Abstract
Most
guide and service dog organizations would benefit from the development
of accurate methods for the early evaluation of canine temperament
traits. This paper describes the development and validation of a novel
questionnaire method for assessing behavior and temperament in
1-year-old guide dogs. Volunteer puppy-raisers scored a total of 1097
prospective guide dogs on a series of 40 semantic differential-type,
behavioral rating scales. Principle components factor analysis of these
scores extracted eight stable and interpretable common factors:
stranger-directed fear/aggression, non-social fear, energy level,
owner-directed aggression, chasing, trainability, attachment, and
dog-directed fear/aggression. Three of these eight factors exhibited
moderate internal consistency (Cronbach’s α≥0.72), while the reliabilities of the remaining factors were relatively low (Cronbach’s α=0.53–0.61).
The eight factors were then validated against the guide dog school’s
own criteria for rejecting dogs for behavioral reasons. The results of
this analysis confirmed the construct validity of the puppy raisers’
questionnaire assessments of their dogs, and suggested that such methods
can provide a useful and accurate means of predicting the suitability
of dogs for guiding work. Various modifications to the original
questionnaire are proposed in order to enhance its overall reliability.
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