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Australian veterinarians have found out: among dogs, as well as among people, there are optimists and pessimists. This difference is useful to consider when training service dogs.
The experiment, conducted by Melissa J. Starling and her colleagues in the Department of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Sydney*, was simple and elegant. They taught the experimental group of dogs to respond to sound signals, after one of which the animals received a treat (some milk), and after another, which differed from the first by two octaves, plain water. After that, the dogs were offered an intermediate signal in height and watched how they behaved. Accordingly, the dogs who interpreted the signal as a harbinger of a treat and hurried to the place where it comes from were recorded as optimists, and those who decided that they would only give water now, and did not rush to the bowl, were recorded as pessimists. They also measured the degree of optimism or pessimism – it was judged by the time during which the dog approached the right place.
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The experiment involved 40 dogs of different breeds under the age of 8 years, half reached the final stage (the rest were excluded for various reasons – someone could not learn the meaning of the signals, someone, as it turned out, did not like milk), and among them there were more optimists than pessimists. However, according to Dr. Starling, it is still premature to extend this conclusion to all dogs in general.
The results of the study, published in the open scientific journal PLoS One, will be useful both for those who prepare dogs for certain service functions and for ordinary owners, the authors hope. An optimistic dog copes better with risk situations, is ready to repeat attempts if the first time it does not achieve its goal, while a pessimistic dog is cautious and experiences failure more difficult. This does not mean, Starling points out, that optimistic dogs are always happy and pessimistic dogs are not. But, for example, it is better to select guide dogs from among the pessimists, and train them to search for drugs or explosives – optimists.
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In addition, if you evaluate the optimism or pessimism of the same dog from time to time, this will help to assess the dynamics of his emotional state. “It opens up a wonderful perspective—essentially a way of asking a dog, ‘How are you, how are you? – and get an answer. This is useful for monitoring a dog’s well-being, in order to understand how this well-being contributes to certain activities, and to find out what exactly makes the dog sad, ”says Starling.
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Previous observations have already been made that evaluate the optimism or pessimism of dogs, depending on how painfully they react to separation from the owner. There are also studies on the response of other animals, from rats to primates and bees to sheep, to negative stimuli. The current work of Australian scientists is focused on positive stimuli, and during the experiment, experimental animals were not subjected to any unpleasant influences, which makes it especially cute.
* M. Starling et al. «Canine Sense and Sensibility: Tipping Points and Response Latency Variability as an Optimism Index in a Canine Judgement Bias Assessment». PLoS ONE, сентябрь 2014.