The Cognitive Dog Class 8: Puppy Development, Temperament.

The Cognitive Dog

Class 8: Puppy Development, Temperament

Puppy Development: Stacking the Odds for Optimal Potential

Cognitive Dog

Puppy Development: Optimal Potential

Temperament is formed by Nature (genes) AND Nurture (socializing)

•One is often blamed disregarding the other


• Once the genes are selected it is our job to take care of both mental and physical development– Our = breeder, shelter and

then owner along with dog care professionals


Sensitive Periods – The window opens and closes for

socialization and full potential– Once closed it can lock– There are many ways to

optimize


0 to 12-15 days: Neonatal periodThe Beginning: Touch, scent, taste

Stacking the odds: – Whelping box in a quiet area near life– Den, spare room near household life– Private enough for mama dog but close

enough for humans to hear pups and pups to hear household once hearing begins

– Preferably not a basement or kennel


0 to 12-15 days: Neonatal period

Stacking the odds:– Create mild forms of stress on a daily basis

through basic care•Weigh•Nail trim•Hydration checks•Carmen Battaglia series of handling exercises

– Mild stress during this period has shown to have positive effects on learning and ability to handle stress later• Dr Michael Fox 1971 study


2 to 3 weeks -Transition period:

Begins with eyes opening at 10 to 15 days

Changes that occur:– Lapping and Chewing begin– Self-elimination– Hearing 18-20 days

sound startle– Walk not crawl– Agonistic behavior begins– Conditioning can begin i.e. learning


2 to 3 weeks -Transition period: Begins with eyes opening at 10 to 15 days

Stacking the Odds:– Keep in a stable environment– Remain with mother– Provide new surfaces– Provide novel items & toys– Handle and Talk to daily– Nail trims– Weigh


3 to 7 weeks - Canine Socialization begins

Changes that occur: – Fear response begins– Teeth come in – Weaning begins– Learning to be a dog

and how to communicate


3 to 7 weeks - Canine Socialization begins

Stacking the Odds:– Move to larger area as needed keeping in

active area of house to hear household noises

– Still with mom, her choice

– Handle & Talk to daily– Nails & Weights


– Allow a surface to sleep and play on and a different area to toilet on

– Add an open crate to the pen with soft bed– Increase individual human attention– One on one human play time– New toys and items to chew on– Introduce novel objects– Take outdoors as a group

1st, then 2 by 2, then individually


– Begin supplemental feeding use multiple bowls to prevent resource guarding

– Introduce other safe household dogs and cats

– Pups meet prospective owners if possible by 5 weeks


– Have visitors of all types, ages etc. •Controllable Children

– Car Rides: together at 1st then alone– Vet visits, eye checks preferably before 1st

fear period begins at 8 - 9 weeks or wait until after 11 weeks

– Grooming Intro


7 -8 weeks – Human socialization period

Stacking the Odds:

– Separate to eat– Crate time 2 x 2 first

then alone a few days before going to new home– Collar and leash training– Adoption can begin


8 to 12 weeks – Continued human and canine socialization

Changes that occur:

– 8 to 11 weeks: First Fear Period

– Social Dominance begins around week 10 – puppies start challenging each other in play


8 to 12 weeks – Continued human and canine socialization

Stacking the Odds – Avoid surgery, traumatic vet visits, groomer– Ideal adoption time 7-11 weeks– Pups staying with breeder beyond 12 weeks:

send off for a weekend with friends prior to 12 weeks absolutely no later than 16 to avoid “kennel syndrome” (fear in new situations)


– Begin training– Consistent expectations

jumping– Continue careful

socializing, support any fear with treats and patience

– Socialize with other safe pups and known safe adults


– Management & Structure – Introduce to any

activity planned on as an adult if possible before 16 weeks •Boating, Travel•Shows, trials•Many new situations


12 to 16 weeks – Socialization continues

Changes that occur:– Social dominance stage (begins around 10-11

weeks)– Possible Increased Independence– Teething & Chewing


12 weeks to 16 weeks – Socialization continues

Stacking the Odds:– Adoption should be done by 16 weeks– Pups staying with breeder beyond this time

must go for a weekend with friends prior to 12 weeks absolutely no later than 16 to prevent shyness.

– Visit many new places– Continue to socialize with other safe pups

and known safe adults


– Grooming– Training & Prevention– Consistent Expectations– Management & Structure


4 months to 8 months –

Changes that occur:– Flight instinct anytime during this stage: days

to weeks– Some may challenge for leadership not come

when called– Become more

independent– Chewing


4 months to 8 months -

Stacking the Odds:– Management– Training– Consistent Expectations - leadership– Reward behaviors you want manage or

ignore behaviors you don’t want– Continued socialization with dogs, people,

and new places


6 to 18 months -

Changes that occur: – Fear periods can come and go

– Sexual maturity begins, possible increase in aggressive behaviors

– Territorial, object guarding


6 to 18 months –

Stacking the Odds:– Continued Training– Consistent Expectations - leadership– Management & Structure

•Exercise and a job for the dog– Agility, tracking, rally, obedience, breed related

activities such as herding, earth dog, hunting

– Continued socialization with dogs, people, and new places


18 months to 4 years -

Changes that occur:

– Sexual maturity– Territorial behavior

•Can be earlier in some dogs

– Object guarding •Can be earlier in some dogs


18 months to 4 years -

Stacking the Odds:– Continued Training– Maintain Expectations - leadership– Management & Structure

•Exercise and a job for the dog– Agility, tracking, rally, obedience, breed related

activities such as herding, earth dog, hunting

– Maintain socialization with dogs, people, and new places

Temperament

Puppy Aptitude Testing

Case study: Steiff

Temperament

Case Study: Steiff Photo by Spot Shots

Temperament What I wanted in a dog

A pet Not bouncing off the walls I can provide a moderate amount

of free exercise and training Get along with dogs in house

6 other dogs in the house A dog that would back down Male

Temperament

What I wanted in a dog continued

Agility competition Size – smaller breed (able to fly with) Breeds considered – typical agility

Corgi, Sheltie, Cocker, Terriers

Jack Russell (Parson Russell) Health & Personality considerations

Temperament

What I wanted in a dog …….

A Jack Russell Terrier !! Now the Parson Russell Terrier if AKC

Temperament

How I chose the right pup - Breeder research Breeder referral What health checks do they do

Know what the breed needs IS temperament high on their list Did they want my life history?

Good breeders will! How long breeding/litters per year

Temperament

How I chose the right pup - Breeder research

What are their puppy raising practices – handling, feeding, care

Home or kennel setting? Meet the parent/s & relatives Does the breeder help in rescue? Are they knowledgeable in general care and of

the breed

Temperament

How I chose the right pup - Breeder research

Do they puppy test? Get references from puppy owners Meet in person Visit several

Temperament

Breeder Chosen – pups are here!

Visited weekly starting at 4 weeks Watched interactions with siblings and

other household dogs Tested for interest and focus on play and food

for training purposes Helped expose to new objects Considered puppy aptitude test results

Temperament

The Boys…

Temperament

Puppy Aptitude Testing

Temperament

Puppy Aptitude Testing Volhard & Fisher

Series of tests to pick up tendency’s Independence Social dominance Sound, Sight, Pain Sensitivity Retrieve Novel object (umbrella) reaction

Temperament

Puppy Testing Different versions Age – varies with test P A T Volhard & Fisher

49 days

51-53 my preference for most breeds I did a lot of

Temperament

Puppy Testing

What does it mean…. Not much by itself Use as 1 predictor along with other

observations Shows extremes Shows tendency’s

Temperament

Temperament

Puppy Aptitude Testing Video Steiff’s brother Steiff

Temperament

Puppy Aptitude Testing Testing done slightly differently than I do

I don’t pick them up initially

Did Steiff react due to independence or fear from the initial pick up Which came 1st the fear or the testing

Temperament

How did he turn out? Very Trainable with reward based methods Gets along with most dogs and humans Fits into house well Fear issues that are workable Great agility dog & earth dog

Has had a bunch of bad experiences Had a series of scary things happen at trials He overcomes with positive associations

Temperament

CB’s Conclusion Temperament is complex Nature and nurture at play Puppy testing may be a tool but not an

absolute There are no guarantee's even when

stacking the odds

The Cognitive Dog

Class 8: Temperament

Overview

• What is it?

• How do you measure it?

• Can we tease apart influences of nature & nurture?

• A bit on puppy tests.

What is Temperament?

• “A person’s [animal’s] way of responding to the world. Examples of temperament include shy, bold, risk taking, and cautious” www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/publicat/genechoice/glossary.html

• Coppinger’s notion of behavioral conformation

• Implied...

• Its a consistent (over lifetime) tendency or bias to respond in a certain, and predictable way.

• While “ways of responding to the world” can vary across individuals, there is an assumption that one can define broad groups or categories of “ways of responding to the world”, and that an individual can be put into that group...

Aristotle...

Sanguine: Cheerful & Easy-

going

Melancholic: Depressed and

Moody

Choleric: Aggressive and

Excitable

Phlegmatic: Calm and

Unresponsive

Coren, S. (2004). How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind. New York, NY, Free Press.

More modern approaches...

• Same basic approach...

• Observe way of responding to world...

• Perform tests and observe responses

• Questionnaires (responses to real world events)

• owners vs. dog professionals

• Use data to come up with categories

• Test & refine

Immediate questions...

• “Ways of responding” seems highly context specific

• Is response in one context predictive of response in other contexts?

• Based on observation: how good is the observer, would another observer come to the same conclusion?

• Is it a useful exercise?

Jones & Gosling Survey

Summary

• Identified 51 studies of temperament, but they are all over the map when it comes to almost everything.

• 4 types of assessments: artificial tests, owner/dog professional observation, breed prototypes derived by ‘experts’, real-world tests.

• 85% purebred, GSD & Labs accounted for 32% of dogs, heavy bias toward working dogs & working contexts (police or guide dogs.) Relatively few focused on pet dogs.

• Most dogs tested were intact, young dogs

• Emphasis on either working attributes or problem attributes

Summary Cont.

• Dimensions and labels vary greatly across studies, but they all seem to be able to be sorted into 7 categories, or dimensions (with some overlap)

• Reactivity*

• Fearfulness*

• Activity

• Sociability**

• Trainability**

• Submissiveness

• Aggression

Summary Cont...

• Reliability: if I re-test, will I get the same answer?

• When reliability statistics are provided, the studies seem reliable, but most studies don’t explicitly address reliability

• Validity: how well am I measuring what I say I am measuring

• What evidence there is suggests that the tests are valid, but once again studies do not typically discuss validity

• Bottomline: we need to be very careful in interpreting the results of this work, and in the language we use to describe behavior.

Volhard Model: a functional model

Volhard Model

• Observed behavioral tendencies reflect underlying motivational tendencies

• Prey

• Social

• Defense

• Fight

• Flight

• Seems to reflect an ethological model, i.e., it is a functional model

From behavioral tendencies to underlying

drives

Tendenciesnever --------------------- sometimes

--------------------- always

Sniff the ground or air

Get excited by moving objects (bikes or squirrels)

Stalk cats, other dogs or things in grass

When excited bark in high pitched voice

Shake & kill toys

Steal food or garbage

Like to carry things

Wolf down food

Dig & bury things

median for Parson Russell Terriers

*

* won’t come out from under porch if the chickens are out...

value for the Parson Russell Terrier, Jack

Archetypes...

Prey Pack Fight Flight

The Couch Potato

Low Low Low Low

The Hunter High Low Low Low

The Gas Station Dog

High Low High low

The Runner High Low Low High

The Shadow Low High Low Low

Teacher’s Pet

Medium Medium Medium Low

From: Volhard, J. and W. Volhard (2001). Dog Training for Dummies. New York, NY, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

How they use their model...

• Predictive

• What type of behavior are you going to see?

• What is going to set them off?

• What types of reinforcers/punishers will work best?

• They use it to motivate a kind of “switch drive” theory...

• E.g, they suggest to go from prey drive to social drive, the dog needs to go through defense first. Hmmm....

Tortora Model: example of an expert model

Based model on secondary sources: breed descriptions, dog professionals, etc.

• Activity

• Gentleness

• Distractability

• Dominance (control of resources, vis-a-vis other dogs and people)

• Territorial

• Emotional Stability

• Socialibility

• Learning rate

• Frustration tolerance

• Watch dog

Serpell & Hsu: Observational model

The motivation...

• Behavioral problems in dogs are a big deal for dogs as well as the people who have to live with them.

• No “generally accepted system for classifying and naming behavior and temperament traits in dogs”

• Most of the existing systems, in their opinion, were based “on clinical signs and various motivational and functional hypotheses.” No clear basis for choosing between them, or even knowing if they measured what they said they measured.

• Even given a test or procedure, the practical problems associated with administering it might call into question its usefulness.

So they came up with a questionnaire

• 2 key assumptions...

• Owner knows their dog best

• Via careful design, the questionnaire can “extract this information from a dog’s primary owner in a form that is reasonably accurate, quantitative, and reliable.”

101 questions in the latest version of C-

barq

152 questions in original questionnaire

• Vetted by 8 dog professionals

• sociability : 8

• trainability: 13

• aggression: 44

• anxiety & fear: 22

• separation anxiety: 15

• excitability: 12

• attachment & attention-seeking behavior: 9

• misc behavior: 29

Questionnaire sent to...

• 684 questionnaires were used for the analysis.

• 2000 clients of UPenn Vet clinic with dogs aged 1 to 7 : 38% returned.

• 2700 members of 9 AKC breed clubs: 40% returned

• 203 owners of dogs with specific behavioral issues: ??.

• The big question: Are there a smaller set of variables that do “almost” as good of job at describing” the temperament of the dog as the full set of 152 variables?

• Are the answers to some set of questions highly correlated with each other?

What’s this correlation stuff?

• Intuitive definition

• Extent to which 2 variables are related, i.e. does knowing the value of 1 variable help you predict the value of the other?

Monthly expeditures at Barnes & Noble

Books read per month

Books read per month

Number of body

piercings

Yes No

So what if they are correlated?

• Replace variables that are highly correlated with each other by a single “underlying” variable, or “factor.”

• Knowing where the dog lies on a given factor tells you approximately where it lives with respect to each of the detailed variables

• Statistical technique for doing this called “factor analysis”

• Goal again: instead of needing 152 variables to describe a dog can you do almost as good a job in far fewer?

• Let the data tell you the answer...

• Look at the extracted factors and attach a “label”

Factor analysis

• 11 Factors or dimensions

• 62 questions or variables

• Highly correlated with each other in a dimension

• First 7 agreed with independent assessments of dogs (vet, behavior consultant...)

Serpell, J. and Y. Hsu (2005). "Effects of breed, sex and neuter status on trainability in dogs." Anthrozoos 18(3): 196-207.

Try taking C-Barq survey on your dog

And I care, why?

• Attempt to provide a common set of labels to describe behavior & a methodology for measuring behavior

• process may give you insight into your dog

• If temperament is heritable, and consistent within a breed, knowing where mom and dad are vis-a-vis on these 11 dimensions can help predict where your pup may lie when they grow up, and specifically what behavioral tendencies they may have.

• Is temperament heritable, is it consistent within a breed, what is the role of development and training???

Used C-BARQ to look at trainability...

Significant breed differences, little difference due to sex or neutering


Also looked at breed, sex, neuter status & trainability

high scoring breeds less variable than low scoring breeds


Breed, sex and neuter status...

• Sex differences were only significant in Doxies and Westies (males had higher trainability scores) & this was a surprise.

• Being neutered associated with higher trainability in male Shelties & Rotties, but once again not a huge effect overall

• Interesting comparison of show vs. field lines of ESS


Svartberg: The Dog Mentality Test

Svartberg...

• Performed a statistical analysis of the results from a detailed temperament test developed by the Swedish Working Dog Association...

• 15, 239 dogs from 164 breeds collected between 1997-2001 from 2017 tests at 235 locations with 201 official observers.

• Performed factor analysis to arrive at a small set of dimensions that could be used to describe a dog’s temperament.

Svartberg

• 10 subtests...

• Social contact (greeting stranger)

• Play 1 (play with stranger)

• Chase (well, chase)

• Passive situation (hanging out)

• Distance play (stranger tries to entice dog into approaching and playing)

Svartberg

• Sudden appearance (Dummy rears up in front of dog)

• Metallic noise (chain pulled across corrugated metal)

• Ghosts (“ghosts” appear from hiding place...)

• Play 2 (repetition of Play 1)

• Gunshot

Svartberg...

• Factor analysis of data suggested 5 underlying traits

• Playfulness

• Curiosity/fearlessness

• Chase-proneness

• Sociability

• Aggressiveness

Svartberg

• Repeated the process on scores for the 5 traits discovered via factor analysis and came up with 2 underlying factors...

• shyness - boldness axis

• Aggression

• What is interesting is that the “shyness-boldness” axis was confirmation of an idea already in the literature wrt humans and wolves...

• Subsequent work has looked at some real world implications of his temperament model

Shyness-boldness used to predict performance

• Experience of owner was most important factor, but...

• “A high score on the shyness-boldness axis, a dimension related to sociability toward strangers, playfulness, interest in chase, exploration and fearlessness, correlates with high success in these trials...”

• The “bolder” dogs more likely to perform at a higher level and did so sooner.

Svartberg, K. (2002). "Shyness-boldness predicts performance in working dogs." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 79(2): 157.

Svartberg & Serpell approaches consistent with respect to several traits

• Asked question of whether performance on this test correlated with owner’s observations as measured by answers on the C-BARQ survey...

• Participants in SWDA test were sent questionnaire developed for evaluating pet-dog temperament (Serpell & Hsu.)

• Results...

• Playfulness, curiosity/fearlessness, socialibility and distance-playfulness corresponded were correlated with their counterparts on the C-BARQ survey.

• Aggression as measured by test did not correlate significantly with user reports, nor did chase-proneness correspond to chasing.

C-BARQ and DMA

• With respect to trainability (C-Barq)

• In previous study, Svartberg had suggested that performance was correlated with boldness. In this study trainability was significantly correlated only with playfulness & distance playfulness, and not the other shy/bold traits (for example, being stranger friendly or being fearless...)

• Explanations

• Importance of play as a motivator

• C-Barq measures trainability in classic obedience settings. Working dog trials require the dog to work at a distance and perform different kinds of tasks.

Svartberg bibliography

• Svartberg, K. and B. Forkman (2002). "Personality traits in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris)." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 79(2): 133.

• Svartberg, K. (2002). "Shyness-boldness predicts performance in working dogs." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 79(2): 157.

• Svartberg, K., I. Tapper, et al. (2005). "Consistency of personality traits in dogs." Animal Behaviour 69(2): 283.

• Svartberg, K. "A comparison of behaviour in test and in everyday life: evidence of three consistent boldness-related personality traits in dogs." Applied Animal Behaviour Science In Press, Corrected Proof.

Nature & nurture

Temperament & heredity

• From Scott & Fuller...

• “In general, the results show that heredity is an important quantitative determiner of behavior in dogs.”

• But, “this large amount of genetic variation, both within and between breeds, leads to the conclusion that is impossible to generalize about any one breed from experience with one dog, or even one strain of dogs”

Wilsson & SundgrenSuggests that heredity plays some role in temperament

Wilsson, E. and P.-E. Sundgren (1997). "The use of a behavior test for selection of dogs for service and breeding. II Heritability for tested parameters and effect of selection based on service dog characteristics." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 54: 235-241.

Nervous pointers

• Classic example of heritable behavior, but here are some interesting details...

• Nervous only with respect to people.

• Very high incidence of deafness and susceptibility to mange.

• Reese suggested that “nervous” pointers are more sensitive to negative reinforcement whereas normal strain more sensitive to positive reinforcement.

• What you see is a tendency, not predetermination!

Thorne: genes rule...

• Paula the “fear-biting” basset

• 73% of related dogs (children, grandchildren) were also fearful...

• Thorne suggested this was a dominant gene and immune to behavior modification

• But...

Krushinskii: not so fast...

• Distinguished between PDR (shy responses) and ADR (threatening responses)

• If both parents exhibited PDR, offspring would have tendencies as well, BUT, level of expression highly dependent on developmental factors.

• Absence of socialization together with environmental isolation increased display of PDR

• Active socialization & environmental exposure increased display of ADR.

• Bottom line: its the interaction of genes & developmental environment

Pfaffenberger’s observation

• Out of guide dog pups who at 7 weeks passed temperament test, future success was highly dependent on appropriate socialization

• 90% if they remained in the kennel no more than 1 week

• 85% if they remained in the kennel between 1 and 2 weeks

• 50% if they remained in the kennel between 2 and 3 weeks

• 30% if they remained in the kennel more than 3 weeks

• The really interesting question: could one pick out the pups who would do well no matter what???

In another study, Wilsson & Sundgren...

• Tested 8 week old puppies and looked for heritable traits as well as correspondence to adult behavior

• Followed pups through 2 generations ( pups had pups)

• At 8 weeks old evaluated using a puppy test.

• As adults evaluated using similar test to that described by Svartberg

Wilsson, E. and P.-E. Sundgren (1998). " Behavior test for eight-week old puppies — heritabilities of tested behaviour traits and its correspondence to later behaviour." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 58: 151-162.

Wilsson & Sundgren: what they found...

• Puppy test wasn’t predictive of adult temperament

• They are changing so much at 8 weeks that if there is a different maturation rate for whatever reason, you may be seeing very different behavior.

• Their suggestion, echo’d by others is that a later test when behavior is changing less rapidly might be more predictive.

• One exception to this may be fearfulness which does seem to be predictable based on behavior at 12 weeks (although better at 6 month)

• The intriguing suggestion that “juvenile behavior may be governed by different genes than behavior at adult age.”

• Strong evidence of heritability & litter effects

The big take home points...

• Adult temperaments are real...

• Temperaments have a heritable and a developmental component...

• Know your breed

• Seeing mom & dad outside the home is useful information

• Pay attention to the developmental environment

• Tendency not a pre-determination

• Behavior of a pup is indicative not predictive of behavior as an adult.

The Cognitive Dog Class 8: Puppy Development, Temperament.

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Transcript of The Cognitive Dog Class 8: Puppy Development, Temperament.