Revista Colombiana de Psicología (Dec 2013)
Evaluación del Temperamento en Perros de Refugio y de Familia. Un Estudio Comparativo
Abstract
The study compared the performance of shelter dogs and family pets in a battery of behavioral temperament tests, in order to evaluate whether there is an association between the living conditions in shelters (social and spatial restriction) and alterations of behavior. Thirty half-breed house dogs were given a battery of four temperament tests: sociability and interspecific fear, trainability, interspecific aggression, and non-social fear. Results show that, compared to family pets, shelter dogs remained close to the experimenter for a longer period during the sociability test and their scores were significantly higher in the non-social fear test.