Pessimism is an emotion not limited to mankind. Man's best friend, it seems, is capable of developing a positive or negative attitude based on life experience. At least those were the findings the University of Sydney reported after conducting a study to determine if dogs were susceptible to framing experiences as either positive or negative and whether either would figure in anticipating outcomes.
"This research is exciting because it measures positive and negative emotional states in dogs objectively and non-invasively. It offers researchers and dog owners an insight into the outlook of dogs and how that changes," says Dr. Melissa Starling, of the Faculty of Veterinary Science, who added that findings could have implications for service dogs and animal welfare in general.
In the study, dogs were taught to associate two different sounds with a reward – milk, which most preferred, or an equivalent amount of water. Once they had learned to differentiate the two sounds, they were then presented with ambiguous tones. Dogs whose responded to the confusing sounds energetically were classified as optimistic.
"Pessimistic dogs appeared to be much more stressed by failing a task than optimistic dogs. They would whine and pace and avoid repeating the task while the optimistic dogs would appear unfazed and continue," Dr. Starling said.
Dogs with optimistic personalities seemed to expect good things to happen. They took more risks in the hopes of gaining access to rewards. Pessimistic dogs, on the other hand, anticipated less favorable outcomes much more frequently, making them more cautious about risk taking and more likely to give up if things don't go their way.
"Of the dogs we tested we found that more were optimistic than pessimistic, but it is too early to say if that is true of the general dog population," Dr. Starling said.
Nevertheless, the findings could reveal how dogs' personalities affect how they see the world and how they behave depending on their mood – ultimately helping dog trainers match dogs to various working roles.
"If we knew how optimistic or pessimistic the best candidates for a working role are, we could test dogs' optimism early and identify good candidates for training, said Dr. Starling, adding that "a pessimistic dog who avoids risks would be better as a guide dog while an optimistic, persistent dog would be more suited to detecting drugs or explosives."
"The remarkable power of this is the opportunity to essentially ask a dog 'How are you feeling?' and get an answer. It could be used to monitor their welfare in any environment, to assess how effective enrichment activities might be in improving welfare, and pinpoint exactly what a dog finds emotionally distressing," Dr. Starling concluded.
The findings were published Sept. 18 in the journal PLOS One.
