One of the things I love about dogs is their eternal optimism. Even if you never feed your dog from the table, they assume there is always a chance. But what if dogs can be pessimists? A new study shows that separation-related behavior, or separation anxiety, in dogs, may be linked to pessimism.
The study was part of a project funded by the U.K.-based Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which wanted to devise a test to predict whether shelter dogs are likely to have problems with separation after they're adopted. The researchers decided to look at the dogs' emotional state, says Emily Blackwell, an animal behaviorist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Blackwell says she got interested in separation anxiety in high school: She lived so close to the school that between classes she could hear her dog howling from home.
Blackwell and her colleagues studied the moods of 24 dogs at two shelters in southwest England. One of the researchers held a dog behind a plywood screen while a colleague put out a metal food bowl on the other side of the screen. If the bowl was all the way to one side of the room, it had a delicious treat in it. If it was all the way to the other side, it was empty. When the bowl was in place, the dog was let loose. The dogs learn quickly "if it's on one side, to race over and nearly knock over the screen to get it," says Blackwell. "If it's on the other side, they look around and quite often give us a big sigh." Some dogs amble over to check out the empty bowl; others just lie down.
Science
The dogs were then tested with bowls that were switched up. Once the contents of the unknown bowl were ambiguous, some dogs showed less interest in investigating further. Unlike those excited to check out the bowls, these dogs were considered pessimists. The "pessimist" dogs were also anxious when left alone. The study's authors want dog owners to know that "separation anxiety" may be a sign of overall unhappiness and treated rather than just accepted as normal dog behavior.
A previous study from 2010 showed similar results.
Previously: Scientist puts his dog on the editorial boards of seven predatory journals as proof of their negligence
