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Presentation Details
| Is your dog happy? |
| Natalia Albuquerque, Tayn� Petriglia, Eliane Santos, Ricardo Prist, Emma Otta. University of S�o Paulo, S�o Paulo, S�o Paulo, Brazil |
The aim of this study was to investigate how dog guardians attribute the emotion happiness to their dogs. We analyzed the responses of 231 Brazilians, who answered an online questionnaire regarding dog emotional expression. All respondents stated that their dog express happiness. We found that 52.6% of dog guardians believe their dog feels happiness when being petted and 78.2% believe their dog feels this emotion during play, with a significant difference. We also analyzed the effect of intrinsic variables on the attribution of happiness. For petting, more people attributed the emotion to dogs that had been neutered between six months and one year. For play, more people attributed the positive emotion to medium-sized dogs. Age, sex, breed, neutering status, origin, time living together, time of arrival, and temperament had no significant effect. When asked about what their dog express when feeling happiness, the most frequent behaviors were tail wagging, running, jumping, and playing. Happiness may be perceived as a proxy of movement and agitation by humans. This can help better understand people’s beliefs about their dogs and might have practical implications to animal welfare. |