Reliability and Validity of a Dog Personality and Unwanted Behavior Survey
Dogs have distinct, consistent personalities, but the structure of dog personality is still unclear. Dog personality and unwanted behavior are often studied with behavioral questionnaires. Even though many questionnaires are reliable and valid measures of behavior, all new questionnaire tools should...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-04-01
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| Series: | Animals |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/5/1234 |
| _version_ | 1827694238700142592 |
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| author | Milla Salonen Salla Mikkola Emma Hakanen Sini Sulkama Jenni Puurunen Hannes Lohi |
| author_facet | Milla Salonen Salla Mikkola Emma Hakanen Sini Sulkama Jenni Puurunen Hannes Lohi |
| author_sort | Milla Salonen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Dogs have distinct, consistent personalities, but the structure of dog personality is still unclear. Dog personality and unwanted behavior are often studied with behavioral questionnaires. Even though many questionnaires are reliable and valid measures of behavior, all new questionnaire tools should be extensively validated. Here, we examined the structure of personality and six unwanted behavior questionnaire sections: noise sensitivity, fearfulness, aggression, fear of surfaces and heights, separation anxiety and impulsivity/inattention with factor analyses. Personality consisted of seven factors: Insecurity, Training focus, Energy, Aggressiveness/dominance, Human sociability, Dog sociability and Perseverance. Most unwanted behavior sections included only one factor, but the impulsivity/inattention section divided into two factors (Hyperactivity/impulsivity and Inattention) and the aggression section into four factors (Barking, Stranger directed aggression, Owner directed aggression and Dog directed aggression). We also examined the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, inter-rater reliability and convergent validity of the 17 personality and unwanted behavior traits and discovered excellent reliability and validity. Finally, we investigated the discriminant validity of the personality traits, which was good. Our findings indicate that this personality and unwanted behavior questionnaire is a reliable and valid tool that can be used to study personality and behavior extensively. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T12:01:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-dfc5386cdc694d9fbaf158ff31044071 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-2615 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T12:01:18Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Animals |
| spelling | doaj.art-dfc5386cdc694d9fbaf158ff310440712023-11-21T16:59:32ZengMDPI AGAnimals2076-26152021-04-01115123410.3390/ani11051234Reliability and Validity of a Dog Personality and Unwanted Behavior SurveyMilla Salonen0Salla Mikkola1Emma Hakanen2Sini Sulkama3Jenni Puurunen4Hannes Lohi5Department of Veterinary Biosciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, FinlandDepartment of Veterinary Biosciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, FinlandDepartment of Veterinary Biosciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, FinlandDepartment of Veterinary Biosciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, FinlandDepartment of Veterinary Biosciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, FinlandDepartment of Veterinary Biosciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, FinlandDogs have distinct, consistent personalities, but the structure of dog personality is still unclear. Dog personality and unwanted behavior are often studied with behavioral questionnaires. Even though many questionnaires are reliable and valid measures of behavior, all new questionnaire tools should be extensively validated. Here, we examined the structure of personality and six unwanted behavior questionnaire sections: noise sensitivity, fearfulness, aggression, fear of surfaces and heights, separation anxiety and impulsivity/inattention with factor analyses. Personality consisted of seven factors: Insecurity, Training focus, Energy, Aggressiveness/dominance, Human sociability, Dog sociability and Perseverance. Most unwanted behavior sections included only one factor, but the impulsivity/inattention section divided into two factors (Hyperactivity/impulsivity and Inattention) and the aggression section into four factors (Barking, Stranger directed aggression, Owner directed aggression and Dog directed aggression). We also examined the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, inter-rater reliability and convergent validity of the 17 personality and unwanted behavior traits and discovered excellent reliability and validity. Finally, we investigated the discriminant validity of the personality traits, which was good. Our findings indicate that this personality and unwanted behavior questionnaire is a reliable and valid tool that can be used to study personality and behavior extensively.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/5/1234dog personalityunwanted behaviorbehavior problemsbehavior assessmenttest-retest reliabilityinter-rater reliability |
| spellingShingle | Milla Salonen Salla Mikkola Emma Hakanen Sini Sulkama Jenni Puurunen Hannes Lohi Reliability and Validity of a Dog Personality and Unwanted Behavior Survey Animals dog personality unwanted behavior behavior problems behavior assessment test-retest reliability inter-rater reliability |
| title | Reliability and Validity of a Dog Personality and Unwanted Behavior Survey |
| title_full | Reliability and Validity of a Dog Personality and Unwanted Behavior Survey |
| title_fullStr | Reliability and Validity of a Dog Personality and Unwanted Behavior Survey |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reliability and Validity of a Dog Personality and Unwanted Behavior Survey |
| title_short | Reliability and Validity of a Dog Personality and Unwanted Behavior Survey |
| title_sort | reliability and validity of a dog personality and unwanted behavior survey |
| topic | dog personality unwanted behavior behavior problems behavior assessment test-retest reliability inter-rater reliability |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/5/1234 |
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