The attachment pattern that dogs develop towards their owners is like that of children towards their parents or ‘carers’. This was revealed by a study published in the journal Animals-Mdpi, conducted by the department of veterinary sciences of the University of Pisa where a group of researchers has been dealing with the topic for about 10 years.
For dogs, faces matter little, at least in their brains
by ANNA LISA BONFRANCESCHI
“From this point of view, companion dogs had behaviors similar to those of children was already known – he explains Chiara Husbands, researcher at the University of Pisa -, but this is the first time that we have been able to more precisely define the various bonding styles by subjecting dogs to tests very similar to those used for humans. “It emerged that the majority of dogs , as indeed happens with children, he shows a ‘safe’ attachment, that is, he has moderate stress when an involuntary separation occurs, that is, the owner leaves them alone in an unknown environment, and they are reassured as soon as they see him again. instead a minority of ‘insecure’ who do not calm down or who show discomfort through apparent indifference, as in the case of ‘insecure avoidants’.
Dogs lived as pets two thousand years ago
The study involved 67 dog-owner pairs who were subjected to variants of the named experiment Strange situation procedure (Ssp) used to assess children’s attachment styles. The researchers made the dog-owner couple enter an unfamiliar room by managing, according to a coded sequence, the entry and exit of the owner or a stranger to understand the response of the animal.
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