Introduction: Behavioral problems are a major source of poor welfare and premature mortality in companion dogs. Previous studies have demonstrated associations between owners’ personality and psychological status and the prevalence and/or severity of their dogs’ behavior problems, but the mechanisms responsible for these associations are unknown. Other studies have found links between the tendency of dogs to display behavior problems and their owners’ use of aversive or confrontational training methods. This suggests that the effects of owner personality and psychological status on dog behavior may be mediated via their influence on the owner’s choice of training methods. The present study investigated this hypothesis.
Methodology: A self-selected, convenience sample of 1564 current dog owners was surveyed using an online battery of questionnaires designed to measure, respectively, owner personality (10-item Personality Inventory–TIPI), depression (Beck Depression Inventory–BDI), emotion regulation (Emotion Regulation Questionnaire–ERQ), use of aversive/confrontational training methods, and owner-reported dog behavior (short form of the Canine Behavioral Assessment & Research Questionnaire–mini C-BARQ). Multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses were used to identify associations between owner psychological variables, training methods, and dog behavior problems.
Results: Positive associations between owners’ use of aversive/confrontational training methods and the prevalence/severity of a wide range of dog behavior problems were detected. The regression models also found modest associations between owners’ low scores on four of the ‘Big Five’ personality dimensions (Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion & Conscientiousness) and their dogs’ tendency to display higher rates of owner-directed aggression, stranger-directed fear, and/or urination when left alone. The study found only weak evidence to support the hypothesis that these relationships between owner personality and dog behavior were mediated via the owners’ use of punitive training methods, but it did detect a more than five-fold increase in the use of aversive/confrontational training techniques among male owners with moderate depression.
Conclusions and Implications for the Field: The findings illustrate the independent contributions of both human and dog psychological variables to the maintenance of harmonious human-dog relationships, and have implications for the behavior and welfare of both companion and working dogs, and the impact of dogs on the health and well-being of their owners.