Abstract
Individual behavioural differences in pet dogs are of great interest from a basic and applied research perspective. Most existing dog personality tests have specific (practical) goals in mind and so focused only on a limited aspect of dogs’ personality, such as identifying problematic (aggressive or fearful) behaviours, assessing suitability as working dogs, or improving the results of adoption. Here we aimed to create a comprehensive test of personality in pet dogs that goes beyond traditional practical evaluations by exposing pet dogs to a range of situations they might encounter in everyday life. The Vienna Dog Personality Test (VIDOPET) consists of 15 subtests and was performed on 217 pet dogs. A two-step data reduction procedure (principal component analysis on each subtest followed by an exploratory factor analysis on the subtest components) yielded five factors: Sociability-obedience, Activity-independence, Novelty seeking, Problem orientation, and Frustration tolerance. A comprehensive evaluation of reliability and validity measures demonstrated excellent inter- and intra-observer reliability and adequate internal consistency of all factors. Moreover the test showed good temporal consistency when re-testing a subsample of dogs after an average of 3.8 years—a considerably longer test-retest interval than assessed for any other dog personality test, to our knowledge. The construct validity of the test was investigated by analysing the correlations between the results of video coding and video rating methods and the owners’ assessment via a dog personality questionnaire. The results demonstrated good convergent as well as discriminant validity. To conclude, the VIDOPET is not only a highly reliable and valid tool for measuring dog personality, but also the first test to show consistent behavioural traits related to problem solving ability and frustration tolerance in pet dogs.
Highlights
Domestic dogs play various roles in human society
The aim of the study was to create a comprehensive test of dog personality that goes beyond evaluating problematic tendencies, or traits that are relevant for working dogs, by exposing pet dogs to a range of situations that they might encounter in their every day life
These factors appear to overlap with personality dimensions akin to those in humans, as reported in Gosling et al [43] based on a canine adaption of the human Big Five Inventory
Summary
Domestic dogs play various roles in human society. The VIDOPET—A reliable and valid assessment of personality in pet dogs. At) grant CS11-005 to L.H.; and FWF grant I1271 and WWTF grant CS11-026 to Zs.V., and our sponsor Royal Canin. Program (http://mta.hu) to B.T.; Vienna Science and Technology Fund The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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