Gobbo Elena, Zupan Manja
Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Groblje 3, 1230 Domžale, Slovenia.
Animals (Basel). 2020 Feb 18;10(2):315. doi: 10.3390/ani10020315.
A dog's aggressive behavior is influenced by external and internal factors, including its psychological profile. In this study, dogs' and owners' personalities and the owners' attachment style to their dogs were identified and associated with owner-reported dog aggression towards humans and animals. Forty Slovenian owners participated with their dogs, of different breeds and aggression history, sorted into three groups (non-aggressive dogs, dogs aggressive towards humans, and dogs aggressive towards animals). The owners filled out three separate questionnaires that assessed dog aggression history towards different targets, owner's personality and degree of insecure attachment styles to dogs; namely anxious and avoidant attachment. Dog personality was characterized using a standardized dog mentality assessment test, during which the dog was exposed to nine tasks, performed outside, and dogs were scored based on behaviors they exhibited. The results indicated that dogs which were aggressive towards humans were less sociable than non-aggressive dogs and this was associated with the higher neuroticism scores of their owners. We also found that dogs which were aggressive towards strangers had owners with lower scores for anxious attachment and that dogs which were aggressive towards owners had owners with higher scores for avoidant attachment. These results imply that the psychological profiles of both a dog and its owner influence dog aggression towards humans.
狗的攻击行为受外部和内部因素影响，包括其心理特征。在本研究中，确定了狗及其主人的性格以及主人对狗的依恋风格，并将其与主人报告的狗对人类和动物的攻击行为联系起来。四十名斯洛文尼亚狗主人带着他们不同品种、具有不同攻击历史的狗参与了研究，这些狗被分为三组（非攻击性狗、对人类有攻击性的狗和对动物有攻击性的狗）。主人填写了三份不同的问卷，分别评估狗对不同目标的攻击历史、主人的性格以及主人对狗不安全依恋风格的程度；即焦虑依恋和回避依恋。狗的性格通过标准化的狗心理评估测试来表征，在此测试中，狗被带到户外进行九项任务，并根据它们表现出的行为进行评分。结果表明，对人类有攻击性的狗不如非攻击性狗善于社交，这与它们主人较高的神经质得分有关。我们还发现，对陌生人有攻击性的狗，其主人的焦虑依恋得分较低；而对主人有攻击性的狗，其主人的回避依恋得分较高。这些结果表明，狗及其主人的心理特征都会影响狗对人类的攻击行为。
