The dog’s personality changes over time, but these changes occur unevenly throughout the dog’s life, and each trait follows a specific age curve.
Dogs’ personality changes over time, but these changes occur unevenly throughout the dog’s life, and each trait follows a specific age curve, according to a study published in Scientific reports by researchers from ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest and the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna. The authors also identified some aged dogs with potential age-related impairments that had very little problem orientation and extremely high levels of activity.
Reasercers examined the personality of 217 Border Collies over a wide age range (from 6 months to 15 years). Image credit: Kubinyi
The human personality is characterized by a special dualism: it is both stable and malleable, depending on the point of reference. When we compare ourselves to our peers, it is stable because our personality rankings remain constant over time compared to others. However, personality changes became apparent when we compared ourselves over time, as people become more conscientious, emotionally stable, and enjoyable as people get older.
But what about personality stability and change in dogs? “Although the dog’s personality is a very popular topic in the literature, there are still gaps in terms of long-term stability as well as in terms of the dynamics of personality development. That means if the personality ranking remains constant over several years, at what age personality changes occur most strongly and how much dogs actually change in the course of their lives, ”explains Borbála Turcsán, first author of the study (ELTE, Department of Ethology).
To fill these gaps, the authors examined the personality of 217 Border Collies over a wide age range (from 6 months to 15 years) using a comprehensive battery of tests known as the Vienna Dog Personality Test (VIDOPET). The researchers invited the owners and dogs back to the laboratory four years later and again tested 37 subjects.
Associate Professor Friederike Range (Clever Dog Lab) describes why dogs were retested. “Longitudinal studies that span several years and use the same method at both times are very rare in the dog literature. The follow-up examination of the same dogs over a period of approx. 4 years enabled us to answer not only the question of personality stability, but also whether there are individual differences in personality development, i.e. whether dogs with certain personality profiles change more than others. ”
Dogs’ personality changes over time, but these changes occur unevenly throughout the dog’s life, and each trait follows a specific age trajectory. This emerges from a study published in scientific reports by researchers from ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest and the Veterinary University Medicine, Vienna. Image credit: Kubinyi
The researchers showed that the dog’s personality also has a “stable” component. The ranks of the dogs in all five personality traits remained fairly constant over the period studied. For example, the most active people in the sample remained the most active 4 years later. However, people with a “more mature” initial personality profile (who were less active, less curious, and more problem-oriented) changed these traits less than their peers – similar to humans.
To study the general age-related personality changes, the researchers compared the personality of dogs from seven age groups. “We found that dog personality changes with age, and these changes occur unevenly throughout the dog’s life, just like humans. What is crucial, however, is that the dynamic of change seems to be specific to each personality trait, ”said Zsofia Viranyi (Clever Dog Lab). “For example, the problem orientation trait, which describes the dogs’ attention and ability to solve problems, changes largely in early life and increases sharply by the age of ~ 6, after which further changes become negligible. In contrast, the trait of the search for novelty did not change noticeably in the younger stages of life, but at the age of ~ 3 years their curiosity about novel objects and situations began to wane, which continued until the geriatric age. ”
The dogs’ independence of activity also decreased continuously over the life of the dogs, but in this trait the greatest decrease occurred from puppy age to puberty (1-2 years old). Not all traits showed such a marked change with age. For example, dogs showed little tendency to better tolerate frustrating situations in old age, and the dog’s sociability appeared to remain constant throughout the dog’s life course.
Interestingly, the authors also identified some aged dogs with potential age-related impairments that had very little problem orientation and extremely high levels of activity. “By providing a detailed description of the normative patterns of personality development in different phases of life, our study can help identify age-related impairments,” explained EnikÖ Kubinyi, lead researcher at the Senior Family Dog Project (ELTE), supported by an ERC grant. “Dogs are already recognized as a natural model for human cognitive aging, and our results suggest that similar rules govern age-related changes in both human and canine personality.”
Reference: “Personality changes at the individual and group level over the life span of dogs” by Turcsán, B., Wallis, L., Berczik, J., Range, F., Kubinyi and E., Virányi, Zs, October 14, 2020, Scientific reports.
DOI: 10.1038 / s41598-020-74310-7
