ADULT DOMESTIC DOGS (CANIS FAMILIARIS) ARE MORE STRONGLY BONDED TO OWNERS THAN TO THEIR OWN MOTHERS

The bond linking domestic dogs to owners is often considered similar to the child-mother attachment bond. However, humans have a particularly strong appeal to dogs, and it is possible that dog-man relationship outdoes the dog-mother bond. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the bond linking adult dogs towards owners is similar to the bond towards their own mothers. Fourteen adult dogs (6 males and 8 females, 40.2±11.9 months old, of differing breeds) participated at the study. Dogs had been living together with the same owner and with their own mother since birth. Each dog was tested twice, at one month distance, in a modified version of the Ainsworth’s Strange Situation test where the presumed attachment figure was played once by the owner (interspecific) and once by dogs’ mother (intraspecific). The test order was inverted for half of the sample. Dogs’ behaviour was analysed continuously, and the duration of social and non social behaviours (physical contact, proximity, approach, visual orientation, social exploration, environmental exploration, locomotion, yelping, nearness to the door, behaviours against the door, stress signals such as nose licking, yawning and shaking) in the two tests was compared using the Wilcoxon test (p