Maternal effects on the behaviour of juvenile and adult dogs

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of the maternal environment on behaviour of juvenile and adult dogs. Data were collected by direct observations of litters and by testing 8 week old puppies and adult dogs. Observations showed that there was a marked difference in maternal behaviour and that some of these differences affected teh results of the puppy test but had no effect on the adult test results. During weaning female puppies were treated differently than male puppies which may explain some of the gender differences in the test results. No effect of the within litter environment was observed. The results show that behaviour of puppies is more affected by between litter than by within litter environmental factors. This makes maternal effects more likely to be found when comparing heritabilities based on sire than on dam. No correspondence was found between any frequency in behaviour of either puppies or mothers when correlated to test results at adult age. Medium high to high heritabilities were found for the score groups in the puppy test and medium high estimations on the adult test. When comparing estimations based on sire and dam, maternal effects were found for many of the score groups in the puppy test however not for any in the adult test. It is therefore suggested that maternal effects are more likely to be found on behaviour of juveniles than behaviour of adults. These results correspond to results from other studies. Complete abstract can be found in the PDF file…..