Describing Dog Behavior Psychologically: Pet Owners Versus Non-Owners

ABSTRACTThis paper is concerned with the interpretation of the behavior of dogs in mentalistic or psychological terms, and questions whether previous experience with pets influences the extent to which such terminology is used. Forty undergraduate psychology students viewed and produced written descriptions of five videotaped episodes showing dogs interacting with their owners. Twenty of the students had had at least two years of experience with a dog or cat as a family pet before the age of eighteen. These participants produced significantly more descriptions of the dogs' behavior in terms of desires, feelings and understanding than did those with little or no experience of pets. Though the videotaped episodes varied in the extent to which they evoked psychological descriptions, and the different types of psychological description varied in frequency, these factors did not interact significantly with previous pet experience. The results are discussed in terms of the influence of living with companion animals on the way in which such animals are perceived and understood.