Dog Research

Hi all, I had hoped to message admin to ask permission to post the below message but as I understand private messages are disabled. So I hope it is ok to post this here. It is to do with recruitment for dog personality research!

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Do you want to take part in exciting new dog personality research?

We are currently conducting a number of projects at the University of Lincoln, aimed at identifying personality traits/behavioural tendencies in the domestic dog. In particular, we are interested in whether there are breed differences in impulsivity, and are conducting a commonly used behavioural task at the University of Lincoln to assess this. We are looking to recruit pedigree Staffordshire Bull Terriers to take part in this research and hope some of you may be interested in getting involved! 

The task involves one visit to the University of Lincoln and will take approximately 2 hours. During the visit, dogs are trained to understand that one tray contains a small quantity of cheese and another different coloured tray contains a larger quantity of cheese. Dogs then undergo a choice test, where both trays are presented at the same time, and the dog is free to choose which tray they go to. If they select the tray with the larger quantity of food, this tray moves slightly further away, whereas the small quantity tray always stays in the same place, and the procedure is repeated. The task ends when a dog consistently selects the smaller quantity tray in favour of the larger quantity tray. 
 
The task is entirely non-invasive, and uses cheese as food rewards. Owners will be asked to not feed their dogs for at least 2 hours prior to their test slot (either 9 am or 12pm) and testing is arranged around owners schedules. Breaks are provided and dogs have free access to water throughout. Owners will also be asked to complete some short questionnaires.  
 
In order to take part, interested owners will need to:
1) Sign up to the University of Lincoln Pets Can Do database (I am not allowed to post links yet due to the 7 day rule but it should be the first link if you search "Lincoln Pets Can Do"). This is a database of owners and their dogs who may want to take part in various studies being conducted at the University. FAQ can be found on the website. 
2) Once signed up, owners will be contacted with further information regarding the study, and asked whether they would like to express an interest in taking part.
3) If interest is expressed, they will be contacted by the lead researcher to arrange a date and time for them to visit the University.

If they remain on the database, they may be contacted to see if they would like to take part in any other studies in the future, but are free to opt out of the database at any point.

We look forward to hearing from you!

http://www.lincolnpetscando.co.uk/

I'm afraid I have crosses rather than pedigrees so can't help you myself but wish you good luck finding recruits!

My girl isn't pedigree either but sounds like an interesting study, good luck

Thank you for the replies guys and for posting up the link LizP.

If people can't directly help out but know someone who might be interested, please do pass on the above link.

We also have another arm to this research that all owners can get involved in, whether you have a pedigree, a cross, rescue, or even assistant dog etc etc. This part involves filling in a questionnaire online, to help us understand how dogs make decisions and how they respond to the positive and negative things in life. This website can be found by searching "Lincoln dog personality" and it is the first link.

Thanks again everyone and for also allowing me to post this information here

I've moved this to the general chat area now, you will probably get more views there. I'll go an have a look at the online questionnaire later for my 3.

Thanks very much for your help LizP

I've done Chaos, having 3 dogs do I just re-register for each other other 2?

Hi liz, many thanks for doing the online questionnaire.

Yes, you can fill it out for all of your dogs if you like, just start from the beginning for each one e.g. from the ‘take part’ link on the main page as the sign up page also contains details for the new dog.

Many thanks again

You're more than welcome! I'm very interested in dog behaviour so anything that helps is more than fine by me!

Do you mind if I ask what your role is, just being nosey?

Hi Liz,

I am a MSc student running my research project. I am the lead researcher on the behavioural test advertised above and will also be using data from the online questionnaire. There are several other students and researchers running projects in the areas of personality/behavioural tendencies as well, all supervised by leading researchers and clinicians in the field of companion animal behaviour.

Thanks again

All 3 done for you. I have to say some of the questions aren't black and white, lots of 'it depends', some that reflect the training done rather than the underlying character, and for Nola some of them reflected her age (she's nearly 11) rather than how she was when younger.

Do you publish the results of your studies anywhere we can access them? I'm fascinated by this stuff - I've just read 'The Genius of Dogs' and 'Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat'. Our understanding of dogs and how we interact with them is developing so quickly.

Hi Liz,

Thank you for contributing to this research. I understand it sometimes appears some of it often feels like 'depends' answers in questionnaire data. What I would say is that questionnaires are designed so that they take that into account and we just ask that participants fill it in as best they can. With variables like age and training etc these are also accounted for.

Excellent book choices by the way. I would also recommend books by John Bradshaw, Alexandra Horowitz - both of which are more general dog behaviour/cognition books, and Daniel Mills and Helen Zulch have published a few practical books for dog owners.

re: publishing, yes much of this work does get published. This is a good blog that covers various dog behaviour research you might find interesting - companion animal psychology . com

If it is ok I might start a new thread specific for the online website as it might get missed in this thread as it's not in the original post?

Thanks for the book ideas - I've read Alexandra Horowitz but not the others.

The other post's fine. We don't allow commercial advertising but promoting ethical research is always supported.