What in the World is Canine & Feline Psychology?

The Psychoanalytic Review, 2005

Asian Journal of Interdisciplinary Research

This article provides a brief history and description of comparative psychology and provides perspectives about the current state of comparative psychology and unique research opportunities in Asia. An argument is made for why comparative psychology is needed in Asia and practical, teaching, and other aspects and applications are discussed. The application of comparative psychology in equine-human and canine-human interactions and therapies are highlighted.

Animal Cognition, 2020

In recent decades, cognitive and behavioral knowledge in dogs seems to have developed considerably, as deduced from the published peer-reviewed articles. However, to date, the worldwide trend of scientific research on dog cognition and behavior has never been explored using a bibliometric approach, while the evaluation of scientific research has increasingly become important in recent years. In this review, we compared the publication trend of the articles in the last 34 years on dogs’ cognitive and behavioral science with those in the general category “Behavioral Science”. We found that, after 2005, there has been a sharp increase in scientific publications on dogs. Therefore, the year 2005 has been used as “starting point” to perform an in-depth bibliometric analysis of the scientific activity in dog cognitive and behavioral studies. The period between 2006 and 2018 is taken as the study period, and a backward analysis was also carried out. The data analysis was performed using “b...

Elsevier eBooks, 1979

The intuitive sensing of a mental bond between ourselves and especially those animals that live very close to us, our companion animals, has been there since early history. Some ancient Israelite views testify to an irresistibly anthropomorphizing of their domestic animals (Jn 3:5-9) as well as an acknowledgement of the socio-psychological support provided by them (2 Sm 12:1c – 4d). Is there indeed a mental overlap between humans and animals to explain this intuitive experiencing of a bond between ourselves and them? Modern neuroscience, through neuroimaging, has shown that dogs (at least) are able to reciprocate our thoughts and feelings, even be it in a limited way. They seem to have some limited form of a ‘theory of mind’ previously ascribed to humans only. This explains why they have been humans’ ‘best friend’ for the past 12 000 years since they were domesticated from wolves. The intuitions of the ancients and the findings of modern science confirm that we and non-human animals all form intrinsically part of the fascinating web of life.

1998

is a psychologist and author of a number of best selling books dealing with psychological topics, including "Sleep Thieves," and "The Left-hander Syndrome." His book on dog behaviour, "The Intelligence of Dogs," went into 18 printings in hardcover and has been translated into 16 languages. His recent books include "What Do Dogs Know" and "Why We Love the Dogs We Do" which was released in June. We're going to be talking about dogs and people and their relationship to each other. During the course of this I will give you a little bit of information about why we love dogs and the personalities of people who pick particular breeds of dogs. The first thing which I think is really important to know is that most of us don't know an awful lot about dogs because our canine education comes from Walt Disney and his ilk-you know, 101 Dalmatians or Lady and the Tramp. For real-life experience we might have a little bit of Lassie, Benji or Rin Tin Tin. This often results in a number of misperceptions about dogs, such as the belief that they are all heroic, incredibly intelligent and actually sort of four-footed people in fur coats. Learning about dogs through the media can also cause us to gloss over differences between the various breeds of dogs. You have to recognize that if you were a Martian biologist and you came down to earth and you looked at a Great Dane, who stands about 32 inches at the shoulder, can weigh up to 135 pounds or so, has long elegant straight legs and short hair, and then you looked at a Pekingese who stands about 8 inches at the shoulder, weighs around 12 pounds, has crooked legs, has more hair than it has body weight-you would

In the last two decades scientists have become more and more curious about the dog’s (Canis familiaris) seemingly innate ability to understand human cues. Historically this ability has been overlooked or dismissed in any non-primate species; dogs in particular were dismissed as an “‘artificial’ species.” (Mikolsi, Topal, & Csanyi, 2004) Then, just before the turn of the century, a trend in research began to emerge: dogs were showing ability near or above that of primates in human gaze driven studies. Following an initial study by Brian Hare, Josep Call and Michael Tomasello in 1998, researchers began to attempt to answer the questions: “How much do dogs understand about human cues?”, “What is responsible for the dog’s ability to do this (age, breed, training, domestication)”, and “If this is a learned ability, when do dogs learn this ability?” Although researchers agree that the domestic dog has an uncanny ability to both interpret and utilize human-given cues, there continues to be debate regarding the origin of this ability. One school of thought posits that the ability to read human cues is a result of the dog’s domestication over thousands of years by humans. This is known as the “Domestication Hypothesis”. Others posit that this is not enough to explain the dog’s ability. This second group favors the “Two-Stage Hypothesis”. This hypothesis suggests that, along with domestication, dogs must have been given opportunities to enjoy positive interactions with humans, and their age and level of training must be taken into account and their lifelong experiences. This review will cover research in the area of canine cognition from 1998 up to the present year, 2015. Generally each study reviewed was performed with the object choice task and human given cues. An object choice task is one in which an informant indicates the location of the hidden item to the subject (canid) by looking toward or pointing and looking toward one of two opaque containers (Hare & Tomasello, Domestic Dogs (Canis familiaris) Use Human and Conspecific Social Cues to Locate Hidden Food, 1999). Scoring was done based on the number of times the dog followed human cues (such as pointing or gazing, or a combination of both) and correctly chose the baited object. Before trials, dogs underwent training (commonly referred to as “pretraining”) with the experimenters in order to learn that the objects placed before them held food (small treats used to reinforce the dogs’ correct behavior; commonly called “reinforcers”). Some studies, where applicable, also included temperament testing in the form of questionnaires filled out by their owners. Most studies done have focused on human-given cues (a point, a gaze, a physical marker or any combination or variation thereof). However, some studies have incorporated conspecifics (others of the same species) and tested dogs’ ability to follow their cues in order to find hidden food.

2012

Journal of The Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2008

Dogs likely were the first animals to be domesticated and as such have shared a common environment with humans for over ten thousand years. Only recently, however, has this species' behavior been subject to scientific scrutiny. Most of this work has been inspired by research in human cognitive psychology and suggests that in many ways dogs are more human-like than any other species, including nonhuman primates. Behavior analysts should add their expertise to the study of dog behavior, both to add objective behavioral analyses of experimental data and to effectively integrate this new knowledge into applied work with dogs.

Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI, 2021

Simple Summary Dogs are genetically predisposed to communicate with humans in collaborative ways, and life experience enhances this ability. The role of canine personality on this predisposition is unknown. This study used a test where dogs encountered an unsolvable problem. The aim of the study was to understand whether dog personalities could predict their tendency to look at the owner, approach and engage with the task, and show distress during the task. We also compared dogs with life experience in Animal Assistance Interventions and dogs with no work, training, or sport experience. The results indicate that the dogs with a personality more sensitive to uncertain situations looked at the owner more and engaged less often with the task, suggesting they were expecting directions from the owner. Dogs with a personality more sensitive to obtaining rewards and avoiding punishment looked at the owner less often. Dogs with a high tendency to avoid punishment also abandoned and returned...