Main Index
In Store
Our Web Store
Miniature Schnauzer Picture Gallery
Latest Dog Blogs
- What Are The Basic Commands To Train A Dog?
- PaySafe As The Most Popular Type Of Deposit
- Everything You Need To Know About Pet Sales
- Dogs Contribute To Our Physical And Mental Well Being
- How To Choose Where To Bet On Greyhounds In 2022
- Volunteer With Animals - How To Help Dogs Around The World
- Basic Understanding Of The House Edge
- Why You Should Get A Dog
- Top 20 Popular Dog Names Around The World
- Constipation in Dogs and How to Find Solutions
Is Your Dog An Optimist Or Pessimist?
- 29/09/2014
Research from the University of Sydney has found some dogs are more pessimistic than others.
Dr Melissa Starling, from the Faculty of Veterinary Science who completed her PhD on the topic, said finding out whether a particular dog is optimistic or pessimistic is helpful in the context of working and service dogs and has important implications for animal welfare.
She has been working with Assistance Dogs Australia, a charity organisation that provides service and companion dogs to people with disabilities, to investigate whether an optimism measure could aid in selecting suitable candidates for training.
Dr Starling said the research could help dog trainers select dogs best suited to working roles.
“If we knew how optimistic or pessimistic the best candidates for a working role are, we could test dogs’ optimism early and identify good candidates for training for that role,” she said.
“A pessimistic dog that avoids risks would be better as a guide dog while an optimistic, persistent dog would be more suited to detecting drugs or explosives.”
With her research, dogs were taught to associate two different sounds, which were two octaves apart, with whether they would get the preferred reward of milk or instead get the same amount of water.
Then once the dogs had learnt the discrimination task, they are presented with ‘ambiguous’ tones and if they responded it showed that they expected good things would happen to them and they were optimistic.
The tones which they responded to also showed how optimistic they were as a very optimistic dog may even respond to tones that sound more like those played before water is offered.
Dr Starling said pessimistic dogs appeared to be much more stressed by failing a task than optimistic dogs.
“They would whine and pace and avoid repeating the task while the optimistic dogs would appear unfazed and continue,” she said.
The research has the potential to completely remodel how animal welfare is assessed, Dr Starling said.
“The remarkable power of this is the opportunity to essentially ask a dog ‘How are you feeling?’ and get an answer,” she said.
“It could be used to monitor their welfare in any environment, to assess how effective enrichment activities might be in improving welfare and pinpoint exactly what a dog finds emotionally distressing.”
Please Help Us
IrishDogs.ie takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters because it might well be your perspective, too.
Our future could be much more secure with your help. Please SUPPORT us by clicking on the Donate Button at the Top Right of your screen.
Quick Search
Donate
Latest Dog Pods
- Tips on How to Stop Your Dog from Biting
- Beware - Not All Advertised Dog Rescues Really Are! How Can You Know The Truth?
- Helpful Tips For Dog Obedience Problems
- How to Keep Dogs From Eating Poop
- Dog Grooming Tips - A General Overview of the Very Basics of Dog Grooming
- Recognising Different Types of Dog Obedience Problems
- 5 Important Tips On Feeding A Puppy