When it comes to dog training, extroverted individuals have more success compared to their introverted counterparts. Dogs with specific behavioural problems have a greater likelihood of improving their behaviour from training if their owners are open-minded.
Scientists have discovered that dog owners who exhibited introversion, conscientiousness and close-mindedness traits are less likely to change their dog’s undesirable behaviours. For this study, scientists analysed the outcome of the dog’s behavioural training and compared it with their owner’s human personalities. This information can be valuable for vets to assist them in identifying which owners may require more help when training their dogs.
Lauren Powell and her colleagues from the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania followed 131 dogs and their owners over six months in their training. The training sessions were conducted with a veterinarian from the University of Pennsylvania. At the beginning, the vet performed an initial assessment of each dog. The behavioural issues among the dogs were varied. Some of the problems included: being aggressive towards other animals or humans; separation anxiety; and excessive barking.
The dog owners had to complete a personality assessment and a survey. The survey was used by the researchers to determine how close the dogs and their owners were to each other. The owners were also given some information regarding their dogs from C-BARQ, a global database for canine research.
The findings
Powell and her team discovered that the extent of the dog’s behavioural problem in the beginning was the biggest factor affecting success of the training. The dogs who exhibited the worst behaviour at the start were the biggest improvers over the six month training period. This is probably because they were the ones who had the most to gain from the training.
The study also confirmed the findings from previous studies. Firstly, younger dogs displayed greater improvement than their older counterparts. And secondly, the closer the dogs and their owners were to each other, the greater the success of the training.
The personality of dog owner affects the success of dog training for certain unwanted behaviours.
However, the study also found that the owner’s personality also had an impact on the success of corrective training for certain unwanted behaviours.
One example is that dogs who exhibited fearful behaviour at the start made significantly more progress during training if their owners had an extroverted personality. Owners who were open to new ideas often had dogs who slowly became less fearful over the course of the training. Powell thinks that this is because these owners were more enthusiastic in adopting the recommendations of the vet.
Charlotte Duranton, a researcher at Ethodog, agrees with the findings of the study. Ethodog is a research facility and clinic in Paris which specialises in canine behaviours. Duranton explains that the outcomes of the study makes sense as dogs and owners have a tendency to synchronise their behaviours. This synchronisation behaviour is most prevalent in social settings.
Duranton explains that dogs often watch the reaction of their owner when they encounter a new stimulus, whether it be another dog, human, or object. The dogs use this reaction to determine how they should behave themselves. Therefore it is important for dog trainers and vets to remember this when they are conducting behaviour training.
For the more conscientious dog owners
In contrast, despite six months of training, dogs with more conscientious owners showed little improvement in their negative behaviour. However, Powell was quick to point out that the data may be skewed as the owners were reporting their dog’s behaviours themselves. Powell suggests that conscientious individuals might just view their dog’s behaviour a little differently.
Have you just got a dog or thinking about getting one? Read this article to find out what you need to do once you get a dog!
