Age, breed and sex are strongly correlated with personality traits in dogs

Abstract

Dog personality research has a long history. By analyzing the most current experimental studies, we gave an overview of the theories and approaches used to research dog personality in this study. The last couple of years have seen a fair amount of research into dog personality using several methods. One of the methods employed in the study involves gathering data directly from dog owners through questionnaires to analyze the personality traits of the dogs, with the reported findings derived from these assessment tools. “The Dog Personality Questionnaire†(DPQ) was used in this study because, when all study results were considered, it was the most trustworthy questionnaire. The Dog Personality Questionnaire (DPQ) assesses dogs on 5 factors: Aggression towards People, Fearfulness, Aggression towards Animals, Responsiveness to Training, and Activity/Excitability. In this study, we tested the age, breed, and sex groups of a sample of 200 males and females’ dogs representing 22 different breeds from different breed groups living in dog farms in the greater Cairo region (Cairo, Giza, and Qalyubia cities) in Egypt. Our findings indicate that dogs exhibit variations in mean personality trait levels informed by their age group, breed, and sex. In conclusion, we found a strong correlation between dog age, breed, and sex.