When walking in an outside area, shelter dogs (Canis familiaris) synchronize activity with their caregivers but do not remain as close to them as do pet dogs.

When taken for walks, pet dogs synchronize their walking with that of their owners. The aim of this study was to ascertain whether shelter dogs do the same with their caregivers. We documented the behavior of 30 shelter dogs when they were taken outside in their regular walking area by their principal caregivers. The caregivers were instructed to behave in three ways: stay still, walk normally, and walk fast. The shelter dogs synchronized their locomotor activity with their caregiver less strongly than did pet dogs in a previous study. Shelter dogs also maintained greater distances to their caregivers than pet dogs with their owners. The present study predicts that the strength of the social bond between the caregiver and the dog explains most of the findings, which are similar to those found between adult human interacting partners. Further research could disentangle what aspects of experience contribute to the differences between pet dogs and shelter dogs in behavioral synchronization with a familiar human. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).