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The effects of games on the dog-owner relationship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

N. J. Rooney*
Affiliation:
Anthrozoology Institute, University of Southampton, SO16 7PX., UK.
J. W. S. Bradshaw
Affiliation:
Anthrozoology Institute, University of Southampton, SO16 7PX., UK.
*
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Extract

It is often claimed that certain dominance-related problems in dogs can be triggered by the games played by dog and owner. In particular it is thought that allowing a dog to win uncontrolled games such as Tug-of-War will increase the likelihood of it attempting to become dominant over its owner. However questionnaires (Goodloe & Borchelt, 1998) and experimental studies of Labrador and Golden Retrievers (Rooney & Bradshaw, 2002) have found no evidence for these postulated effects. In this paper we further investigate possible links between the types of games played in the domestic environment and both dominance and attachment dimensions of the dog-owner relationship.

Type
ISAE
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2003

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References

Goodloe, L. P. and Borchelt, P. L. 1998. Companion dog temperament traits. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 1(4): 303338.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rooney, N. J., Bradshaw, J. W. S. and Robinson, I. 2001. Do dogs respond to play signals given by humans? Animal Behaviour, 61: 715722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rooney, N. J. and Bradshaw, J. W. S. 2002. An experimental study of the effects of play upon the dog-human relationship. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 75(2): 161176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar