A friend or an enemy? Dogs’ reaction to an unfamiliar person showing behavioural cues of threat and friendliness at different times

Dogs and Strangers

Judit Vas, József Topál, Márta Gácsi, Ádám Miklósi, Vilmos Csányi

A friend or an enemy? Dogs’ reaction to an unfamiliar person showing behavioural cues of threat and friendliness at different times

Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 94, Issues 1–2, October 2005, Pages 99–115

Abstract

Responsiveness of adult pet dogs (Canis familiaris) to an unfamiliar human was observed in two studies. Subjects were faced with an approaching woman (Stranger) who showed definite signs of friendliness and threat during alternate approaches. Observations consisted of two episodes: the Stranger either approached the dog in normal speed of walk while talking to it and finally petted it gently (Friendly approach episode) or she moved slowly and haltingly and looked steadily into the eyes of the dog without any verbal communication (Threatening approach episode).

In the first study 30 dogs of 19 different breeds were tested in the two episodes in a balanced sequential order. The dogs acted appropriately according to the different human behaviour cues. The order of the Friendly/Threatening approaches had no significant effect on the dogs’ responsivity.

In the second experiment 60 dogs of three breed groups (20 Belgian shepherds, 20 retrievers and 20 sled dogs) were first ‘greeted friendly’ and then approached ‘threateningly’ by the same Stranger. Results show significant breed specific differences in the responsivity when dogs faced an apparent switch of the human behaviour cues. Compared to retrievers and sled dogs, Belgian shepherds more frequently changed their response, showing passive or active avoidance or sign of aggression when approached threateningly.

While sex differences were not found, breed comparisons suggest that selective breeding (i.e. for hunting or shepherd work) influenced the dogs’ sensitivity to human social cues in different ways. Results also support the hypothesis that human influence (domestication) has led to extreme flexibility of the dogs’ situation-relevant behaviour while interacting with an unfamiliar human.

Consistency of dogs’ reactions to threatening cues of an unfamiliar person

Judit Vas, József Topál, Borbála Győri, Ádám Miklósi

Consistency of dogs’ reactions to threatening cues of an unfamiliar person

Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 112, Issues 3–4, August 2008, Pages 331–344

Abstract

Reliability is one of the most important aspects of the behaviour observations measuring personality traits in animals. The most fundamental way to test reliability is the assessment of the test–retest consistency. On the other hand, in situations where social interaction between a human participant and the animal subject is at the scope of the study, the behaviour of the humans in the test situation should be restricted by a set of rules. However, if more than one experimenter participates in the observations, the similarity of the behaviour of different persons is an important aspect of the reliability of the study.

In our first study we investigated the consistency of dogs’ behaviour during approach by a person in a friendly and in a threatening way, repeating the test either immediately after the first test or at least 6 months later. We found that the dogs’ sensitivity to the human's behavioural cues in this situation proved to be consistent over repetition when the second test was performed approximately 1 year after the first test, but it was not the case when the time elapsed between test occasions was a few seconds. The detailed analysis indicated that dogs performing extreme behaviour (friendly or threatening) tended to show more conservative responses than dogs showing intermediate reactions when the stranger approached threateningly. Nonetheless, the reaction of the dogs failed to be in accordance with the opinion of the owners about the dogs’ behaviour in similar situations in everyday life.

In the second study we examined the consistency of the dogs’ behaviour in the same situation when confronted with two different unfamiliar persons immediately after each other. The consistency of the dogs’ response to the two experimenters was found to be reliably high.

In sum, this test procedure proved to be reliable enough to be a valuable measure of a definite part of the personality characters of dogs.

Training methods and owner–dog interactions: Links with dog behaviour and learning ability

Training methods and owner-dog interactions

Nicola Jane Rooney, Sarah Cowan

Training methods and owner–dog interactions: Links with dog behaviour and learning ability

Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 132, Issues 3–4, July 2011, Pages 169–177

Abstract

The methods by which owners train their pet dogs range widely, with some exclusively using rewards, and others using a combination, or only punishment-based methods. This paper examines links between the way in which owners reported to have trained their dogs and observations of the dogs’ subsequent behaviour. It also explores associations between behaviour of owner and dog when tested in their own home. A total of 53 owners were surveyed about their preferred methods for training each of seven common tasks, and were each filmed interacting with their dog in a series of standardised scenarios. Dogs owned by subjects who reported using a higher proportion of punishment were less likely to interact with a stranger, and those dogs whose owners favoured physical punishment tended to be less playful. However, dogs whose owners reported using more rewards tended to perform better in a novel training task. Ability at this novel task was also higher in dogs belonging to owners who were seen to be more playful and who employed a patient approach to training. This study shows clear links between a dog's current behaviour and its owner's reported training history as well as the owner's present behaviour. High levels of punishment may thus have adverse effects upon a dog's behaviour whilst reward based training may improve a dog's subsequent ability to learn.

Male and female dogs respond differently to men and women

Deborah L. Wells, Peter G. Hepper

Male and female dogs respond differently to men and women

Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 61, Issue 4, 28 January 1999, Pages 341–349

Abstract

The effect of canine and/or human gender on the response of the domestic dog towards humans has been little studied. This study investigated the reactions of male and female dogs housed in an animal rescue shelter towards the presence of men and women to determine how a dog's response towards a person was influenced by canine and human gender. The response of 30 dogs housed in the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA) to each of six people (three men and three women), who stood individually for a period of 2 min at the front of the dog's cage, was observed. The amount of time that the dog spent at the front of the cage, barking, looking towards the human, wagging its tail, and engaged in activities of sitting, standing, moving, resting, was recorded. Canine gender exerted an influence on the amount of time that dogs spent looking towards the humans. Female dogs showed a greater decrease in the amount of time they spent looking towards the humans over the course of the testing than male dogs. Human gender had an effect on both dog barking, and eye orientation. Dogs showed a stronger decrease in their barking and their tendency to look towards the human whenever the subject was a woman than a man, suggesting that dogs may be more defensively-aggressive towards men than women. There was no interaction between canine and human gender on the dog's response towards the persons. This study indicated that both canine and human gender influence certain elements of a dog's response towards the presence of a human. The findings may have practical implications for the re-housing of dogs from rescue shelters.

Learning and owner–stranger effects on interspecific communication in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris)

Angel M. Elgier, Adriana Jakovcevic, Alba E. Mustaca, Mariana Bentosela

Learning and owner–stranger effects on interspecific communication in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris)

Behavioural Processes, Volume 81, Issue 1, May 2009, Pages 44–49

Abstract

Domestic dogs are very successful at following human cues like gazing or pointing to find hidden food in an object choice task. They solve this kind of situation at their first attempts and from early stages of their development and perform better than wolves. Most of the authors proposed that these abilities are a domestication product, and independent from learning processes. There are few systematic studies on the effects of learning on dogs’ communicative skills. We aim to evaluate the effect of extinction and reversal learning procedures on the use of the pointing gesture in an object choice task. The results showed that dogs stopped following the pointing cue in the extinction and that they learned to choose the not pointed container in the reversal learning. Results suggest that instrumental learning plays an important role in interspecific communication mechanisms between humans and dogs. In both experiments for half of the subjects the pointer was the owner and for the rest was a stranger. A differential effect was found: extinction was slower but reversal learning was faster when the owner gave the cue. This data indicates that the relationship of the dog with the person who emits the cue influences performance.

‘The bone is mine’: affective and referential aspects of dog growls

Tamás Faragó, Péter Pongrácz, Friederike Range, Zsófia Virányi, Ádám Miklósi

‘The bone is mine’: affective and referential aspects of dog growls

Animal Behaviour, Volume 79, Issue 4, April 2010, Pages 917–925

Abstract

A number of species are considered to use functionally referential signals such as alarm calls or food-related vocalizations. However, this particular function of communicative interaction has not previously been found in canids. We provide the first experimental indication that domestic dogs, Canis familiaris, rely on context-dependent signals during interspecific agonistic encounters. We recorded several sequences of growls from dogs in three different contexts: during play, guarding a bone from another dog, and reacting to a threatening stranger. We analysed the acoustic structure of the growls and additionally performed playback tests in a seminatural food-guarding situation. We found that play growls differed acoustically from the other two (agonistic) types of growls, mainly in their fundamental frequencies and formant dispersions. Results of the playback experiment showed that food-guarding growls deterred other dogs from taking away a seemingly unattended bone more effectively than growls recorded in the threatening stranger situation. We ruled out an effect of the signaller's body weight on the subjects' responses. These results provide the first evidence of context specificity of agonistic vocalizations in the dog. We discuss the possible aspects of honesty and deception through acoustic modulation of growls.