Researchers Seeking Help To Learn How We Read And Interpret Dog Behavi

[Eepsy]

We are seeking volunteers with extensive dog experience to take part in an important study seeking to measure the dogmanship, or dog handling style. We have compiled some footage as part of an online questionnaire that features questions on experience, dog emotional state and emotional processing.

The survey can be found at http://bit.ly/dogmanship

Results from this study will help us to identify what exactly constitutes a “dog person” and whether we can capture this expertise experimentally. Ideally this should help to prevent miscommunication and negative consequences such as dog aggression. Hence, individuals struggling with dog ownership will have a means to hone their skills and subsequently their relationship with their dog.

[BarbedWire]

Hi

I did the survey and I must say that I found it difficult to discriminate between some of the choices. For example a dog being stressed is to me very similar to a dog being nervous.

Good luck with your research

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

casual is not the opposite of professional.

to me "casual" means only occasionally

professional means - get paid for it - usually enough to make a living but not always. And you can be a casual professional. ie get paid occasionally.

Some of those dogs look familiar. Corvus?

And I found some of the questions a bit repetitive.

I also found the scaling a bit inconsistent, they felt like some were scaled between opposites

-2 -1 0 1 2

and some were more like from 0 to extremely (where was "neutral" - neither one or the other).

0 1 2 3 4

which I did not interpret in the same way.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Yes. Some of the dogs looked like there was something major happening behind the camera. Ie if the sound had been on maybe we would have had a better idea.

The one of the dog getting a back rub and licking - I have no idea what was going on there, but there was no option for No idea... and you couldn't see the dog's face well enough to tell if it was stressed (licking) or enjoying itself and that's how it shows that.

My dog had a similar massage on Friday and she started off anxious then peeved (cos the vet was poking for sore bits and found some). The vet got quite a few dirty looks but no elvis lip (about to nip/bite).