Clarke, H. and Loftus, L., 2023. Owner psychological characteristics predict dog behavioural traits.
A summary
The basis for the study
Clarke & Loftus examine the impact of owner's mental health on their dogs. The most prevalent mental health issues affecting people and dogs both relate to fear and anxiety, with depression and anxiety being seen most in people (Overall et al. 2006; Tiira et al. 2016; WHO 2017).
Human/Animal relationships have been proven to be beneficial to improving both physical and mental health in people. Clarke & Loftus go on to discuss the possible correlation with the between 10–15% of all owners reporting that their animal appeared to be more energetic and playful during the COVID lockdowns,, and 20–30% indicating that their animal was more relaxed, perhaps because of the amount of time owners spent with their pets (Shoesmith et al. 2021).
Clarke & Loftus' study aims to look at dog behaviour as a consequence of owner characteristics beyond personality. The current literature has shown that many studies show correlation but are not able to suggest causation, thus showing them to be ineffective at proving the relationship between human psychology and dog behaviour. Clarke & Loftus do acknowledge potential data limitations including genetics, the environment and early life experiences of the dogs and people involved.
What data?
The data consisted of 506 responses to 4 extensive questionnaire's spanning 4 months to allow for a larger and consistent amount of data to be collected.
The four self-report questionnaires utilised were the BDI (Beck et al. 1961), a 21-item inventory measuring characteristic attitudes and symptoms of depression. The RSE (Rosenberg 1965), a 10-item scale that measures global self-worth by assessing positive and negative feelings about the self. The GAD-7 (Spitzer et al. 2006), a 7-item instrument assessing the severity of GAD, with proven sensitivity and specicity in diagnosing panic disorder, social phobia, social anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (Kroenke et al. 2007). Lastly, the C-BARQ (Hsu and Serpell 2003), publicly available online, contains 100 items using 5-point ordinal rating scales assessing dog temperament and behavioural problems, with fourteen sub-scales of behaviour (Fig. 1). Not all questions were used in the study to prevent conflict between answers.
Analyses
They conducted a linear regression. What is linear regression? Linear regression is a statistical analysis that plots the relationship between two variables. This showed support for the original hypothesis where owner anxiety and depression appear to predict increased levels of dog attachment and attention- seeking, separation-related behaviour, stranger-directed aggression, stranger-directed fear, non-social fear, dog-directed fear, touch sensitivity and excitability, and decreasing levels of self-esteem appear to predict dog non-social fear: all of which can be categorised under behaviours motivated by fear, including excitability, increased levels of which correlate with separation-relation disorder (McGreevy and Masters 2008).
They also examined the data and drew out themes, they extracted 14 themes in total. These looked most deeply at Anxiety because it was the most frequently talked about mental health concern, owners reported mirrored anxiety related behaviour in their dogs, "for example ‘I know she picks up on my stress and anxiety...she breathes heavily and wants to be active or petted’, implying proximity-seeking". Depression was also noted as being associated with the following ‘I have noticed as my depression has worsened, her activity levels and overall energy has lessened’.
Limitations and conclusions
The study cannot control for prior learning or socialisation of the dog subject involved. Whether they have health concerns or anything that could be impacting the reported factors seen above. The collection of data during COVID is a potential impacting factor with dogs and people spending more time indoors. Reporting bias has to be accounted for because of the use of self reporting and questionnaires. Projection and anthropomorphism are very real.
The vast number of respondents allows for more concrete results, the correlations are less likely to be made by chance alone.
The research shows that while owners may have an impact on negative behaviour in dogs due to their mental health, it also shows that dogs are more sensitive to owner psychology and that owners are more likely to exhibit what Clarke & Loftus consider to be empathy.