Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
Independent Researcher, AEC Anthrozoology Education and Canines, Naples, Italy.
PLoS One. 2018 Jun 5;13(6):e0197354. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197354. eCollection 2018.
Dogs living on Bali Island have been free-ranging for thousands of years. A large group of expatriates sometimes adopt Bali dogs and keep them restricted to their houses and backyards, as is typical in modern western cultures. This provides us with the unique opportunity to compare the personality traits of dogs to their lifestyle either living as human companions or as free-ranging animals, exploring at the same time the impact of demographic variables (such as age, sex, and neutered status) on personality. After controlling for internal consistency of the scales and between-observer variation, we found that free-ranging Bali dogs were rated as less active, less excitable, less aggressive towards animals, and less inclined to chase animals or humans than Bali dogs living as human companions. Among free-ranging dogs, females were found to be more excitable. Females in the whole sample were also more fearful of people. The results of this preliminary study suggest that a change in lifestyle, i.e. being adopted, and living in a confined environment has negative consequences on some canine personality traits, such as activity/excitability, aggression towards animals, and prey drive.
巴厘岛的狗已经自由放养了数千年。一大群侨民有时会收养巴厘岛的狗，并将它们限制在自己的房屋和后院中，这在现代西方文化中很常见。这为我们提供了一个独特的机会，可以将狗的个性特征与其生活方式进行比较，无论是作为人类伴侣还是自由放养的动物，同时探索人口统计学变量（如年龄、性别和绝育状况）对个性的影响。在控制了量表的内部一致性和观察者之间的变异后，我们发现，与作为人类伴侣生活的巴厘岛狗相比，自由放养的巴厘岛狗的活动度、兴奋度、对动物的攻击性以及追逐动物或人类的倾向较低。在自由放养的狗中，雌性狗的兴奋度较高。整个样本中的雌性狗也更害怕人。这项初步研究的结果表明，生活方式的改变，即被收养和生活在封闭的环境中，对一些犬类的个性特征产生了负面影响，例如活动/兴奋度、对动物的攻击性和捕食欲望。
