What is it about?
Free-ranging dogs make up 75% of the world’s dog population. But because testing street dogs in their natural habitat is so challenging, very little is known about their behavioural traits. We developed a series of short behavioural tests that are easy to implement, leverage street dogs’ voluntary participation, and, at the same time, succeed in collecting reliable data on their behaviour.
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Photo by Simon Moog on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The majority of the global dog population is free-ranging and contrary to what most people believe, most of these dogs are not abandoned pets, but populations with a long history of living alongside humans without the selection for specific breed functions. Understanding free-ranging dogs’ behaviour doesn't just help the people who live around them - it can also teach us about dogs in general and how their behavioural traits changed over time. Now that we know that we can test these free-roaming dogs happily, reliably, and thoroughly in their natural habitats, we have unlocked an almost untapped wealth of new information for us to explore.
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This page is a summary of: Street-wise dog testing: Feasibility and reliability of a behavioural test battery for free-ranging dogs in their natural habitat, PLoS ONE, March 2024, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0296509.
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