This list will keep growing as I find these links - add your own. Link to source, Title and Abstract - also let us know if the full text is available:
Full text is available through Science Direct at $31.50 an article. (!)
Partner preferences and asymmetries in social play among domestic dog, Canis lupus familiaris, littermates
Animal Behaviour, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 8 August 2008
Camille Ward, Erika B. Bauer, Barbara B. Smuts
From: Science Direct
We videotaped behaviour in four litters of domestic dogs to explore social play and the development of relationships within litters. We collected data when the puppies were between 3 and 40 weeks of age, but collection times varied by litter. We divided data analysis into three time periods to coincide approximately with critical periods in the early social development of dogs. Early play-partner preferences were associated with preferences in later time periods, and the tendency for puppies to prefer specific partners increased over time. Play did not conform to 50-50 symmetry of roles between partners, which some researchers claim is necessary to sustain play. In the later juvenile period (time 3), dogs who engaged in high rates of offense behaviours (e.g. chasing, forcing partners down) also initiated play at higher rates, implying that winning during play may become more important as puppies mature. Self-handicapping behaviours were positively associated with play signalling, suggesting that, like play signals, self-handicapping may function to indicate playful intent. In mixed-sex dyads, males initiated play, engaged in offense behaviours, and self-handicapped more than females. Females were more likely to initiate with females across all time periods, but males were more likely to initiate with males only in time 3. We discuss results from mixed- and same-sex interactions with reference to inter- and intrasexual competition. The types of offense and self-handicapping behaviours displayed were similar across litters, suggesting that the expression of these behaviours may follow a similar ontogeny in puppies in general.Cooperation and competition during dyadic play in domestic dogs, Canis familiaris
Animal Behaviour, Volume 73, Issue 3, March 2007, Pages 489-499
Erika B. Bauer, Barbara B. Smuts
From: Science Direct
Social play involves a dynamic combination of competition and cooperation, yet few studies have systematically evaluated the cooperative side of play. We studied dyadic play in domestic dogs to investigate factors influencing variation in cooperative play strategies like self-handicapping and role reversal. Dyadic play bouts were videotaped and coded for asymmetric behaviours. We predicted that variation in play style would reflect salient aspects of the canine social system, including dominance relationships and age and size differences, but not sex differences. Our results refute the 50:50 rule proposed by some researchers, which asserts that participants must equalize their behaviour to maintain a playful atmosphere. We observed divergence from 50:50 symmetry to varying degrees across dyads. This variability was especially linked to dominance and age advantages, such that higher-ranking and/or older dogs generally showed higher proportions of attacks and pursuits and lower proportions of self-handicapping than their disadvantaged play partners. These results contradict the notion that more advantaged individuals consistently relinquish their advantage to facilitate play. Role reversals did occur, but certain social conventions apparently dictated which behaviours could be used during role reversals. For example, role reversals occurred during chases and tackles, but never during mounts, muzzle bites or muzzle licks, suggesting that these latter behaviours may be invariant indicators of formal dominance during play in domestic dogs. Play signalling was linked to self-handicapping behaviour but not to attack/pursuit behaviour, indicating that perhaps self-handicapping and play signalling work together to communicate playful intent and reinforce existing roles.
Attachment to humans: a comparative study on hand-reared wolves and differently socialized dog
puppies
Received 28 June 2004;
Using the Strange Situation Test originally developed for testing the mother-infant relationship in humans, we compared the attachment behaviour of extensively socialized (hand-reared)dog,
Canis familiaris, and wolf, Canis lupus, puppies towards their human caregiver with that of pet
dog
puppies of the same age. The experiment was designed to study whether (1)
dog
puppies as young as 16 weeks show attachment to a human caregiver, (2) extensive socialization by human caregivers affects attachment behaviour of
dog
puppies and (3) evolutionary changes (in the form of species-specific differences between wolf and
dog
pups) affect the emergence of
dog
-human attachment. We found a characteristic selective responsiveness to the owner in young
dogs,
similar to that observed in adults. This finding supports the view that puppies show patterns of attachment towards their owners. Extensive socialization had only a minor effect on the attachment behaviour in
dog
puppies, as the behaviour of pet
dogs
and hand-reared
dogs
was basically similar. However, we found a significant species-specific difference between wolves and
dogs:
both extensively socialized and pet
dog
puppies were more responsive to the owner than to an unfamiliar human participant, whereas extensively socialized wolves were not. Behavioural differences could be best explained by assuming that selective processes took place in the course of domestication (genetic changes) that are related to the attachment system of the
dog.
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Received 12 June 2000;
Abstract
Play signals are known to function in the solicitation and maintenance of intraspecific play, but their role in interspecific play is relatively unstudied. We carried out two studies to examine interspecific signalling when humans play with domestic
dogs,
Canis familiaris. In the first, we recorded
dog
-owner play sessions on video to identify actions used by 21
dog
owners to initiate play with their
dogs.
Thirty-five actions were each used by three or more owners. These included postures, vocalizations and physical contact with the
dog.
The actions varied greatly in their apparent success at instigating play which was, surprisingly, unrelated to the frequency with which they were used. We then did an experiment to determine the effect of composites of commonly used signals upon the behaviour of 20 Labrador retrievers. The performance of both 'Bow' and 'Lunge' by a human altered the subsequent behaviour of the
dogs.
Both signals caused increases in play, and Lunge produced significant increases in play bout frequency and mean bout duration. The efficiency of both these postural signals was enhanced when they were accompanied by play vocalizations. Thus, specific actions used by humans do communicate a playful context to
dogs
and can be described as interspecific play signals.
An experimental study of the effects of play upon the dog-human relationship
Accepted 7 September 2001
Abstract
It has often been suggested that intraspecific dominance relationships are established through play. By analogy, it is also claimed that the outcome of competitive games can affect dog-human relationships. This paper experimentally tests the latter idea. Fourteen Golden Retrievers were each subjected to two treatments; 20 sessions of a tug-of-war game with the experimenter which they were allowed to win, and 20 sessions which they lost. Their relationship with the experimenter was assessed, via a composite behavioural test, once at the outset and once after each treatment. Principal components analysis allowed the 52 behavioural measures to be combined into nine underlying factors. Confidence (the factor most closely corresponding to conventional dominance) was unaffected by the treatments. Dogs scored higher for obedient attentiveness after play treatments, irrespective of whether they won or lost, and demandingness scores increased with familiarity of the test person. The 10 most playful dogs scored significantly higher for playful attention seeking after winning than after losing. We conclude that, in this population, dominance dimensions of the dog-human relationship are unaffected by the outcome of repetitive tug-of-war games. However, we suggest that the effects of games may be modified by the presence of play signals, and when these signals are absent or misinterpreted the outcome of games may have more serious consequences. Games may also assume greater significance for a minority of "potentially dominant" dogs.
Also Bradshaw and Rooney
The Effects of Games on the dog-owner relationship ( www.bsas.org.uk/downloads/annlproc/Pdf2003/015.pdf )
Interesting nugget from this abstract: "Dogs which were reported to initiate play frequently scored lower on Amenability and were more likely to exhibit aggression. This is evidence for the popular claim that dogs which are frequently allowed to initiate social interaction also behave with increased dominance toward their owners."
Links between Play and Dominance and Attachment Dimensions in Dog-Human Relationship - full text, Bradshaw and Rooney
Punishment Doesn't Work-And May Make Things Worse
Story but not study available at that link
By Carrie Allan
Study finds that dogs subjected to negative reinforcement develop more problem behaviors
Dogs who are trained using punishment are more likely to develop certain bad behaviors, according to a study published in the February 2004 issue of the British journal Animal Welfare. Researchers E.F. Hiby, N.J. Rooney, and J.W.S. Bradshaw used results obtained from surveys of 326 dog owners to analyze the effects of certain kinds of training methods. The researchers found not only that rewards (of play, praise, and food) were more effective in eliciting desired behaviors from the dogs, but that those owners who used punishment-based training had seen a variety of bad behaviors in their dogs-including barking at/aggression towards people and other dogs, fearfulness, excitement, separation anxiety, and inappropriate mounting.
Okay - first off - is it negative reinforcement or punishment being looked at? Hate when language is tossed around. And this is work based on questioning owners - no mention is made of the fact that rewarding based people may be better informed, more educated, more solution focused... or that people may have turned to "punishment-based training" (however that is defined since all training uses some form of punishment) because their dogs were more challenging for them to deal with than the other group. Much unknown but much is made of it...
Exploring Human Interaction and Diet Effects of the Behavior of Dogs in a Public Animal Shelter (full text) Hennessy, Voith, Young, Hawke, Centrone, McDowell
Have not read this in depth yet but, typical of work with Voith's name attached that I have seen, it is detailed, professional, and well done. Plan to pour over this when I have some time....
Comparison of Personality Inventories of Owners of dogs With and Without Behavior Problems
Dodman, Patronek, Dodman, Zelin and Cottam
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