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Title: Test for canine personalities
Source:
Keralanext
URL Source: http://www.keralanext.com/news/index.asp?id=126315
Published: Feb 24, 2005
Author: unlisted
Post Date: 2005-02-24 07:10:47 by 2Trievers
Keywords: personalities, canine, Test
Views: 74
Comments: 3
[Science News]: 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. Personality traits "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. The four dog personality factors were energy levels, affection-aggression, anxiety-calmness and intelligence-stupidity. Anxiety-calmness was assessed by studying a dog's reaction as its owner walked away with another dog. The ability to retrieve a biscuit from beneath a cup was used as a measure of intelligence. These traits were adapted from the five-factor model; used to assess human personality.
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#1. To: All (#0)
And where does this leave people who look like their dogs? ... or dogs who look like their peeps?
#2. To: 2Trievers, Zipporah (#1)
Cute! matched with owners who have similar personalities A nervous dog for a nervous owner? I'm not so sure. And control freaks want obedient dogs. I think this matching business only works for positive personality traits. Zip? Any observations here from the show dog world?
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