Thus, fearful behavior was a bit more consistent than what was labeled as aggressive behavior. On the other hand, 32 of the 45 dogs showed fear in at least one of the conditions, 21 to both real and fake dogs, 8 of these toward the fake dog only and 3 toward only the live dog. In total, 17 dogs showed some form of aggressive behavior toward either the real or fake dog 8 toward the real dog, 12 toward the fake dog, but only 3 dogs shown any kind of aggressive behavior toward both categories. However, they found little agreement between responses to real and fake dogs for what they labeled as “aggressive” behavior. The authors summarized the results by saying that “friendly” responses were the responses most likely to be consistent, in that most of the “friendly” dogs were friendly to both the real and the fake stimulus. Individual behaviors were recorded as occurring or not (approach, sniff, bark, growl, back away, etc.) and were also later lumped into three categories: “aggressive, fearful or friendly/playful”. The real dogs were presented with a neutered, male American Staffordshire mix and a similarly-sized, fake dog who was the same size as the real dog but is described as “having the appearance of a pointer breed dog”. Can we learn anything about a dog’s behavior around unfamiliar dogs with the use of a fake, stuffed dog? That is the question asked by a team of researchers in Massachusetts, who did a study comparing the responses of 45 shelter dogs to a live dog and a fake, plush, stuffed dog.
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