Dogs have personalities and must be matched to their owners, say researchers

[jay gw]

Dogs show huge differences in personality, according to a US scientist who has developed a test to assess canine character.

Dr Sam Gosling, of the University of Texas, rates the dogs on four key traits with positive and negative extremes.

He adds that his work suggests pets should be matched with owners who have similar personalities.

The work was presented at a major science conference in Washington DC.

"We used approaches used to assess human personality and applied them to dogs," said Dr Gosling.

"You do find personality differences between breeds. Indeed, many have been bred on that basis. But you also find enormous [personality] differences within the breeds themselves."

Dr Gosling first asked pet owners to rate their pet on the four personality traits and then asked strangers to rate the animals on the same characteristics.

And the University of Texas psychologist is a firm believer that pets should be matched with their owners on the basis of similar personalities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4286727.stm

[Donks]

I must be lucky, I've had 11 dogs so far and they were all wonderful, and at no point did we match personalities when getting them.

[MRC_Hans]

It would seem that some scientists have too much time on their hands :rolleyes:.

Hans

[Dustin Kesselberg]

Originally posted by MRC_Hans
It would seem that some scientists have too much time on their hands :rolleyes:.

Hans


You should not be too critical of scientific knowledge on the basis that it is "usless knowledge" or should not be worried about....Should we just ignore these things? I don't think so...Despite how stupid it may seem to you...It is still knowledge that can be useful.




I've known this alot longer though...When ever I go to my grandmothers house Her dog acts alot different than my dogs. And reciently her one dog died and then she got another one,and I have noticed that dog acts just like the previous dog. It is very strange.
While neither of them act like my 2 dogs who both act the same.

Im not sure about "matched" since the personalites were developed from the owner.This may be a good idea for people getting dogs who are full grown and already have personalities.

[Rolfe]

Amazing what you have to be a "researcher" to figure out these days.

Rolfe.

[Stitch]

I think personality can be attributed to any animal if the observer spends enough time observing it to distinguish its behavioural subtleties.

[Kumar]

Originally posted by Donks
I must be lucky, I've had 11 dogs so far and they were all wonderful, and at no point did we match personalities when getting them.

Good discussions here, now. Enjoy & contribute.:D

[Stitch]

Originally posted by Kumar
Good discussions here, now. Enjoy & contribute.:D

I take it there should be a "clicky" there somewhere?!

[rppa]

Originally posted by Stitch
I think personality can be attributed to any animal if the observer spends enough time observing it to distinguish its behavioural subtleties.

I agree, but on reading the article, these weren't very subtle aspects of personality:

The four dog personality factors were energy levels, affection-aggression, anxiety-calmness and intelligence-stupidity.

Are we really supposed to be surprised that dogs differ in energy level, aggressiveness, nervousness, and intelligence? Why is this news? What's the discovery here?

[supercorgi]

This is nothing new. Reputable dog breeders have been doing puppy temperment testing on their litters for a long time and using the results of the test to match their puppies with appropriate homes. There are many forms that puppy testing takes but one of the more common ones is described here: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/7436/tt.html

Breeders also depend on such testing to determine which puppies may excel in various dog activities like agility, hunting, herding, etc. Shelter's also use temperment testing to determine the types of environments that rescued dogs will do best in.

http://my.voyager.net/~farrago/MyIcons/BrposeR.gif

[Dustin Kesselberg]

Originally posted by Stitch
I think personality can be attributed to any animal if the observer spends enough time observing it to distinguish its behavioural subtleties.


When you say "any animal" you must also mean humans.

Since if you observe a human long enough and interact with it you can attribute a personality to it from it's different behavor.

[Rolfe]

I remember seeing a TV programme where a cop was doing the preliminary screening of 6-week-old GSD puppies as potential police dogs. He had some standard tests, and one little scrap retreated behind a chair leg more or less as soon as he started.

He picked the puppy up and looked him in the eyes and said "You don't want to be a police dog when you grow up, do you? No, I didn't think so."

Cute moment.

Rolfe.

[Zep]

Dogs learn quickly what will and will not bring them reward from their owners. So if the owners act the same way towards all the dogs they ever own, all those dogs will respond much the same way back to them.

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

Originally posted by supercorgi
This is nothing new. Reputable dog breeders have been doing puppy temperment testing on their litters for a long time and using the results of the test to match their puppies with appropriate homes. There are many forms that puppy testing takes but one of the more common ones is described here: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/7436/tt.html [/IMG]

That's encouraging, but it is not my general experience in the UK. I have a couple of breeder clients who specifically try to breed "nice" dogs and most dogs are nice anyway, but my experience of nasty dogs is that both new owner and breeder tend to remain in denial about the problem.

On the subject of the thread, it does sound like another of those attempts to prove the bleedin' obvious, but sometimes the bleedin' obvious needs cataloguing.

BSM: owner of 1. "smart and nice, but dangerous to those deserving a quick nip" 2. "nice but dim" 3. "nice, but even dimmer, and frequent victim of 1"

BSM thinks he is like number 1. Number 1 thinks she is above comparisons with a mere monkey.