LAUSR

A Tool that can predict a young dog’s likelihood of successfully completing guide dog training has been developed by animal behaviour experts at the University of Nottingham. They have created and tested a decision tool that could help trainers to monitor and evaluate their dog’s behaviour. The questionnaire-based tool successfully predicted training outcomes in 16.9 per cent of young dogs of five to 12 months old, with an accuracy of 84 per cent. The study, as part of a wider epidemiology research collaboration with Guide Dogs, was published in PLoS One. It revealed seven reliable and interpretable character traits that can be measured. These were: adaptability, body sensitivity, distractibility, excitability, general anxiety, trainability and stair anxiety. It is hoped that the questionnaire will help to identify dogs who are not suitable to guiding at an early age, before timeconsuming and costly formal training. It is also intended to improve the understanding of a young dog’s behaviour, which Guide Dogs will use to inform their future training processes to give the best chances of success. lead researcher on the project, Naomi Harvey, said: ‘Predicting working dog suitability in puppies has been a huge challenge to organisations for many years. If you’ve ever owned dogs you will know that every dog is different. They have their own characters and personality, which are heavily influenced by their life experiences. We were really pleased that this questionnaire-style behaviour assessment was able to effectively identify the dogs who were most, and least, suitable to guiding work, from a young age, and help to highlight those in between dogs who were at risk of failing training.’ The new behaviour assessment has been designed to be completed by training supervisors of young dogs at the age of 5, 8 and 12 months old. Questions were sourced either from previously published literature or created from suggestions from Guide Dogs staff surveys and feedback. The researchers say the work could be extended in the future to follow up the dogs’ working life as a guide dog. They say this could help shed light on why some dogs are retired early for behavioural reasons and the human and dog factors which contribute to this unique partnership’s success.