There was no difference in personality consistency in working versus non-working dog groups. The researchers examined the possibility that the stability of the rearing environment may change the consistency of personality but did not find evidence to support this view. Many studies have reported that some dog breeds may have more consistent personalities than other breeds.
Shelter staff often give behavioral assessments to rescue dogs when they are at the shelters, but sometimes follow up tests are not possible and a questionnaire is used instead by the adoptive owner. When these methods are used and the same behavior is measured in two different ways, a dog’s personality may appear to be less consistent than it actually is.
The researchers suggest that, for more accurate testing results, it would be worthwhile to create tests that are as conceptually similar as possible. When tests differ between the first and second assessments, so does the testing context.
There are also not enough studies being done that examine the factors that influence personality consistency. They found that many important questions could not be answered due to the small number of samples that were available for analysis.
For example, many dog personality studies focus on how well an earlier behavioral test can predict “later success” or certification in a training program, yet success is usually not well-defined. There were also not enough studies done to examine training differences based on the different types of programs, shelters, or even by country.
Many studies also did not indicate the breeds or individual breed results. There are personality differences between breeds and breed clusters, so it’s possible that there are breed differences in personality consistency as well. The researchers also indicated that potentially important early environmental factors often went unreported.
They concluded that personality consistency was definitely consistent in dogs and that their meta-analysis is a first step towards quantitatively synthesizing the existing information on personality consistency in dogs. Important factors that tended to influence consistency estimated in dogs include age, personality dimension, testing intervals, and the conceptual similarity between testing situations.
With puppies, the predictive validity of puppy tests is most likely to be detected only when measuring aggression and submissiveness. It is less valid when testing other personality dimensions in puppies.
The other personality dimensions like responsiveness to training, fearfulness, activity, and sociability were found to be more amenable for analysis by asking how, why, and when personality changes in puppies.
In adult dogs, personality consistency was stronger than in puppies, and equally predictable across all dimensions examined. Their results demonstrated that future studies could be useful in identifying the specific periods of life during which different personality dimensions tended to stabilize.
They also recommended improved reporting methods needed to help researchers, working-dog organizations, animal shelters, dog breeders, and dog owners with the necessary tools required to identify the factors that were most likely to be responsible for personality predictability and change.
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