The relationship between dog personality and standing in rank has been studied by the staff of the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Eötvös Loránd University in their latest research. Based on their findings, the most open, authoritative, and most extroverted dogs tend to rank higher in the rankings, while the friendliest dogs rank lower. In addition, in multi-dog families, older dogs are usually dominant.
Researchers in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Eötvös Loránd University studied the household hierarchy of companion dogs. In the survey research, dog owners were asked about the personality traits of their pets. The only requirement for completing the questionnaire is that the family has more than one dog over the age of one. Five personality traits were asked in the questionnaire. During the study, researchers processed a total of 1,082 questionnaires, Eötvös Loránd University said Friday.
Based on the results, friendship shows a negative relationship with the degree of dominance. This score was calculated based on the behaviors and interactions observed by the host that could be related to the order. In addition, age also affected the ranking. The researchers came to a similar conclusion to their previous studies that older dogs were more likely to be controlled.
We know that personality can change gradually with age, so we checked to see if our results held up regardless of age. We found that openness and openness are negatively affected by age, that is, the relationship between these personality traits and dominance is just the opposite. Friendship was correlated in the same direction of age and degree of dominance. Older dogs are less friendly, and friendly dogs are inferior, explains Katta Voss, first author of the article.
The researchers also looked at how well a farmer’s opinion matched their dogs’ ranking with a score calculated based on social behaviours. To do this, the questionnaire asked the owner’s opinion about whether the dog was dominant. They found that there was a significant correlation between the owner’s opinion and the score we calculated, that is, farmers are able to observe the hierarchy among their dogs relatively well.
The researchers noted, “Our study supported the hypothesis that a distinct dominant trait does not play a dominant role in a dog’s personality traits.” Peter Bongrach, head of the research group, said that a number of non-competitive traits are also involved in the development of personality traits in the dog.
At the same time, the character of dogs living with a person in a family has a complex relationship with the hierarchy that develops in the group and the place each dog occupies. According to the researcher, more research is needed to find out the causal relationships that may exist between personality and rank traits.
At the same time, Liaison adds, the definition and use of the concepts of dominance, order, and hierarchy have often sparked heated discussions in recent decades, not only among dog trainers and trainers, but also among behavioral researchers. These terms are most important to a person who is observing a group of dogs living together from the outside.
At the same time, the driving force of interactions between individual dogs is made up of much simpler components: strength relationships, motivation, and learning from past experiences. – As an ethicologist, according to our interpretation, dominance is not one of the personality traits of the individual, but it can rightly be assumed that the personality that significantly influences behavior will influence the course and outcome of interactions between dogs and dogs, as Kata, the first author of the study.
In a broader sense, the personality traits of the members of the group and the differences between them certainly influence the order resulting from marital interactions and the place each dog occupies in it. We based our current investigation on these assumptions, he said.
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