RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Modelling personality, plasticity and predictability in shelter dogs
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 145367
DO 10.1101/145367
A1 Conor Goold
A1 Ruth C. Newberry
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/02/145367.abstract
AB Behavioural assessments of shelter dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) typically comprise standardised test batteries conducted at one time point but test batteries have shown inconsistent predictive validity. Longitudinal behavioural assessments offer an alternative. We modelled longitudinal observational data on shelter dog behaviour using the framework of behavioural reaction norms, partitioning variance into personality (i.e. inter-individual differences in behaviour), plasticity (i.e. individual differences in behavioural change) and predictability (i.e. individual differences in residual intra-individual variation). We analysed data on 3,263 dogs’ interactions (N = 19,281) with unfamiliar people during their first month after arrival at the shelter. Accounting for personality, plasticity (linear and quadratic trends) and predictability improved the predictive accuracy of the analyses compared to models quantifying personality and/or plasticity only. While dogs were, on average, highly sociable with unfamiliar people and sociability increased over days since arrival, group averages were unrepresentative of all dogs and predictions made at the individual level entailed considerable uncertainty. Effects of demographic variables (e.g. age) on personality, plasticity and predictability were observed. Behavioural repeatability increased with days since arrival. Our results highlight the value of longitudinal assessments on shelter dogs and identify measures that could improve the predictive validity of behavioural assessments in shelters.