When humans go through big changes in life, their personality traits can change. In a study published in the Journal of Research in Personality, a duo of researchers from Michigan State University found that this also happens with dogs — and to a surprisingly large degree. Additionally, the team found that dogs’ personalities can predict many important life outcomes; for example, their personalities will influence how close they feel to their owners, biting behavior and even health conditions.
In a sample of 1,681 dogs, Chopik & Weaver found reliable age differences in dog personality.
Michigan State University’s Dr. William Chopik and his colleague, Dr. Jonathan Weaver, surveyed owners of 1,681 dogs (mean age – 6.44 years, 46.2% female), including 50 different breeds.
The extensive survey had owners evaluate their dog’s personalities and answered questions about the dog’s behavioral history. The owners also answered a survey about their own personalities.
“We found correlations in three main areas: age and personality, in human-to-dog personality similarities and in the influence a dog’s personality has on the quality of its relationship with its owner,” Dr. Chopik said.
“Older dogs are much harder to train; we found that the ‘sweet spot’ for teaching a dog obedience is around the age of six, when it outgrows its excitable puppy stage but before its too set in its ways.”
“One trait that rarely changes in age with dogs was fear and anxiety.”
Honing in on the saying, ‘dogs resemble their owners,” this study showed dogs and owners share specific personality traits.
Extroverted humans rated their dogs as more excitable and active, while owners high in negative emotions rated their dogs as more fearful, active and less responsive to training.
Owners who rated themselves as agreeable rated their dogs as less fearful and less aggressive to people and animals.
The owners who felt happiest about their relationships with their dogs reported active and excitable dogs, as well as dogs who were most responsive to training.
“Aggression and anxiety didn’t matter as much in having a happy relationship,” Dr. Chopik said.
“There are a lot of things we can do with dogs — like obedience classes and training — that we can’t do with people.”
“Exposure to obedience classes was associated with more positive personality traits across the dog’s lifespan. This gives us exciting opportunities to examine why personality changes in all sorts of animals.”
The findings prove how much power humans have over influencing a dog’s personality.
Many of the reasons a dog’s personality changes are a result of the ‘nature versus nurture’ theory associated with humans’ personalities.
Next, the researchers will examine how the environment owners provide their dogs might change the dogs’ behavior.
“Say you adopt a dog from a shelter. Some traits are likely tied to biology and resistant to change, but you then put it in a new environment where it’s loved, walked and entertained often. The dog then might become a little more relaxed and sociable,” Dr. Chopik said.
“Now that we know dogs’ personalities can change, next we want to make strong connection to understand why dogs act — and change — the way they do.”
_____
William J. Chopik & Jonathan R. Weaver. Old dog, new tricks: Age differences in dog personality traits, associations with human personality traits, and links to important outcomes. Journal of Research in Personality, published online February 15, 2019; doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2019.01.005
