What Personality is Your Pooch?
Do Breed Books Describe Your Dog?
Despite the prevalence of books on dog breeds and TV shows describing dogs and their behaviour, there are no hard and fast descriptions of dog personalities. People looking to buy a dog from a pet shop or shelter have little information to help them choose the right animal.
Dr Jacqui Ley is a researcher at the School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological medicine at Monash University and co-author of a world-first study on dog personalities.
She is a veterinary behaviourist and combines treating pets with behaviour problems with her research.
Uncovering Dog Personalities
“Personality plays a significant role in how individuals behave. If we could measure personality in dogs we would be better able to predict their behaviour and help people choose the best dog for them,” Dr Ley told me.
“There is a lot of work still to be done in correlating known breed characteristics or stereotypes with actual dog personalities.
“At the moment, people are relying on breed stereotypes from books like ‘Breeds of the World’ to get an idea of their dog’s likely personality.
“But these are untested stereotypes, and could be 40 years out of date, not really describing the dogs of today, let alone cross-bred animals.”
Dr Ley is lead author on a paper describing the research into dog personality types.
More than 1000 dog owners were asked to fill out a questionnaire with 67 possible adjectives to describe their dog’s personality, rating them on a scale of 1-6: one being “really does not describe my dog”, and six being ‘really describes my dog’.
Dog Personality Types
The results revealed five personality types including energy and extraversion, nervousness and sensitivity, self-assuredness and motivation, responsiveness to training and amicability.
She explained that “amicability translates, in human terms, to friendliness, but since dogs don't have the capacity to engage in the altruistic behaviour characteristic of human 'friendships', the term amicability was used.”
The five personality types described in the paper, “provides us with a basic model of dog personalities which could assist pet shelters to help pair dogs and potential owners.
"An outgoing young family might cope with an energetic puppy, while a dog with a placid personality would probably better suit an elderly person and a motivated dog may be the best type to engage in farm work or join the policing services."
This basic model of dog personalities is to be tested further with a new study beginning later this year in which Dr Ley hopes to unravel the factors affecting the relationship between the dog and the owner.
Owners will be asked to complete quite a lengthy but anonymous questionnaire that will describe the personality of the dog, the personality of the owner, and will measure the owner’s attachment to the dog.
“We’re trying to find out ‘what makes a good dog good’,” she said.
A dog owner herself, Dr Ley is familiar with the personalities of two special dogs, her short-haired pointers: eight-year-old Cricket and 16 month-old Griff.
“They are energetic and fun to live with, like living with two three-year-olds,” she laughed.
Details of the survey which is part of Dr Ley’s next study will be posted on the Animal Welfare Science website.
Dr Ley’s paper, 'Personality dimensions that emerge in companion canines', will be published in the April 2008 issue of Applied Animal Behaviour Science.
Five Dog Personality Types
• energy and extraversion
• nervousness and sensitivity
• self-assuredness and motivation
• responsiveness to training
• amicability
See also: Put Your Pet on a Diet
Dr Jacqui Ley and Cricket
|
Spider is energetic and outgoing
|
Latest Articles