Early Life Experiences and Exercise Associate with Canine Anxieties

Katriina Tiira and Hannes Lohi

PLOS ONE, 2015, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-16

Abstract: Personality and anxiety disorders across species are affected by genetic and environmental factors. Shyness-boldness personality continuum exists across species, including the domestic dog, with a large within- and across-breed variation. Domestic dogs are also diagnosed for several anxiety-related behavioral conditions, such as generalized anxiety disorders, phobias, and separation anxiety. Genetic and environmental factors contributing to personality and anxiety are largely unknown. We collected questionnaire data from a Finnish family dog population (N = 3264) in order to study the associating environmental factors for canine fearfulness, noise sensitivity, and separation anxiety. Early life experiences and exercise were found to associate with anxiety prevalence. We found that fearful dogs had less socialization experiences (p = 0.002) and lower quality of maternal care (p

Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0141907

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141907

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