ].…”

“…Jezierski et al identified that individual elements such as style and time of sniffing can influence the results of a dog’s olfactory work [ 78 ]. Other factors such as the effects of the dog’s routine, the use of cues other than olfactory ones (visual), and the non-verbal communication between handler and dog have also been mentioned [ 39 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 ].…”