Personality is often defined as an individual's distinctive pattern of behaviour (besides feeling and thinking) that is consistent across time and situations. Personality studies in dogs have become very popular in the last decade. Dog personality is a matter of great public concern, and besides theoretical interest, it has a wide range of practical applications, including significant influence on the dog-human bond.

Despite the increased interest, at present there is neither standard methodology nor standard terminology in dog personality studies, therefore we had to work out our own methodology. In the following we present our dog personality studies based on questionnaires and behaviour tests.

1. Dog and owner demographic characteristics and dog personality trait associations The aim of this study was to analyze the relationships between four personality traits of dogs (calmness, trainability, dog sociability and boldness) and dog and owner demographics on a large sample size with 14,004 individuals. German speaking dog owners filled in an online questionnaire in German which was advertised in the “Dogs” magazine (www.dogs-magazin.de). We found multiple associations between four traits (calmness/emotinal stability, trainability/openness, dog sociality and boldness) and demographic variables such as age, sex, neutered status or the gender of the owners.

2. Cross-Cultural Comparisons Cross-cultural comparisons of dog behavior are limited. We compared the questionnaire responses of German shepherd owners in Hungary and the United States (Wan, 2009, in press). We found for example, that American owners were more likely to keep their dogs indoors during the day and at night, to report that their dogs were kept as pets, and to engage their dogs in a greater number of training types (e.g. conformation training, agility training). Concerning the behavior, American owners reported higher scores than Hungarian owners on the confidence and aggressiveness scales of our survey (diffrent from the above one).

3. Personality trait and gene polymorphism associations At the behavioural level dogs share many aspects of human personality traits. Some of these are associated with highly polymorphic genes. Studies suggest that the dog could be a very valuable natural model for behaviour-gene associations in humans. In recent years molecular genetics has begun to identify certain neurotransmitter-associated genes, called candidate genes, for quantitative behavioural traits. According to this model, complex behavioural traits such as activity, impulsivity, and aggression are determined by various genes which interact additively or nonadditively. Recent research has revealed a number of allele polimorphism in candidate gene in dogs. Based on the human parallels intensive search for behavioural correlates has been started. Dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene polymorphism was found to be significantly associated with the “activity” and "social impulsivity" trait in the dog in a population of German shepherds. Subsequent analysis in in vitro assays showed that alleles differ in functional properties.

This was revealed both by questionnaire-based evaluations and behavioural tests. Behavioural tests are independent largely from the perception biases of the observer, and provide the behavioural elements that are necessary for the implementation of dogs' behaviour in robots. We developed a test battery with 14 subtests, named Family Dog Test, for measuring individual variability in dogs. We found that the Liveliness trait obtaind by the test battery is associated with the tyrozine-hydroxilase intron 4 polymorphism in German shepherds.

4. Environmental effects on the personality of dog Laboratory dogs are frequently used in scientific studies. The contrast between the quality of life of laboratory and family dogs is salient. Laboratory dogs are kept in a highly restricted environment, in a limited area (4 nm2 for 1-2 dogs). Usually they do not have human contact except with their caretakers, once a day in feeding and cleaning time. We tested laboratory beagles and family begales in the Family Dog Test (see above), and compared their behaviour. We found that there was no difference in the Liveliness of the two populations, but Playfulness, Sociality, and Neuroticism significantly differed.

 

Further reading

Héjjas, K., Vas, J., Topál, J., Szántai, E., Rónai, Zs., Székely, A., Kubinyi, E., Horváth, Zs., Sasvári-Székely, M., Miklósi, Á. 2007. Association of polymorphisms in the dopamine D4 receptor gene and the activity-impulsivity endophenotype in dogs. Animal Genetics, 38: 629–633. (pdf)

Héjjas, K., Vas, J., Kubinyi, E., Sasvári-Székely, M., Miklósi, Á., Rónai, Z. 2007. Novel repeat polymorphisms of the dopaminergic neurotransmitter genes among dogs and wolves. Mammalian Genome, 18: 871-879. (pdf)

Héjjas, K., Kubinyi, E., Rónai, Zs., Székely, A., Vas, J., Miklósi, Á., Sasvári-Székely, M., Kereszturi, E. 2009. Molecular and behavioral analysis of the intron 2 repeat polymorphism in canine dopamine D4 receptor gene. Genes, Brain, Behaviour, 8: 330-336. (pdf)

Kubinyi, E., Turcsán, B., Miklósi, Á. 2009. Dog and owner demographic characteristics and dog personality trait associations. Behavioural Processes, 81: 392-401. (pdf)

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