Parenting styles are helpful to assess long-term social interaction patterns, not only between parents and children but also within the owner-dog dyad. Dog-directed parenting plays an important role in preventing undesired dog behaviors, being described as the main emotional sphere in which the dog is guided and trained.
A previous study, based on a Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire, identified three styles in dog owners: the authoritarian-correction style (AUC), the authoritative-intrinsic value style (AUI) and the authoritative-training style (AUT). To evaluate how these styles express in owner-dog interactions, the investigators implemented two behavioral tests: one with distractions and another that implied spending ‘breaktime’ together in a waiting room. The 41 participants were selected after filling an online questionnaire that determined their dog-directed parenting style.
To bring out dog owners’ normal guidance behavior, the dyad entered a room with distractions (treats and balls) and the owner was asked to walk the dog, with a standard two-meters leash, and avoid the pet touching or eating the “distractions” – this test was done twice per each dyad. The second assessment aimed to study spontaneous owner-dog interaction thus, both were left in the room for ten minutes: warm drinks were offered to the owner and the dog could be off-leash.
The treat-and-ball course revealed more about dog-directed parenting styles than the “breaktime” test as there was more leash tension and verbal communication. Owners considered to have an AUC parenting had the tendency to verbally correct instead of praising and walked higher leash tension, while AUI and AUT parenting was associated with more verbal praises. In agreement with previous studies, AUT parenting was also associated with a higher frequency of dogs looking at the owners. In the majority of “breaktime” test cases, owners sat and dogs stayed close to them.
Leash tension and verbal communication has shown to be valuable to evaluate dog-direct parenting styles thus, the authors see this as a valuable tool to properly creating educational interventions for dog owners. In fact, they consider important to move from leash-related guidance towards verbal praise-based guidance, giving priority to AUT rather than AUC parenting style.
Ineke R. van Herwijnen, Joanne A.M. van der Borg, Marc Naguib, Bonne Beerda. Dog-directed parenting styles predict verbal and leash guidance in dog owners and owner-directed attention in dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 232, 2020, 105131, ISSN 0168-1591, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2020.105131.
