Do dogs have stable personality traits?
Personality is more consistent in adult dogs than in puppies, study shows.
By Zazie Todd, PhD
By Zazie Todd, PhD
We often talk about people having particular personality
types, such as extroversion/introversion. Is it true that dogs have particular
personalities too, and are they fixed or do they change over time? A new study
by Jamie Fratkin (University of Texas at Austin) and colleagues takes a look at
this.
Jones, A. C., & Gosling, S. D. (2005). Temperament and personality in dogs (Canis familiaris): A review and evaluation of past research. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 95(1-2), 1-53.
The question is useful to many people. Trainers of guide
dogs, police dogs and other service dogs would really like to be able to spot
suitable candidates at a young age, so as not to waste time training an animal
that isn’t going to make it into their program. Rescues and shelters would like
to know that the tests they use to determine whether a dog is adoptable will
predict its behaviour in a new home.
The study is what’s called a meta-analysis. This is where
researchers take a large number of studies that have previously been conducted
and pool the results statistically, to see if conclusions can be drawn from the
field as a whole. In order to do this, the studies have to be selected
carefully – if they are measuring different things, it’s not possible to
combine them.
Photo: Caleb Foster/Shutterstock |
There is a widely-known test called C-BARQ (Canine
Behavioural Assessment and Research Questionnaire) that has eleven dimensions
for pet dogs, and eight for guide dogs. However, it’s not the only test used in
this kind of research. So for the purposes of their analysis, Fratkin et al
used a set of eight personality traits that was identified in earlier work
(Jones and Gosling 2005), and which are thought to apply to all dogs.
The traits are: submissiveness, reactivity, fearfulness, responsiveness to training, activity, sociability, aggressiveness and 'other'. Reactivity was incuded with fearfulness, and 'other' wasn't included since it tended to mean non-personality factors, leaving six dimensions in total.
The traits are: submissiveness, reactivity, fearfulness, responsiveness to training, activity, sociability, aggressiveness and 'other'. Reactivity was incuded with fearfulness, and 'other' wasn't included since it tended to mean non-personality factors, leaving six dimensions in total.
There are some fancy statistics involved in this kind of
analysis, and they had to write to the authors of some papers to get more
details on the numbers. They found thirty-one studies to include, relevant to
the question and with enough information for the analysis. Sometimes they had
to map personality traits onto the Jones and Gosling framework in order to be
able to compare them.
They found that personality in dogs is moderately
consistent. There were several factors which influenced the results.
Personality results were most consistent when the same test was used at
different time intervals, rather than different tests, and when the time
interval between tests was shorter. Also, they found that personality is more
consistent in adult dogs than in puppies. There was no difference between working dogs and pet dogs, however.
For puppies, aggressiveness and submission were the most
consistent personality traits. Interestingly, fearfulness, activity, sociability, and responsiveness to
training were the least consistent in puppies. For adult dogs, most of the
traits were consistent. The exception was submissiveness (for which not
enough studies were available). The authors suggest that hormonal changes in
puppies may be responsible for some changes as they mature into dogs. This is
something that future research could investigate.
One thing to take from this study is that if you think you
have a ‘naughty’ puppy that doesn’t respond to training, keep trying, because
it doesn’t mean the puppy will be the same as an adult dog. There isn’t enough
information to show how this trait develops, but it would be interesting to see
how different training regimens cultivate responsiveness to training. And it
would be fascinating to know more about how personality develops.
How would you describe your dog’s personality?
References
Fratkin, J. L., Sinn, D. L., Patall, E. A., & Gosling, S. D. (2013). Personality consistency in dogs: a meta-analysis. PloS one, 8(1), e54907.Jones, A. C., & Gosling, S. D. (2005). Temperament and personality in dogs (Canis familiaris): A review and evaluation of past research. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 95(1-2), 1-53.