Most people parent puppies and kids the same way
Similar upbringings produce similar results for kids, dogs, says Rebecca Ledger.
Sit at the dog park for a while, and you’ll see a plethora of puppy parenting styles before you.
Some owners will be fully engaged with their dogs, using the off-leash opportunity to work on their dog ’s re-call training and basic manners training with strangers. Others will enjoy watching their dogs run and play freely with other dogs under their watchful eye. And then, sadly, there are those owners who sit looking at their smartphones or chatting to fellow dog owners, oblivious to whether their pups are bullying other dogs, running off with someone else’s ball, or stealing someone else’s treat bag.
It isn’t lost on many of us that these varied approaches to canine caretaking might echo how people parent their children. But, are these parallels valid? And, as with children, does the way in which people parent their dogs affect their welfare and ultimate success in life?
The potential for these similarities to occur led researchers at Wageningen University and Research in The Netherlands to study whether these comparisons are indeed well-founded, and if so, to what degree (published in PLOS One, February 2018).
The researchers adapted the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire — developed to assess parenting styles in parents of children — to assess comparable traits in 518 Dutch dog owners. The results revealed differences, but also distinct similarities in the dimensions that are used to assess parenting styles for kids.
Both the child and dog-adapted questionnaires assessed two dimensions related to parenting: Demandingness and Responsiveness.
How a parent rates from low to high for demandingness represents how much structure and order the parent provides for their child (known as monitoring) and the degree to which they teach their child to behave well and enforce rules in a goaloriented, reasonable way. It’s not hard to imagine how a pet parent who rates high for demandingness might interact with their pets — these are the committed owners, who train their dogs using positive methods, and who watch their pets carefully at the dog park.
Interestingly, the Wageningen researchers found that not only did pet owners demonstrate this same trait, but also that all of the dog owners they assessed rated high on this characteristic. It’s not that some owners can’t be neglectful, but as the researchers explained, in their study population, only devoted owners who were willing to complete a long questionnaire about their pets were surveyed.
The second dimension of responsiveness represents the amount of emotional warmth and supportive action the parent provides when a child wants or needs something. Again, the researchers found that pet owners demonstrate this trait as well, but this time, there was far more variation in terms of how responsive pet owners were toward their dogs.
Pet owners who rated high for both responsiveness and demandingness were considered analogous to the parenting style labelled “authoritative” — a parenting style, which for children, has been linked with optimal academic competence, the lowest levels of misconduct and delinquency, and the best self-esteem and well-being.
In contrast, pet owners who rated low for both responsiveness and high for demandingness were considered analogous to the parenting group labelled “authoritarian” — a more punishment-based parenting style, epitomized by living with high expectations and strict rules. For dogs, this is the interaction style associated with using choke chains, shock collars and other harsh corrective methods.
But, as yet, the way in which these puppy-parenting styles affect the long-term behaviour and welfare of dogs is unknown. The researchers speculate that, much like with children, that the authoritative style is likely the most conducive to having happy, well-behaved pets, and that this is something that can be taught to anyone looking to get a new dog.
When we consider that almost all pet owners regard their pets as their children or at least, part of the family, it’s perhaps no wonder that so many parallels between child and pet interaction styles exist.
Rebecca Ledger is an animal behaviour scientist, and sees cats and dogs with behaviour problems on veterinary referral across the Lower Mainland. She can be reached at info@pet-welfare.com