Development of the “Highly Sensitive Dog” questionnaire to evaluate the personality dimension “Sensory Processing Sensitivity” in dogs.

Bräm, Maya; Asher, L; Furrer, S; Lechner, Isabel; Würbel, Hanno; Melotti, Luca (2017). Development of the “Highly Sensitive Dog” questionnaire to evaluate the personality dimension “Sensory Processing Sensitivity” in dogs. PLoS ONE, 12(5), e0177616. Public Library of Science 10.1371/journal.pone.0177616

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In humans, the personality dimension 'sensory processing sensitivity (SPS)', also referred to as "high sensitivity", involves deeper processing of sensory information, which can be associated with physiological and behavioral overarousal. However, it has not been studied up to now whether this dimension also exists in other species. SPS can influence how people perceive the environment and how this affects them, thus a similar dimension in animals would be highly relevant with respect to animal welfare. We therefore explored whether SPS translates to dogs, one of the primary model species in personality research. A 32-item questionnaire to assess the "highly sensitive dog score" (HSD-s) was developed based on the "highly sensitive person" (HSP) questionnaire. A large-scale, international online survey was conducted, including the HSD questionnaire, as well as questions on fearfulness, neuroticism, "demographic" (e.g. dog sex, age, weight; age at adoption, etc.) and "human" factors (e.g. owner age, sex, profession, communication style, etc.), and the HSP questionnaire. Data were analyzed using linear mixed effect models with forward stepwise selection to test prediction of HSD-s by the above-mentioned factors, with country of residence and dog breed treated as random effects. A total of 3647 questionnaires were fully completed. HSD-, fearfulness, neuroticism and HSP-scores showed good internal consistencies, and HSD-s only moderately correlated with fearfulness and neuroticism scores, paralleling previous findings in humans. Intra- (N = 447) and inter-rater (N = 120) reliabilities were good. Demographic and human factors, including HSP score, explained only a small amount of the variance of HSD-s. A PCA analysis identified three subtraits of SPS, comparable to human findings. Overall, the measured personality dimension in dogs showed good internal consistency, partial independence from fearfulness and neuroticism, and good intra- and inter-rater reliability, indicating good construct validity of the HSD questionnaire. Human and demographic factors only marginally affected the HSD-s suggesting that, as hypothesized for human SPS, a genetic basis may underlie this dimension within the dog species.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Veterinary Public Health Institute > Animal Welfare Division
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Veterinary Public Health Institute
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH)

UniBE Contributor:

Bräm, Maya, Lechner, Isabel, Würbel, Hanno, Melotti, Luca

ISSN:

1932-6203

Publisher:

Public Library of Science

Language:

English

Submitter:

Jeremy Davidson Bailoo

Date Deposited:

06 Jul 2017 07:40

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:05

Publisher DOI:

10.1371/journal.pone.0177616

PubMed ID:

28520773

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.101134

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/101134

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