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Factors influencing the temporal patterns of dyadic behaviours and interactions between domestic cats and their owners

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Abstract

Human-cat dyads may be similar in interaction structure to human dyads because many humans regard their cats as being social companions. Consequently, we predict that dyadic structure will be contingent on owner and cat personalities, sex, and age as well as duration of cohabitation of the partners. Forty owner-cat dyads were visited in their homes, on four occasions, during which their behaviours and interactions were video-taped. Behaviour was coded from tape and was analysed for temporal (t)-patterns using Theme (Noldus; Magnusson, 1996). Owner personality was assessed using the NEO-FFI. Five cat personality axes were identified by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) based on observer-rated items and on coded behaviours. We found that the higher the owner in neuroticism, the fewer t-patterns occurred per minute. The higher the owner in extraversion, the higher was the number of non-overlapping patterns per minute. The more "active" the cat, the fewer non-overlapping patterns occurred per minute, but the higher was the event type complexity. The older the cat, the lower was dyadic event type complexity. We suggest that basic temporal structures similar to those of human-cat dyads may also be found in other long-term and complex dyadic relationships, including those between humans.

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... This in turn makes guardians feel that at least someone empathizes with their struggles, and thus guardians often come to rely on their cats for emotional comfort and security (Wisdom et al. 2019). Because cats and their guardians can communicate so effectively with one another, they often influence and control each others' behavior, which in turn makes the human-feline relationship a "two-way partnership" (Turner, 2000;Wedl et al., 2011). ...
... In addition to communicating with cats, we often find ourselves in frequent intimate physical contact with them, whether we're stroking them, cuddling them, or letting them bathe us. Cats are known to actively seek human contract and to initiate a variety of tactile interactions with their guardians, usually to express affection, to include rubbing their faces, bodies, and tails against their guardians, bumping their guardians with their forehead, reaching out with their forepaw to touch their guardians, and kneading their guardians, and it's unlikely that they do this just to obtain food (Wedl at al. 2011). Relatedly, about 62% of cats in the U.S. sleep in their guardian's beds (American Pet Products Association), which surely deepens the feelings of intense closeness and attachment between cats and their guardians. ...
... Relatedly, about 62% of cats in the U.S. sleep in their guardian's beds (American Pet Products Association), which surely deepens the feelings of intense closeness and attachment between cats and their guardians. Temporal patterning of behaviors and interactions are common in human-feline relationships, as cats and their guardians mutually develop complex ritualized interactions, including not only affection rituals, but also play rituals (Wedl at al. 2011). ...
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Those who claim to be committed to the moral equality of animals don’t always act as if they think all animals are equal. For instance, many animal liberationists spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars each year on food, toys, and medical care for their companion animals. Surely, more animals would be helped if the money spent on companion animals were donated to farmed animal protection organizations. Moreover, many animal liberationists feed their companion animals the flesh of farmed animals, and some let their cats roam outdoors, foreseeing that they will kill wildlife. Maybe these companion-animal loving animal liberationists are moral hypocrites. Or maybe their behavior is justified. I defend the latter claim. By developing an ethic that emphasizes the moral significance of life-meaning and recognizes the important role that companion animals play in giving meaning to human lives, I argue that there are stringent side-constraints that apply to companion animals, but not to other animals. Consequently, it isn’t hypocritical to prioritize companion animals over other animals. We can have (and value) our carnivorous companions and be animal liberationists too.
... It is therefore possible that the dynamics of HCI, and the factors that moderate them, may vary compared to those evident in HDI. Within the domestic home, relationships between owner personality, gender and the overall structure of human-cat dyadic interactions have been identified 17 . Rates at which owners vocalise and attempt to initiate interactions with their cats have also been linked with aspects of owners' moods 18,19 . ...
... Thus, humans might derive different degrees of pleasure from different styles of HCI, based on their various individual characteristics. In future work, a more detailed assessment of the sequence and temporal patterning of human-initiated versus cat-initiated contact (e.g. via applications of Markovian or time-patterned behavioural analysis 17,61 ) would be useful. This may help to further characterise and quantify the specific features of tactile HCI that provide the greatest hedonic value to humans, and the role human individual differences may play (i.e. ...
... 2,72 ), there was also a strong female gender skew amongst recruited participants. Thus, while this bias does not necessarily limit the comparability of our results to related literature, future investigation of possible gender differences in HCI styles are recommended, given the potential influence of gender on the general dyadic patterning of HCI 17 and the presence of gender-linked personality differences, particularly in western cultures 76 . ...
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Humans’ individual differences including their demographics, personality, attitudes and experiences are often associated with important outcomes for the animals they interact with. This is pertinent to companion animals such as cats and dogs, given their social and emotional importance to humans and degree of integration into human society. However, the mechanistic underpinnings and causal relationships that characterise links between human individual differences and companion animal behaviour and wellbeing are not well understood. In this exploratory investigation, we firstly quantified the underlying structure of, and variation in, human’s styles of behaviour during typical human-cat interactions (HCI), focusing on aspects of handling and interaction known to be preferred by cats (i.e. ‘best practice’), and their variation. We then explored the potential significance of various human individual differences as predictors of these HCI styles. Seven separate HCI styles were identified via Principal Component Analysis (PCA) from averaged observations for 119 participants, interacting with sociable domestic cats within a rehoming context. Using General Linear Models (GLMs) and an Information Theoretic (IT) approach, we found these HCI PC components were weakly to strongly predicted by factors including cat-ownership history, participant personality (measured via the Big Five Inventory, or BFI), age, work experience with animals and participants’ subjective ratings of their cat behaviour knowledge. Paradoxically, greater cat ownership experiences and self-assessed cat knowledge were not positively associated with ‘best practice’ styles of HCI, but were instead generally predictive of HCI styles known to be less preferred by cats, as was greater participant age and Neuroticism. These findings have important implications regarding the quality of human-companion animal relationships and dyadic compatibility, in addition to the role of educational interventions and their targeting for optimal efficacy. In the context of animal adoption, these results strengthen the (limited) evidence base for decision making associated with cat-adopter screening and matching. In particular, our results suggest that greater cat ownership experiences and self-reports of cat knowledge might not necessarily convey advantages for cats in the context of HCI.
... Vocalisations such as purring and meowing between mother and offspring dyads occur frequently and are thought to serve important communicative and care solicitation functions [13,14]. Similar social behaviours are often directed towards humans during cat-human interactions [15][16][17][18][19] and cats are well documented as having the capacity to develop affiliate social relationships with people [20][21][22][23]. ...
... In a study examining the underlying structure of human-cat interactions taking place in owners' homes [17], links with owner personality were identified. HCI were reported to be less patterned and structured where owners scored higher for the personality trait Neuroticism. ...
... However, across these various studies [17,37,88,89], specific details of the handling styles exhibited by owners during HCI and/or their associations with the cats' behavioural responses were either not quantified or reported, making the results hard to interpret in relation to the cats' experience and comfort during HCI. Further studies investigating the relationship between human personality/mood, their HCI styles and cats' subsequent reactions are therefore warranted. ...
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Sociality can be broadly defined as the ability and tendency of individuals to reside in social groups with either conspecifics and/or other species. More specifically, sociability relates to the ability and tendency of individuals to display affiliative behaviours in such contexts. The domestic cat is one of the most globally popular companion animals and occupies a diverse range of lifestyles. Despite an arguably short period of domestication from an asocial progenitor, the domestic cat demonstrates an impressive capacity for both intra- and interspecific sociality and sociability. At the same time, however, large populations of domestic cats maintain various degrees of behavioural and reproductive autonomy and are capable of occupying solitary lifestyles away from humans and/or conspecifics. Within social groups, individuals can also vary in their tendency to engage in both affiliative and agonistic interactions, and this interindividual variation is present within free-living populations as well as those managed in confined environments by humans. Considerable scientific enquiry has focused on cats’ social behaviour towards humans (and conspecifics to a much lesser extent) in this latter context. Ontogeny and human selection, in addition to a range of proximate factors including social and environmental parameters and individual cat and human characteristics, have been highlighted as important moderators of cats’ sociability. Such factors may have important consequences regarding individuals’ adaptability to the diverse range of lifestyles that they may occupy. Where limitations to individuals’ social capacities do not enable sufficient e.g. adaption, compromises to their wellbeing may occur. This is most pertinent for cats managed by humans, given that the physical and social parameters of the cats’ environment are primarily dictated by people, but that positive human-selection for traits that enhance cats’ adaptability to such lifestyles appears to be limited. However, limitations in the availability and quality of evidence and equivocal findings may impede the current understanding of the role of certain factors in relation to cat sociability and associations with cat wellbeing, although such literature gaps also present important opportunities for further study. This review aims to summarise what is currently known about the various factors that may influence domestic cats’ sociality and sociability towards both humans and conspecifics, with a predominant focus on cats managed by humans in confined environments. Current limitations, knowledge gaps, and implications for cat wellbeing are also discussed.
... As mentioned by Ines et al. [64], social behaviors of the cat are of importance in both the development as well as the sustainment of the relationship. Several studies showed differences in owner-directed behaviors of cats depending on the owners' age, gender, household composition [65][66][67], and breed of the cat [68]. Secondly, the human-cat relationship can indirectly be influenced by the cat's appearance. ...
... Moreover, allowing a cat to sleep on one's bed reflects a high level of intimacy. Previous research showed that cats are more often allowed to sleep with the owner when the owner is single or has no children [77] or when the owner is female [67,78]. Third, during a period of absence, owners need to make sure their cat is provided with water, food, and a clean litterbox. ...
... The multivariate analyses showed several significant associations between the factors under study and relationship category. Consistent with other studies, we showed that characteristics of the owner have stronger associations with the perception of the human-cat relationship than characteristics of the cat [67,68,83,84]. Nevertheless, one cat characteristic, namely, being a pedigree, was related to owner's ideas about their cat. ...
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Describing the relationship with one’s cat in human terms might reflect an underlying anthropomorphic view of the relationship which might be associated with an owner’s behavior towards their cat and the cat’s living environment. Owners self-categorized the relationship with their cat as either a ‘member of the family’, ‘as a child’, ‘best friend’, or ‘a pet animal’. The extent to which owner- and cat-related factors influence these four relationship descriptions are examined in survey data of approximately 1800 cat owners. Differences in outdoor access, care during absence of the owner, and access to the bedroom are examined between the four relationship perceptions. The owner’s age and household composition, ideas about their cat’s equality, support, and dependency, and whether their cat is a pedigree were significantly associated with relationship description and explained 46% of the variance. Owners who perceive their cat as a child or best friend see their cat as loyal, empathetic, equal to family, and dependent on them for love and care. Their cats are less often left in the care of others, are allowed more often in the bedroom and have less often (unrestricted) outdoor access. Moreover, cats perceived as children are more likely to live in a multi-cat household. Our results provide insight in the factors that are related to different (anthropomorphic) perceptions of the human–cat relationship and how perceptions relate to the living environment of cats.
... Kotrschal et al. [18] and Wedl et al. [19] (see also Section 4 below) presented the most recent analyses of combined data from subjective ratings of cat personality traits and observational data on cat-human interactions. Cat personality was defined along four axes by the PCA of the subjective ratings of the observers, while human personality was defined with use of the NEO-Five Factor Inventory. ...
... Kotrschal et al. [18] and Wedl et al. [19] used relatively new analytical methods to study the structure of human-cat interactions observed in the home setting for the first time. Wedl et al. used Theme ® (Noldus bv, The Netherlands) to analyze strings of video-recorded owner and cat behaviors during four visits to 40 cat-owning households. ...
... Hierarchically structured t-patterns emerge from the detection of relationships of these previously detected patterns by repeated use of the algorithm scanning the strings of behaviors. Then, Wedl et al. [19] looked at factors that influence these temporal patterns and predicted that because most owners regard their cats as social companions, the dyadic structure would be contingent on owner and cat personalities, sex, and age, as well as duration of cohabitation of the partners. The authors found that both partners' personalities and sex and cat age had significant effects on the t-patterning. ...
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After recent publication of several reviews covering research results from the last 35 years of domestic cat studies, a number of important unanswered questions and hypotheses have arisen that could interest active researchers, especially those beginning their academic careers. Some sections of this paper concern methodologies that have yielded new insights and could provide more in the future; other sections concern findings and interpretations of those that need further testing. First, hypotheses arise from combining subjective (or psychological) assessments of cat and human personality traits and observational (ethological) studies of cat–human interactions: e.g., do owners with high attachment to their cats interact differently with them than owners with low attachment levels? New analytical methods of dyadic interaction observations open the door for testing further hypotheses. In particular, the Theme® (Noldus bv, NL) program could be used to determine if there are differences between cat breeds in interaction patterns with people, which is not only of interest to owners but also therapists employing cats in their practices. Cat breed differences have been found using subjective ratings, but these need to be corroborated by direct observational data from the home setting and/or non-invasive colony observations, since ratings based on anthropomorphic projections might not be reliable. This should be done before searching for the genetic basis of such differences. Reliable information on breed differences is also needed before prescribing certain breeds for animal-assisted interventions. A model has predicted that the degree of socialization as a kitten affects cats’ responses to positive and negative experiences with unfamiliar humans and their formation of feline–human relationships later on. This needs to be tested in an ethically approved manner on cats of known socialization status and has enormous consequences for cat adoptions from animal shelters. Observations of human–cat interactions have yielded many correlations, which can be tested by non-invasive manipulations of human behavior in the home setting. Examples of these will be given and are of general interest to the cat-owning public. A review of first findings on social cognition in cats has resulted in further unanswered questions and hypotheses. Finally, two aspects of domestic cat ecology will be considered (effects on wildlife and space utilization), which are of great interest to the public and conservationists alike.
... The latter, when approaching an older cat, held their tail up, likely to inhibit expected aggression based on previous encounters. In all these studies, ear positions or tail position were studied separately (see also [34]). In addition, Cameron-Beaumont [35] analyzed separately either the sender's tail position or that of the receiver. ...
... In all these studies, ear positions or tail position were studied separately (see also [34]). In addition, Cameron-Beaumont [35] analyzed separately either the sender's tail position or that of the receiver. ...
... position A 0 B 2 [23] (p. 195), "back and flat", [32], and see [28,34]). Two modalities of tail position were considered: "Up", as defined in Cameron-Beaumont's study [35], and whether the tail was held horizontal or below the plane of the cat's back. In both modalities the possible movements of the tail were not taken into account. ...
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Visual communication involves specific signals. These include the different positions of mobile body elements. We analyzed visual configurations in cats that involve ears and the tail. We aimed at deciphering which features of these configurations were the most important in cats’ interactions with other cats and with humans. We observed a total of 254 cat–cat interactions within a sample of 29 cats, during a total of 100 h of observation scheduled with the “Behavioral dependent onset of sampling” method and using the “All occurences” sampling method. In addition, we sampled 10 interactions between cats and humans. In cat–cat interactions, we noted the positions of ears and tail of both protagonists, as well as the outcome of the interaction, which was either positive/neutral or negative. In a great majority of the 254 interactions sampled, both cats held their tail down. On the contrary, ear position was a critical element in predicting the outcome. When both partners held their ears erect, the outcome was significantly positive, such as rubbing or close proximity. In all other cases of the position of ears in both cats, the outcome was negative, with increased distance of the partners. Although the tail did not seem to play a significant role in visual configurations in cat interactions, the “tail-up” display was important when a cat approached a human being. In the vast majority of cases the cat rubbed itself on a human’s leg(s). Thus, we may conclude that the presence of a human has a specific meaning in the cat’s world, probably as the result of a long period of commensalism. It is important for pet owners to understand the signals that cats use with other cats and with humans in order to promote the welfare of cats.
... Wedl et al. (36) used a relatively new tool to analyze the structure of human-cat interactions observed in the home setting, namely Theme R (Noldus bv, The Netherlands). Strings of video recorded owner and cat behaviors were analyzed during four visits to each of 40 cat-owning households. ...
... She also found that interactions with women had a higher reciprocity and therefore probably both the person and the cat enjoyed high-quality relationships. In a more recent study, Wedl et al. (36) found that female owners entertained a more structured interaction with their cats than male owners and that extraverted owners have relatively varied interaction patterns with their animals. From a PCA analysis of answers to a questionnaire by Hungarian cat owners, Pongracz and Szapu (38) reported that women considered their cats to be more communicative and empathetic than men did and that emotional matching of the cat was more commonly reported by elderly owners than young owners. ...
... There are even fewer studies of the effect of cat age on cathuman interactions. Wedl et al. (36) employed the Theme R algorithm to their observational data and determined that the older the cat, the lower the dyadic event type complexity, meaning that the strings of cat behavior in interaction with their owners are shorter in old cats than young ones. This probably reflects decreased activity levels and playfulness with age in cats. ...
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This is a mini review that summarizes what is known from quantitative observational studies of social interactions between domestic cats and humans in both laboratory colonies and the home setting. Only results from data that have been statistically analyzed are included; hypotheses still to be tested will be declared as such. In some cases, the observational data have been combined with independently collected subjective assessments by the owners of the animals' character and owner personality traits to help interpret the data. Further some relevant experimental studies are also included. All social interactions between cats and humans that are discussed below assume that the animals were socialized to people as kittens, the first topic of this review. Such socialized cats show what might be called “friendliness to humans,” which in turn affects human attachment to the cat. The visual and acoustic behavioral elements used to communicate and interact with other cats can be perceived by people and are also employed by the cats when interacting with them. The initiation, and the initiator of social interactions between cats and humans have been shown to influence both the duration of the interaction bout and total interaction time in the relationship. Compliance with the interactional “wishes” of the partner is positively correlated between the cats and the humans over all human-cat dyads examined. Cats do not spontaneously prefer one gender or age cohort of people, but the humans in those cohorts behave differently to the cats causing the latter to react differentially. The dyadic interaction structure has also been shown to differ between women and men and between older and younger adults. Nevertheless, cats—merely their presence but of course their behavior—can affect human moods and human mood differences have been shown to affect the behavior of the cats. Finally, differences have been found between interactions with purebred and non-purebred cats and between younger and older cats.
... One limitation of this method is the time and effort required to quantify several behavioral categories for each studied animal. However, the coding record has the advantage of being objective, allowing automated behavioral recordings and/or the use of software that could facilitate data collection [88]. ...
... Finally, observers' ratings have been criticized on the basis of the level of anthropomorphism that is inherent to the method, defined as the attribution of human motivations, characteristics, or emotions to non-human animals [93]. There are only a few studies that have compared the outcomes of rating and coding methods and they concluded that they are, to a certain extent, in agreement [34,69,88]. ...
... Sociability was defined based on latency to contact, duration of proximity to humans, and a higher frequency of meow vocalizations [80]. Similar behaviors, ranging from erect ears and sociable to vocal and locomotion, were used to express the sociable dimension by Wedl et al. [88]. Independent-gregarious and gregariousness were also used to express dimensions comparable to friendliness [95,101]. ...
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Temperament can be defined as interindividual differences in behavior that are stable over time and in different contexts. The terms ‘personality’, ‘coping styles’, and ‘behavioral syndromes’ have also been used to describe these interindividual differences. In this review, the main aspects of cat temperament research are summarized and discussed, based on 43 original research papers published between 1986 and 2020. We aimed to present current advances in cat temperament research and identify potential gaps in knowledge, as well as opportunities for future research. Proximate mechanisms, such as genetic bases of temperament, ontogenesis and developmental factors, physiological mechanisms, and relationships with morphology, were reviewed. Methods traditionally used to assess the temperament of cats might be classified based on the duration of procedures (short- vs. long-term measures) and the nature of data recordings (coding vs. rating methods). The structure of cat temperament is frequently described using a set of behavioral dimensions, primarily based on interindividual variations in cats’ responses toward humans and conspecifics (e.g., friendliness, sociability, boldness, and aggressiveness). Finally, cats’ temperaments have implications for human–animal interactions and the one welfare concept. Temperament assessment can also contribute to practical aspects, for example, the adoption of shelter cats.
... We also found elements related to the owner as well as environmental and management characteristics that may predispose cats to be reported by owners as having signs consistent with SRP. Cats might be regarded as social partners for their owners and vice-versa [51]. For instance, a previous study found temporal patterns of interaction between owners and their cats. ...
... For instance, a previous study found temporal patterns of interaction between owners and their cats. Those patterns vary depending on factors that influence the human-cat bond and relationship, such as the owners and cats personalities and owners sex [51]. For example, the more extroverted the owner's personality, the higher the frequency of interactions with their cats. ...
... For example, the more extroverted the owner's personality, the higher the frequency of interactions with their cats. Moreover, in dyads with a female owner, the number of interactions per minute was higher when compared to dyads with a male owner [51]. In general, both domiciled and shelter cats can benefit from human contact and they seek it through affiliative behaviors [19,47,51,52]. ...
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Identifying and preventing the occurrence of separation-related problems (SRP) in companion animals are relevant to animal welfare and the quality of human-pet interactions. The SRP are defined as a set of behaviors and physiological signs displayed by the animal when separated from its attachment person. In cats, SRP has been insufficiently studied. Thus, the objective of this study was to develop a questionnaire for cat owners which identifies behaviors that may indicate SRP, as well as relates the occurrence of SRP to the management practices applied in the sampled cats. The associations of SRP with cats’ characteristics, as well as owner, environmental, and management traits were investigated. The questionnaire was developed based on the scientific literature about separation anxiety syndrome in dogs and a few papers in cats, and it was completed by 130 owners of 223 cats. Analysis of owners’ answers was done through categorization and acquisition of relative frequencies of each response category, followed by Fisher’s exact test, chi-square tests in contingency table and Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Among the sampled animals, 13.45% (30 / 223) met at least one of the behavioral criteria we used to define SRP. Destructive behavior was the most frequently reported behavior (66.67%, 20 / 30), followed by excessive vocalization (63.33%, 19 / 30), urination in inappropriate places (60.00%, 18 / 30), depression-apathy (53.33%, 16 / 30), aggressiveness (36.67%, 11 / 30) and agitation-anxiety (36.67%, 11 / 30) and, in lower frequency, defecation in inappropriate places (23.33%, 7 / 30). The occurrence of SRP was associated with the number of females living in the residence (P = 0.01), with not having access to toys (P = 0.04), and no other animal residing in the house (P = 0.04). Separation-related problems in domestic cats are difficult to identify due to the limited amount of knowledge regarding the issue. The questionnaire developed in this study supported identification of the main behaviors likely related to SRP in cats and could be used as a starting point for future research.
... Research investigating pet owners' personalities has tended to focus on the relationship between personality and pet preference or attachment style, or the complementarity of owner and pet personality and associated owner satisfaction [90][91][92][93][94]. The relationship between owner personality or emotionality and handling styles has also received some attention [9,18,19,95], although this has predominantly focused on dogs. Additionally, whilst inferences about the subsequent impact of owner personality on the wellbeing of their pets are made [94,96,97], parameters relating to the actual welfare of the animals are rarely applied or are less than conclusive. ...
... Caretaker/owner personality traits that are beneficial in one species may not be so in others. For example, whilst in 2010 Wedl et al found that the dogs of more neurotic owners spent greater time in their proximity [102], similar observations in cats found that those with more neurotic owners chose to interact with them less [95]. The domestic cat is now one of the most common companion animals globally. ...
... overall quality and quantity of indoor and outdoor resources provided), or more holistic aspects of caretaker style (e.g. that encompass the owner's general behavioural style towards the cat). Evidence does suggest that owner personality affects interpersonal behaviour [149] and that, in the short-term, cats' interactions with more neurotic owners suggest less active participation and thus more avoidance from the cat [95]. However, in dogs, short-term assessments of owner's behaviour towards their dogs found no relationship between owner-dog interaction styles and owner Neuroticism [18]. ...
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Human personality may substantially affect the nature of care provided to dependants. This link has been well researched in parents and children, however, relatively little is known about this dynamic with regards to humans’ relationships with non-human animals. Owner interactions with companion animals may provide valuable insight into the wider phenomenon of familial interactions, as owners usually adopt the role of primary caregiver and potentially surrogate parent. This study, using cats as an exemplar, explored the relationship between owner personality and the lifestyles to which cats are exposed. In addition, it explored owner personality as it related to reported cat behaviour and wellbeing. Cat owners (n = 3331) responded to an online survey examining their personality and the health, behaviour and management of their cats. Owner personality was measured using the Big Five Inventory (BFI) to assess: Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Neuroticism and Openness. Owners also provided information concerning the physical health, breed type, management and behavioural styles of their cats. Generalised linear mixed models were used to identify relationships between owner personality and a range of factors that may have welfare implications for the wider companion animal population, and specifically, cats. Higher owner Neuroticism was associated with an increased likelihood of non-pedigree rather than pedigree cat ownership, a decreased likelihood of ad libitum access to the outdoors, cats being reported as having a ‘behavioural problem’, displaying more aggressive and anxious/fearful behavioural styles and more stress-related sickness behaviours, as well as having an ongoing medical condition and being overweight. Other owner personality traits were generally found to correlate more positively with various lifestyle, behaviour and welfare parameters. For example, higher owner Extroversion was associated with an increased likelihood that the cat would be provided ad libitum access to the outdoors; higher owner Agreeableness was associated with a higher level of owner reported satisfaction with their cat, and with a greater likelihood of owners reporting their cats as being of a normal weight. Finally higher owner Conscientiousness was associated with the cat displaying less anxious/fearful, aggressive, aloof/avoidant, but more gregarious behavioural styles. These findings demonstrate that the relationship between carer personality and the care received by a dependent, may extend beyond the human family to animal-owner relationships, with significant implications for the choice of management, behaviour and potentially the broader wellbeing of companion animals.
... Turn-taking of this sort forms a basis for communication, one in which conversational interchange becomes possible (20). Recent studies of human-cat relationships have emphasized that both the cat and the human affect and contribute to the relationship and bond involved (21,22). ...
... Yet another approach assessing personality qualities of cats generated factors using a principal components analysis based on observer ratings and behavior codings (21). Four factors involved in social interactions included active, anxious, sociable, and rough. ...
... Obtaining a kitten from a breeder or shelter seemed better than obtaining a cat that was feral, or from a newspaper ad, or other source. As previously highlighted (21,22), the cat-human relationship is affected by both participants, and these results reveal that many variables can play a role in achieving a desirable relationship for a cat and child. ...
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Although studies involving pet dogs and cats, and human adults and children, have been reported, the specific interactions between cats and children have not. This study sought information from parents about the cat's role in families that have at least one child 3–12 years of age and at least one cat. Demographic data on cat source, breed, gender/neuter status, was sought as well as information on adults and children in the families and on affectionate, aggressive, fearful, and playful responses of the cats to children. A convenience sample was recruited via listservs for pet owners and parents. Using a pilot tested web survey, descriptive statistics were based on 865 respondents. Multi-variate statistical analyses were conducted on data from 665 respondents with complete responses for all items, including respondents' locations and whether cats were adopted as kittens. Multi-variate analyses included consideration of demographic data, geographic region of respondents, behavioral characteristics of the cats, and responses of the children to the cats. From descriptive statistics, cats' affection was more typical with adults than young children. Neuter status or gender was unrelated to cats' aggression or affection. Being the family's only cat was associated with heightened aggression and reduced affection. Younger cats were more likely to be affectionate. Multivariate analysis revealed three primary factors accounting for children's compatibility with the specified cat: positive interactions of the cat, aggression/fearfulness of cat, and the cat's playfulness and children's reaction to the cats. Positive child-cat relationships were more typical with two or more adults and multiple cats in the home. Old cats were the least satisfactory. A breeder or shelter was a better source than as a feral, from a newspaper ad, or another source. European respondents rated their cats' interactions with children more favorably than in U.S./Canada. This difference may reflect the European adoptions more frequently being of kittens, often purebred, assuring more early handling within the family. A noteworthy finding was that all family participants, humans, and pets alike, affect the cat-child relationship, and these results reveal that many variables can play a role in achieving a desirable relationship for a cat and child.
... The 'Friendliness with strangers' trait shows how cats react to unknown people. Besides our results, cats' friendliness also emerged as a trait in the paper of Wedl et al (Wedl et al., 2011). Cats' age and sex did not have a significant main effect on the friendliness trait. ...
... Women were found in general to have more intense connections with their pets (Adamelli et al., 2005), their interactions involve more repeating, complex behavioral patterns (Wedl et al., 2011), and women are also more empathic with their pets (Angantyr et al., 2011). There are indications that being more empathetic and communicative has a closer evolutionary association with females (Tanner and Zihlman, 2014;Vitulli, 2006). ...
... The effect showed an asymmetryif cats were the initiators of play, the owner reported less frequent pointing cueing. Such an asymmetry in cat-human interactions was also suggested by others before (Wedl et al., 2011). In our case, the asymmetry can be the result of the different levels of attention particular owners assign to their cats. ...
Article
Although domestic cats are among the most common companion animals, we still know very little about the details of the cat-human relationship. With a questionnaire, we asked 157 Hungarian cat owners about their pet's behavior, cognitive abilities and social interactions. We analyzed the responses with PCA resulting in 11 traits. The effect of cats’ and owners’ demographic variables on the main components was further analyzed with GLM. The results showed strong similarity to the surveys performed with companion dogs, but we also found features that were mainly cat-specific. We found that women considered their cats to be more communicative and empathetic, than men did (p = 0.000). The higher education owners also considered their cat as being more communicative and empathetic (p = 0.000). We also found that owners use pointing signals more often if the cat is their only pet (p = 0.000), and otherwise they do not give verbal commands often to the cat (P = 0.001). Young owners imitated cat vocalization more often (p = 0.006); while emotional matching of the cat was more commonly reported by elderly owners (p = 0.001). The more an owner initiated playing with his/her cat, the imitation of cat vocalizations was also more common in his/her case (p = 0.001). Owners think that their cat shows stronger emotional matching if otherwise they experience human-like communicative capacity from the cat (p = 0.000). Owners use more pointing signals in the case of those cats that show attention-eliciting signals in more than one modality (p = 0.000). Owners who react to the meows of unfamiliar cats, initiated interactions more often with their own cats (p = 0.000). Owners also think that cats vocalize in every possible context, and this result was not affected significantly by any of the independent factors. Our results show that owners considered their cat as a family member, and they attributed well developed socio-cognitive skills to them. Because cats have an important role as a companion animal, it would be worthy to study cat behavior with similar thoroughness as with dogs. Our questionnaire may provide a good starting point for the empirical research of cat-human communication. The deeper understanding of cats’ socio-cognitive abilities may also help to improve cat welfare.
... In Australia, almost 53,000 cats were received by RSPCA shelters in 2014-2015, with about a third of these cats eventually euthanized [23], and in the United States, an estimated 3.4 million cats enter animal shelters annually, with about 41% of these euthanized [24]. Personality assessment may increase compatibility of cat-owner placements through shelter adoption [2], with the understanding that personality of owners also influences cat behaviour [25] and therefore ideally both personality of prospective owner and cat would be assessed for compatibility [26]. For example, people scoring high on Neuroticism may have fewer and less complex interactions with their cats [25]. ...
... Personality assessment may increase compatibility of cat-owner placements through shelter adoption [2], with the understanding that personality of owners also influences cat behaviour [25] and therefore ideally both personality of prospective owner and cat would be assessed for compatibility [26]. For example, people scoring high on Neuroticism may have fewer and less complex interactions with their cats [25]. Cat owners through use of informed management practices, such as appropriate housing, enrichment, grouping, health and wellbeing strategies related to individual cat personalities may enhance the quality of life of their cats. ...
... Early cat personality studies relied on systematic observation of cat behaviour and coding methods, which involves generating an ethogram, and then systematically recording frequency or duration of behavioural categories [16,27,28], such as a cat's responses to presentations of novel objects [29,30] or unfamiliar persons [2,31,32]. Though coding was considered to be objective [14], the subjective rating of comprehensive personality traits by people (usually carers) who know the animals well (the rating method), is now used more frequently [8,25], and is considered a more reliable, practical and time-efficient approach [33]. Following the generation of a comprehensive list of species-relevant behavioural traits [34], rating usually occurs along a Likert scale to indicate the level of trait expression generally demonstrated by the animals [16]. ...
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The idea of animals possessing personalities was once dismissed by the scientific community, but has since gained traction with evidence for potential application to improve captive animal management and welfare. Although domestic cats are popular companion animals, research has tended to overlook the value of personality assessment for management and care of pet cats. The aim of this study was to investigate personality in a large sample of pet cats with a view to understanding practical implications for pet cats in the home. Personality of 2,802 pet cats, from South Australia and New Zealand, was rated by their owners utilising a survey measuring 52 personality traits. Five reliable personality factors were found using principal axis factor analysis: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Dominance, Impulsiveness and Agreeableness. Implications for the ‘Feline Five’ are discussed in relation to their potential application to improving the management and welfare of pet cats. Highly Impulsive cats for example, may be reacting to something stressful in their environment, whereas cats with low Agreeableness scores, showing irritability may indicate underlying pain or illness. Thus, the need for a systematic and holistic approach to personality that includes both the individual pet cat and its environment is recommended, and opens the door to future interdisciplinary intervention.
... The first factor extracted in this study, which we have tentatively named Playfulness, included the items energetic, playful, quick, mischievous and curious. This component appears similar to previously defined cat personality factors labelled Active (Wedl et al., 2011) and Activity (Kaleta et al., 2016), with an 'Active' personality dimension being reported in the review by Gartner and Weiss (2013) to show reasonable convergent validity across studies. Indeed, this factor appears broadly analogous to the human personality dimension known as Extraversion. ...
... These traits are also typically well represented in personality research and resemble what might be considered neuroticism in humans (Kalat, 2011), or the relevant equivalent in hyenas (Gosling, 1998) and dogs (Ley et al., 2008(Ley et al., , 2009a. Across feline personality research, a dimension associated with timidity has been found to have quite good convergent validity, although it has been named using various terms, includ-ing Neurotic (Gartner et al., 2014), Anxious (Wedl et al., 2011) and Tense (Feaver et al., 1986). ...
... It also appears somewhat consistent with the 'Sociable' aspect of a cat's personality, which is often spoken about in relation to feline personality and which is reported to have high convergent validity across relevant studies (Gartner and Weiss, 2013) and to be associated with higher rates of cat adoption from shelters (Sinn, 2016). However, while sociable personality traits have been reported in cats by Wedl et al. (2011) andFeaver et al. (1986), the items loading on this component in the current study are more general traits, not strictly pertaining to sociability. This may be because our sample comprised privately owned companion cats, rather than a shelter-based sample similar to those used in some previous studies. ...
Article
Understanding individual behavioral differences in domestic cats could lead to improved selection when potential cat owners choose a pet with whom to share their lives, along with consequent improvements in cat welfare. Yet very few attempts have been made to elicit cat personality dimensions using the trait-based exploratory approaches applied previously, with some success, to humans and dogs. In this study, a list of over 200 adjectives used to describe cat personality was assembled. This list was refined by two focus groups. A sample of 416 adult cat owners then rated a cat they knew well on each of 118 retained words. An iterative analytical approach was used to identify 29 words which formed six personality dimensions: Playfulness, Nervousness, Amiability, Dominance, Demandingness, and Gullibility. Chronbach's alpha scores for these dimensions ranged from 0.63 to 0.8 and, together, they explained 56.08% of the total variance. Very few significant correlations were found between participant scores on the personality dimensions and descriptive variables such as owner age, cat age and owner cat-owning experience, and these were all weak to barely moderate in strength (r ≤ 0.30). There was also only one significant group difference based on cat sex. Importantly, however, several cat personality scores were moderately (r = 0.3-0.49) or strongly (r ≥ 0.5) correlated with simple measures of satisfaction with the cat, attachment, bond quality, and the extent to which the cat was perceived to be troublesome. The results suggest that, with further validation, this scale could be used to provide a simple, tick-box, assessment of an owner's perceptions regarding a cat's personality. This may be of value in both applied and research settings.
... The fact that many cat owners feel guilty about their inability to provide the level of Attention/Interaction with their cat they want suggests that they feel their cats enjoy and benefit from these interactions. Although many people believe that cats prefer to be alone and can easily be separated from their owner for extended periods of time, several studies suggest that cats form bonds with their owners (Edwards et al., 2007;Wedl et al., 2011;Eriksson et al., 2017;, demonstrate physiological reactions upon their owners' absence (Schwartz, 2002;Crowell-Davis et al., 2004;Pongrácz and Szapu, 2018), and seek contact with their owners through affiliative behaviors (Wedl et al., 2011;. As noted by Ramos et al., most cats enjoy physical contact with their owners (Ramos et al., 2013). ...
... The fact that many cat owners feel guilty about their inability to provide the level of Attention/Interaction with their cat they want suggests that they feel their cats enjoy and benefit from these interactions. Although many people believe that cats prefer to be alone and can easily be separated from their owner for extended periods of time, several studies suggest that cats form bonds with their owners (Edwards et al., 2007;Wedl et al., 2011;Eriksson et al., 2017;, demonstrate physiological reactions upon their owners' absence (Schwartz, 2002;Crowell-Davis et al., 2004;Pongrácz and Szapu, 2018), and seek contact with their owners through affiliative behaviors (Wedl et al., 2011;. As noted by Ramos et al., most cats enjoy physical contact with their owners (Ramos et al., 2013). ...
Article
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Numerous studies have found pets to have a beneficial effect on people’s psychological well-being, yet a growing body of research suggests that the positive impact of pet ownership is more complex than once thought and does not always lead to improved owner physical and mental health. One potential drawback to pet ownership is pet-related guilt. Research pertaining to work-family conflict and parental guilt has traditionally focused on human family members, yet the majority of pet owners consider their pets to be family members. Similar to parental guilt, dog-related guilt has been found to be associated with feelings of anxiety, depression, and reduced psychological health. The current study was designed to expand on dog-related guilt research by assessing cat owners. An online, anonymous, cross-sectional survey was distributed through Prolific and resulted in 604 responses for analysis. Multiple linear regression was used to predict owner depression. Gender, age, social compensatory techniques, and two guilt factors (Attention and Veterinary-related) significantly predicted depression scores. Participants’ anxiety scores, assessed with multiple linear regression, were predicted by gender, age, social compensatory techniques, and three guilt factors (Attention, Veterinary-related, and Lifestyle). Our results suggest that cat-related guilt, analogous to parental guilt, is a significant predictor of anxiety and depression. It is imperative that society recognize cat owners’ guilt, often disenfranchised; unrecognized; and unacknowledged, and help support owners’ efforts to mitigate this guilt in healthy ways.
... A person with a high level of agreeableness is generally warm, friendly, and considerate, with an optimistic view of human nature, gets along well with others, and is seen as compassionate, affectionate, and trustful (McCrae & Costa 1999) and the trait has been linked to cognitive and affective empathy (Melchers et al. 2016). Human personality traits have been found to influence the relationships people have with cats as well as cat behaviour in the home (Wedl et al. 2011;Finka et al. 2019;Finka 2022). For example, higher scores of agreeableness in cat caretakers are associated with a higher level of caretaker-reported satisfaction with their cat (Finka et al. 2019). ...
Article
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Many companion kittens entering shelters are fostered by volunteer community members during the sensitive period for socialisation (~2 to 9 weeks of age) when early experiences are critical to behavioural development. Using a mixed-method survey, we explored current fostering practices relevant to kitten behavioural development and welfare. Foster caretaker participants (n = 487) described their fostering practices and reported providing kittens with a majority of recommended socialisation experiences, such as handling and exposure to various toys and exploratory items. In open-ended text responses, foster caretakers described how they adapted socialisation practices for fearful kittens and the supports and challenges they perceived to impact their ability to properly socialise kittens. Some non-recommended techniques (e.g. flooding) were reported for socialising fearful kittens, with a decreased odds of reporting non-recommended techniques for participants with a higher level of agreeableness personality trait and an increased odds of reporting if fostering practices had been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Foster caretakers reported feeling supported through shelter-supplied resources, personal knowledge, external support, and having access to socialisation opportunities; however, faced personal (e.g. time constraints), shelter-specific (e.g. lack of shelter support), and kitten-specific challenges (e.g. kitten illness). This study highlights the perspectives of foster caretakers as related to optimal socialisation, behavioural development, and welfare. To identify opportunities for improvement it is important to investigate the socialisation guidelines provided to foster caretakers, with the ultimate goal of enhancing kitten behavioural development for improved welfare, long-term adoption, and caretaker satisfaction.
... Research does show that owners who approach their cat more often for interaction actually get less contact with them. 10 ...
... Although the proportion of women was high in this study, the sample size was too small to analyze gender differences. Additionally, the cat's personality (gender [56], characteristic temperament [57], and type of attachment toward the owner [58]) may also present a factor affecting the quality and quantity of cat-owner interactions. However, this study was not able to analyze the results for owners living with multiple cats, taking into account their relationships and interactions with individual cats. ...
Article
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Interactions with animals, including cats, is believed to influence human health. However, studies that investigate the psychological and physiological effects of interacting with cats in their household environment are limited. In this remote study, 32 cat owners in Japan participated from June to October 2021. They completed two tasks, each on separate days in their homes: one simulating daily cat communication (Interaction condition) and another with no interactions (Rest condition). We quantified emotions (arousal level and pleasure level) before and after each condition using the Two-Dimensional Mood Scale Short-term as well as salivary cortisol and oxytocin levels of owners using enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assay. Autonomic nervous activity (sympathetic and parasympathetic) was also quantified by heart rate variability analysis. The free interaction with cats decreased emotional arousal and parasympathetic activity, and lead to increased heart rates in owners. There was a positive correlation between heart rate and cortisol concentration, and between cortisol and oxytocin concentration. Furthermore, the frequency of petting the cats was negatively correlated with the rate of change in the parasympathetic activity. In contrast, the parasympathetic nerves in the owners were activated under the Rest condition. Hence, the mechanism of health-enhancing effects of cat ownership includes an arousing effect, in contrast to the previously proposed stress-reduction effect. This result can aid in future developments in cat–human relationship studies. However, a detailed study with a larger sample size is needed to draw definite conclusions.
... Currently, the assessment of personality traits in domestic cats is most often based on surveys of people familiar with the animals, usually their owners (Bradshaw, 2016;Wedl et al., 2011), as this is both a reliable and time-efficient method (Bennett et al., 2017). ...
Article
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The domestic cat, Felis catus, is one of the most popular and widespread domestic animals. Because domestic cats can reach high population densities and retain at least some tendency to hunt, their overall impact on wildlife can be severe. Domestic cats have highly variable predation rates depending on the availability of prey in their environment, their owners' practices, and individual cat characteristics. Among these characteristics, cat personality has recently been hypothesized to be an important factor contributing to variations in the hunting activity of cats. In this study, we surveyed 2508 cat owners living in France about their cats' personalities, using the Feline Five personality framework, and the frequency with which cats bring home prey. Personality traits were analyzed using factor analysis and related to predation frequency using cumulative logit models. For both birds and small mammals, cats with high levels of extraversion or low levels of neuroticism had significantly higher frequencies of prey return. Owners whose cats had low levels of agreeableness or high levels of dominance reported a significantly lower frequency of bird return. Personality differences therefore seem to contribute to the high variability in predation rates among domestic cats. We also found that the owner-reported prey return frequencies were significantly higher for cats spending more time outdoors, for non-pedigree cats, and for owners living in rural or suburban areas as opposed to urban areas. By contrast, we did not detect an effect of cat sex or age on their reported prey return rates.
... Presently, in behavioral ecology studies, personality traits are usually estimated with the following approaches (Freeman et al., 2011): behavioral coding in which behavioral observation data are collected by researchers in either natural (i) or experimental settings (ii), and trait assessments (iii) in which the people who know the animal complete a survey describing the degree to which it shows particular personality traits. In domestic cats, although the first studies tended to use behavioral coding (Gartner et al., 2013), personality trait assessments based on a survey of the people familiar with the animals, usually their owners, are now more common (Wedl et al., 2011;Bradshaw et al., 2016), as they are both a reliable and time-efficient method (Bennett et al., 2017). These studies (reviewed in Gartner et al., 2013;Vitale Shreve et al., 2015;Mikkola et al., 2021) usually produced between one and seven personality factors, with the three most common factors being the personality traits of sociable, dominant, and curious, albeit with varying names. ...
Preprint
The domestic cat, Felis catus, is one of the most popular and widespread domestic animals. Because domestic cats can reach high population densities and retain at least some tendency to hunt, their overall impact on wildlife can be severe. Domestic cats have highly variable predation rates depending on the availability of prey in their environment, their owners’ practices, and individual cat characteristics. Among these characteristics, cat personality has recently been hypothesized to be an important factor contributing to variations in the hunting activity of cats. In this study, we used surveys of 2,508 cat owners living in France to collect information about cat personalities using the Feline Five personality model and about the frequency with which the cats bring home prey. For both birds and rodents, cats with high levels of extraversion or low levels of neuroticism had significantly higher frequencies of prey return. Owners whose cats had low levels of agreeableness or high levels dominance reported a significantly lower frequency of bird return. Personality differences therefore seem to contribute to the high variability in predation rates between domestic cats. We also found that the owner-reported prey return frequencies were significantly higher for cats spending more time outdoors, for non-pedigree cats, and for owners living in rural or suburban areas as opposed to urban areas. By contrast, we did not detect an effect of cat sex or age on their reported prey return rates.
... Other influential studies have focused on analyzing the relationships of T-Patterns with different mental conditions and intra-individual and intergroup processing. These studies have focused on various topics, such as social interaction in infants (Magnusson, 2020a), pervasive growth disorders (Willemsen-Swinkels et al., 2000), behavioral symptoms of dementia (Woods and Yefimova, 2014), self-directed speech and non-verbal behavior (Kuvalja et al., 2014), language and behavior patterns (Blanchet et al., 2005), stressors and routine tasks (Su et al., 2013), effectiveness and interactions in teams (Zijlstra et al., 2012), human-cat interactions (Wedl et al., 2011), and human-robot interactions (Jonsson and Thorisson, 2010). ...
Article
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In recent years, research interest in human and non-human behavioral analysis has increased significantly. One key element in the resulting studies is the use of software that facilitates comparative analysis of behavioral patterns, such as using T-Pattern and T-String analysis -TPA- with THEME. Furthermore, all these studies use mixed methods research. Results from these studies have indicated a certain amount of similarity between the biological, temporal, and spatial patterns of human social interactions and the interactions between the contents of their constituent cells. TPA has become an important, widely-used technique in applied behavioral science research. The objectives of the current review were: (1) To identify the results of research over the last 4 years related to the concepts of T-Pattern, TPA, and THEME, since it is in this period in which more publications on these topics have been detected (2) To examine the key concepts and areas in the selected articles with respect to those concepts, applying data and text mining techniques. The results indicate that, over the last 4 years, 20% of the studies were laboratory focused with non-humans, 18% were in sports environments, 9% were in psychological therapy environments and 9% were in natural human contexts. There were also indications that TPA is beginning to be used in workplace environments, which is a very promising setting for future research in this area.
... Owners with cats may have a closer relationship with their cats than those with dogs [44]. Women generally are more likely to choose cats as pets than men, indicating that gender contributes to preferring cats [45]. This current study found that men who had chosen to acquire dogs were feeling less alone and sad and better supported than other participants, results that are consistent with them being more extroverted and likely to prefer dogs. ...
Article
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Long-term HIV/AIDS survivors responded online concerning their experiences during the AIDS and COVID pandemics. Recruited from web-based organizations for AIDS survivors, 147 answered questions on: frequency of experiencing stigma, isolation, aloneness, or grief/sadness; pet ownership; and sources of human support during each pandemic. Conditional inference trees were run to identify relevant demographic factors. Post-hoc comparisons were conducted to compare dog owners and cat owners. AIDS survivors reported more frequent feelings of stigma, aloneness, and sadness/grief during the AIDS pandemic than during COVID. Cat owners’ sadness/grief during AIDS was greater than non-owners. During COVID, older respondents unexpectedly were less often sad/grieving than younger ones; dog owners less often felt alone and isolated than non-dog owners. Support during the AIDS pandemic retrospectively was rated better for older respondents; young gays’ support was greater than young straights. During COVID, support was better for men than women. Contrastingly, women with pets felt less support than those without; men with dogs felt more support than those without. Cat owners more often felt isolated and unsupported during COVID than dog owners. Few dog or cat owners received support from family members in either pandemic; during AIDS, family support was better for owners of dogs than cats.
... , 2010 ;Freiwald et al., 2014 ). Owners in previous studies commonly reported human-pet closeness to be very similar to the bond between family members ( Heidenberger, 1997 ;Wedl et al., 2011 ;Buller and Ballantyne, 2020 ). Therefore, a possible justification could be the methodology used, that may have biased the level of emotional closeness, in this case, upwards. ...
Article
Evidence supports that cats’ behavior influences the level of emotional closeness between the animals and the owners. In some circumstances, a bad relationship can result in neglecting, mistreating, or abandoning the animal. We aimed to assess the level of emotional closeness between the owners and their cats in Brazil, evaluate some specific human-cat interactions based on the cat-owner relationship scale (CORS), and to evaluate the association between the owner's level of emotional closeness and the presence of unacceptable behavior in Brazilian cats. A cross-sectional study design was used to selected Brazilian cat owners through snowball sampling in social networks. Owners answered an online survey adapted from the (CORS) containing additional questions regarding the cat-owner environment and behavior. Five hundred owners answered the survey, and the mean cat-owner level of emotional closeness in our population was 3.94 ± 0.66. Most of the interviewees were female, and the level of emotional closeness was higher in this group than in male owners. As expected, factors such as having other pets, attributing more characteristics to the animal, and frequent visits to the veterinarian were directly associated with a higher level of emotional closeness by the owner. No association was found between the owner's emotional closeness level and the presence of aggression, excessive vocalization, or inappropriate elimination in the cat. Surprisingly, owners of cats that do not scratch the furniture had a lower level of emotional closeness compared to those reporting this inappropriate behavior. In summary, the human-cat emotional bond in our Brazilian cohort was considered medium to high. Our study adds new insights into cat-human emotional bonds and confirms this interaction in Brazil.
... meows; Nicastro 2004) based on human perceptual biases. Moreover, there is now compelling evidence that cats may display distinct attachment styles towards human caregivers (Edwards et al. 2007;Vitale et al. 2019; but see Potter and Mills 2015) and may develop complex idiosyncratic and time-structured interactions (Wedl et al. 2011). Cats follow visual cues given by humans (pointing with arm: Miklósi et al. 2005; cueing with gazing: Pongrácz et al. 2019), are able to reproduce actions demonstrated by a human model (Fugazza et al. 2020) and they can also recognize auditory stimuli of their owner (Saito and Shinozuka 2013). ...
Chapter
Companion animals are purposely included in various therapeutic/activity programmes also known as Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI). These are receiving growing attention in the fields of nursing, medicine and psychotherapy because of their potential to complement classic therapeutical approaches and to foster health and wellbeing in the general population. Based on current knowledge in the field, this chapter examines the potential for domesticated animals, such as dogs, for providing emotional and physical opportunities to enrich the lives of many frail subjects. Overall an ever increasing research effort has been put forward to search for the mechanisms that lie behind the human-animal bond, such as animal cuteness, as well as to provide standardised methodologies for a cautious and effective use of AAI, taking into account animal welfare. The impact of this knowledge on different disciplines will be briefly described, also considering the concept of “one-health” and how this applies to reciprocal interactions, such as those between human and non-human animals.KeywordsAnimal-assisted interventionsPet animalsDogCatOne-health
... This may be related evidence that women may be more empathetic due to a greater 317 anatomical and functional development of certain areas of the brain that are involved in 318 communication and empathy (Pongrácz and Szapu, 2018;Wedl et al., 2011). However, 319 female students' scores on dog stress perception were not different from male classmates stress, while men were more able to identify subtle behavioural indicators of stress, such 322 as low activity or low appetite (Mariti et al., 2012). ...
Article
Veterinarians’ perceptions of animal stress influence their practice. Therefore, the aim of this research was to evaluate how veterinary students perceive stress in dogs. Two hundred and eighteen 4th year veterinary students of the University of Cordoba (Spain) participated in the study. An online questionnaire measuring veterinary students’ perceptions of behavioral indicators of stress in dogs, their attachment to pets, and demographic measures (e.g. pet ownership, student gender) was administered to participants in university classes. Data show that veterinary students easily identified some stress indicators such as stereotypical behaviors, excessive barking and aggressiveness, but they were less likely to identify yawning, low activity and paw raising as indicators of stress. Understanding the basis of stress and having a companion animal influenced stress identification but participants’ gender, and attachment level to their pets, had no effect on ability to identify canine stress indicators. Misunderstandings about canine behavior might influence veterinary students’ ability to recognize subtle stress signs in dogs. However, a good understanding of the psycho-physiological basis of stress and personal experiences of dog ownership were associated with greater ability to identify behavioral stress signs in dogs, suggesting that additional training in canine stress might be beneficial for student veterinarians.
... The principles of approach tests have been applied to other group of tests, which aim to reveal cats' personalities. Studies show that many aspects of a cat's individuality are stable over time [152]; this fact has led and continues to lead to new studies on the temperament of cats [116,[161][162][163][164][165][166][167] and on development of tools for assessing the temperament of cats in shelters (Feline Temperament Profile (FTP) [50], ASPCA ® 's Meet Your Match ® Feline-ality™ [168] and its modifications [169,170] and other alternatives of testing [171]). Testing of cats' personalities contributes to the improvement of welfare as it increases the chance of compatibility between the lifestyle of the new family and temperament of cats, which leads to a reduction in the numbers of cats that are returned to the shelter [50]. ...
Article
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At any moment, there are millions of cats housed in foster care facilities for abandoned and stray animals for various reasons worldwide. Care, management and regulation among these facilities differ. Moreover, shelters can never substitute the full comfort of a good home for the animal, and the welfare of cats in shelters is a subject of discussion in many respects. Cats are animals sensitive to changes; for most of them, placement in a shelter is a stressful experience because of changes in routine, environment and the presence of other animals. Stress is reflected in changes in behaviour, causes fluctuations in physiological values and disrupts the immune system, which is a predisposition to the development or reactivation of disease. Evaluation of the presence and intensity of negative impacts is possible through the use of evaluation tools based on indicators that help set the environment and management of keeping so as to disrupt the quality of life as little as possible. Although a comprehensive and valid welfare tool that would evaluate animal-based and at the same time resource-based (or management-based) indicators of cats in shelters is not currently available, it is possible to use partial evaluation of individual welfare indicators to assess welfare. This review aims to provide the readers with an insight into current options of assessment of the welfare of cats in shelters with an emphasis on behavioural, physiological and health indicators with an application in both practical and scientific contexts.
... When several of these behaviours correlate across contexts, they can be characterized as a behavioural syndrome [12,14,15]. The most common methods used to study individual differences in behaviour in the cat include observation [16,17], owner surveys [18,19] and behavioural tests [20,21]. The latter have the advantage that they can be used to evaluate and quantify the stability of individual differences across repeated standardised testing. ...
Article
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Consistent inter-individual differences in behaviour have been previously reported in adult shelter cats. In this study, we aimed to assess whether repeatable individual differences in behaviours exhibited by shelter cats in different situations were interrelated, forming behavioural syndromes. We tested 31 adult cats in five different behavioural tests, repeated three times each: a struggle test where an experimenter restrained the cat, a separation/confinement test where the cat spent 2 min in a pet carrier, a mouse test where the cat was presented with a live mouse in a jar, and two tests where the cat reacted to an unfamiliar human who remained either passive or actively approached the cat. Individual differences in behaviour were consistent (repeatable) across repeated trials for each of the tests. We also found associations between some of the behaviours shown in the different tests, several of which appeared to be due to differences in human-oriented behaviours. This study is the first to assess the presence of behavioural syndromes using repeated behavioural tests in different situations common in the daily life of a cat, and which may prove useful in improving the match between prospective owner and cat in shelter adoption programmes.
... The main reason for the tests in cats failing to detect bonds might be the different type of territoriality: A cat being tested in an unfamiliar room away from home tends to behave rather cautiously and less confidant than a dog. When looking at results by Wedl et al. (2011), who videographed cat owners and their cats at home, there indeed were subtle types of non-random behavioural synchronization/interaction patterns. ...
Article
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Introduction: Attachment to pets has been shown to impact pet owners' (PO) physical health and quality of life. As no instrument for obtaining this kind of data currently exists in German, translating and validating the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS) was the aim of this study. Method: Online and paper-pencil questionnaires were used. LAPS and socio-demographic data were recorded. Subjects were recruited via social media and with the help of the Verband für das deutsche Hundewesen (VDH) and one other association. A second trial was performed to examine test-retest reliability for the online questionnaire at least five days after initial completion. Results: Internal consistency is high for the total LAPS score (Cronbach's = .89). Test-retest reliability is high for total LAPS score (ICC = .95; 95 % CI = .94, .96; p < .001). A significant negative correlation was found between age of the subject and total LAPS score (r =-.24, p < .001). Women scored significantly higher than men in total LAPS score (p = .008, d =-.36) and dog owners (DO) scored higher than cat owners (CO) (p = .020, d = .23). Further, significant differences have been found when comparing among PO to their level of educational attainment (p < .001, ω = .21). No significant differences between owners of pure-bred and owners of mixed breed pets to their animals were found. Conclusion: The German translation of the LAPS is a reliable instrument and can be used for future research.
... T-pattern analysis is another method that explores the underlying structures and temporal themes of behavioral sequences (Casarrubea et al., 2015), and has been applied to foraging behavior (Hemerik et al., 2006), courtship (Arthur and Magnusson, 2005), and anxiety-related behaviors (Casarrubea et al., 2010). Wedl et al. (2011) used T-pattern analysis to assess the complexity and frequency of interactions between cats and their owners. ...
Article
Although attention to domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus) behavior and cognition has increased in recent years, numerous questions remain regarding their play. Few studies have included play as a variable of interest, and to the best of our knowledge no behavioral studies focusing on cat play have been published in the last 15 years, and there is no recent review of our current understanding of its development, behavioral components, function, or outstanding research questions. This is despite the accessibility of the cat as a convenient model for more difficult to study members of the Carnivora, as recognized by pioneering studies of cat play in the 1970s and 1980s. We address this gap by reviewing and synthesizing the existing literature on play development, identifying and discussing eliciting factors and possible functions of play in cats. Additionally, we conducted an extensive review of the literature to identify how play has been operationalized in peer-reviewed publications (N = 46). We identified 138 behaviors measured in these studies, with 84 of them unique behavioral labels. Our findings demonstrate the diversity—and sometimes commonalities—of descriptions of play behavior across these studies, while highlighting the challenge of inconsistent operationalization of cat play in the literature. We conclude by proposing and exploring several open questions and offering suggestions for future research, particularly related to pet cats.
... In addition, owners who score low on emotional stability, agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness have problematic relationships with their dogs (Dodman, Brown, & Serpell, 2018). Owner neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness have also been found to affect temporal patterning of human and cat behaviour, and thus the owner-cat relationship (Wedl et al., 2011). The relative influence of both the owner and cat personality on owner satisfaction has not been investigated in previous research, which is something that we aim to do in the current study. ...
Article
Pet animals, and the quality of the owner-pet relationship, have an important impact on owners' lives. Further, similarity of owner-pet personality may impact on owner satisfaction though this has not been investigated in relation to cats. In the current study, cat owners (N = 126) completed a two section questionnaire. The owner section assessed three of the Big Five traits (agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism), dominance, impulsiveness, the Dark Triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy), and owner satisfaction with their cat. The pet section assessed the Feline Five (agreeableness, dominance, extraversion, impulsiveness, neuroticism). Positive associations were identified between owner and pet dominance and owner and pet impulsivity. Higher owner dominance also positively correlated with cat extraversion, impulsivity, and neuroticism and owner Dark Triad traits were positively correlated with cat dominance, impulsivity, and neuroticism. None of the owner personality traits related to satisfaction with the cat. Overall, owners were more satisfied with cats high in agreeableness and low in neuroticism. Dissimilarity in owner dominance and cat agreeableness, and owner impulsivity and cat agreeableness were correlated with higher satisfaction. Satisfaction was also positively associated with similarity in scores for owner Dark Triad and cat agreeableness. Future research is recommended, focusing on matching of non-identical personality traits.
... Overall, these researches do clearly demonstrate that TPA is a flexible, robust and reliable tool to study the behaviour of animals in various experimental assays and in very different contexts. The study of activity in birds has been, probably, one of the very first application of TPA in animal behaviour research (Martaresche et al., 2000;Merlet et al., 2005;Hocking et al., 2007;Brilot et al., 2009) with papers published also in relatively more recent years Bateson, 2012, 2013); in an interesting research, TPA has been utilized to study movement patterns in the Atlantic cod (Jonsson et al., 2010); various applications of TPA investigated behaviour of insects such as drosophila, embioptera and parasitoid (Hemerik et al., 2006;Arthur and Magnusson, 2005;Dejan et al., 2013); TPA has also been utilized to study the behaviour of freely moving wolves in their environment (Yachmennikova and Poyarkov, 2011), the interaction between dog and human (Kerepesi et al., 2005(Kerepesi et al., , 2006 and between cat and human (Wedl et al., 2011). Finally, a consistent amount of papers has utilized TPA to study various aspects of rodent behaviour. ...
Article
Background: The behaviour of all living beings consists of hidden patterns in time; consequently, its nature and its underlying dynamics are intrinsically difficult to be perceived and detected by the unaided observer. Method: Such a scientific challenge calls for improved means of detection, data handling and analysis. By using a powerful and versatile technique known as T-pattern detection and analysis (TPA) it is possible to unveil hidden relationships among the behavioural events in time. Results: TPA is demonstrated to be a solid and versatile tool to study the deep structure of behaviour in different experimental contexts, both in human and non human subjects. Conclusion: This review deepens and extends contents recently published by adding new concepts and examples concerning the applications of TPA in the study of behaviour both in human and non-human subjects.
... Importantly, even if cats generally are not securely attached to their owner, other styles of attachments (ambivalent and avoidant) deserve to be further investigated in order to increase our knowledge about the cathuman relationship [18]. That cats are important social partners for many owners and that humans seem also to be important for many pet cats was explored by Wedl et al. [19], who found temporal patterns in interactions between cats and their owners. They interpret their finding, that social interaction patterns varied according to a few major factors thought to influence the relationship quality (e.g. ...
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Little is known about the cat’s (Felis silvestris catus) need for human contact, although it is generally believed that cats are more independent pets than e.g. dogs. In this study, we investigated the effect of time left alone at home on cat behaviour (e.g. social and distress-related) before, during and after separation from their owner. Fourteen privately owned cats (single-housed) were each subjected to two treatments: the cat was left alone in their home environment for 30 min (T0.5) and for 4 h (T4). There were no differences between treatments in the behaviour of the cat (or owner) before owner departure, nor during the first 5 min of separation. During separation, cats were lying down resting proportionally less (T = 22.5, P = 0.02) in T0.5 (0.27±0.1 (mean±SE)) compared to in T4 (0.58±0.08), probably due to a similar duration of higher activity early in the separation phase in both treatments. Comparisons of the time interval (min 20–25) in both treatments indicated no differences across treatments, which supports such an explanation. Towards the end of the separation phase (the last two 5-min intervals of separation in both treatments), no differences were observed in the cats’ behaviour, indicating that cats were unaffected by separation length. At reunion however, cats purred more (T = 10.5, P = 0.03) and stretched their body more (T = 17, P = 0.04) after a longer duration of separation (T4:0.05±0.02; 0.03±0.01; T0.5: 0.01±0.007; 0.008±0.003). Also, owners initiated more verbal contact (T = 33.5, P = 0.04) after 4 h (0.18±0.05) compared to after 30 min (0.12±0.03). There was no evidence of any correlations between the level of purring or body stretching by the cat and verbal contact by the owner implying that the behavioural expressions seen in the cats are independent of the owner’s behaviour. Hence, it seemed as cats coped well with being left alone, but they were affected by the time they were left alone, since they expressed differences in behaviour when the owner returned home. The increased level of social contact initiated by the cats after a longer duration of separation indicates a rebound of contact-seeking behaviour, implying that the owner is an important part of the cat’s social environment.
... In particular, the results of the study by Wedl et al. (2011), again combining ethological observations of interactions in the home setting with psychological personality assessments (five cat personality axes identified by PCA on the behavioral data; owner personality assessment by NEO-FFI), take investigation of these questions to a higher level than in the past. The PCA identified four cat personality axes very similar to those determined by Feaver et al. (1986) and others. ...
Article
This review article covers research conducted over the last three decades on cat-human and human-cat interactions and relationships, especially from an ethological point of view. It includes findings on cat-cat and cat-human communication, cat personalities and cat-owner personalities, the effects of cats on humans, and problems caused by cats.
... Behaviour scoring systems have been developed for use as instruments to assess painful conditions; 1,3,5,13,14 to identify feral cats; 15 to evaluate response to stressors; 4,6,7,9,16 to evaluate response to clinical behaviour therapy; 2 and to evaluate the response to locomotor environment enrichment. 17 Caged cats have been studied during long-term periods with particular emphasis on their temperament and welfare within these living conditions. ...
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We evaluated behavioural changes in domestic cats during short-term hospitalisation using a novel cat demeanour scoring system. Thirty-five healthy, client-owned cats admitted for neutering were enrolled. Cats were housed in a standardised cat ward for a short-term hospitalisation period (3–5 days) and demeanour scores were recorded once daily. The scoring system classified cats into one of five behavioural groupings: friendly and confident, friendly and shy, withdrawn and protective, withdrawn and aggressive, and overtly aggressive. Total demeanour score decreased over time (P <0.001) and the demeanour category improved (P <0.001). The intra-class correlation was 0.843 (P <0.001) and kappa was 0.606 (P <0.001), suggesting good repeatability and agreement among investigators. The demeanour scoring system was effective in detecting a change in behaviour in healthy cats undergoing short-term hospitalisation. The findings suggest that healthy cats require 2 days to acclimatise to hospitalisation. 10.1177/1098612X13509081
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Introduction Scientific literature contains mainly systematic reviews focused on substantial aspects, but there are also approaches that have combined both substantial and methodological aspects, which is our preferred option since it undeniably adds value. The aims of this study were: (1) to carry out a systematic review of the literatura on T-Pattern analysis (TPA), and (2) to explore the possible contribution of mixed methods research to the integration of qualitative and quantitative elements on a synthesis level. Methods Based on PRISMA guidelines, searches were carried out in the Scopus, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases. The general search syntax was: “THEME” AND (“T-Patterns” OR “T Patterns”) carried out in title, keywords and abstract. In addition, we included empirical articles on THEME and T-Patterns collected in other sources based on citations in several empirical works and consultations with different authors. This selection process resulted in 125 primary documents making up this systematic review. Results The results showed that the detection of structures in behavior patterns forms a nexus between studies carried out in very diverse fields and contexts. Most studies are observational, whilst the applicability and power of T-Pattern detection are extraordinary. It allows the researcher to go deeper in a robust analysis that responds to the integration of qualitative and quantitative elements which constitutes the leit motive of mixed methods; and also to discover the deep, hidden structure that underlies the respective databases, regardless of the methodology used in each study. The possibilities in assigning parameters notably increase the options for obtaining results and their interpretation. Discussion It is relevant the extraordinary strength and applicability of T-pattern detection. There is a high presence of T-pattern detection and analysis in studies using observational methodology. It is necessary commit to consolidating the methodological analysis of selected works, as taking individual and collective responsibility for improving methodological quality of TPA studies, taking advantage of the resources provided by the THEME program.
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Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA) is used to assess animals' emotional expressions and its potential for serving as an indicator of temperament has been explored. This method is open to assessors' interpretation and it is therefore necessary to evaluate the observers' reliability for different species and contexts. We aimed to assess the intra- and inter-observer reliability of QBA as an indicator of cat ( Felis catus ) temperament. The QBA was applied by 19 observers with divergent profiles of contact with cats (cat owners vs non-owners) and experience in behavioural assessment (experienced vs inexperienced). Forty-two, 12-min videos were assessed, composed of footage of four behavioural tests: unfamiliar person, novel object, conspecific reaction, and food offering tests. By using Principal Component Analysis, we found three principal components (PC) that were considered the main dimensions of cat temperament. According to Kendall's coefficient of concordance, intra-observer reliability was high to very high in PC1 (0.80–0.90) and moderate to high in PC2 and PC3 (0.50–0.82). Inter-observer reliability for the 19 observers was high in PC1 (0.71) and low in PC2 and PC3 (0.21–0.29). The individual concordances with the gold observer (defined based on greater experience with the QBA) ranged from moderate to high. We concluded that QBA could be a reliable tool to assess cat temperament, given the high values of intra- and inter-observer reliabilities in PC1, which is the dimension that most explains the behavioural variations in the cats' temperament. The same did not occur for PC2 and PC3, showing that reliability varied among the different dimensions and observers.
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Cats are unique amongst domestic species in that they have evolved from a solitary ancestral species to become one of the most beloved household pets today. Interestingly the cat's physical appearance and sensory systems remain almost identical to their wild counterparts. Recognition of the perceptual parameters allows us to better understand how the domestic cat responds to environment and communicates with social partners. Sociality is unequivocally the aspect of feline life most affected by the domestication process. Cats can display a wide range of social behaviors, and evidence indicates that early exposure to a variety of social and environmental stimuli is the most important postnatal factor for a well‐adjusted life in a domestic setting and resiliency to basic stressors. By gaining an understanding of feline natural behavior, communication, learning, and cognition, shelter staff can provide cats with an ideal environment, change unwanted behaviors, and improve the welfare of our cats.
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Objectives: Visiting the veterinarian is generally perceived as a stressful situation for cats. Previous studies have shown that the perception of stress may influence cats' healthcare. In order to minimise stress in cats during the veterinary consultation, feline-friendly handling has gained importance and is increasingly being used. The aim of this study was to find out whether cats experience stress during a visit to the veterinarian (and, if so, to what extent), and which factors influence the perception of stress and whether feline-friendly handling techniques have an impact. Methods: An online survey was conducted among German cat owners. In total, 889 questionnaires were evaluated. The results were analysed with binary logistic regression and a χ² test. A principal component analysis was used to detect the main influencing factors on the perception of stress. Results: Most of the cats (88.7%, n = 732/825) were perceived as stressed during a veterinary consultation, while only about half of the owners (50.8%, n = 419/824) stated that they felt stressed themselves. The cat owners (n = 819) who perceived visiting the veterinarian as a stressful situation also described their cat as stressed significantly more often compared with owners who did not feel stressed (χ² = 101.113, P <0.001). The probability that owners experienced stress themselves was significantly increased if they perceived their cat to be stressed too (odds ratio 0.073, 95% confidence interval 0.016-0.328). One factor that influenced whether an owner was stressed was the stress behaviour of their cat (P <0.001). Furthermore a feline-friendly demeanour by the veterinarian led to less stress in the owners (P <0.001). Conclusions and relevance: The owner's stress influences the perception of their cat's stress. By adhering to feline-friendly handling guidelines, veterinarians can reduce owner stress associated with veterinary visits, thereby promoting optimal veterinary care and health for their feline patients.
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The importance of animals' experiences and associated comfort during Human-Animal Interactions (HAI), and particularly Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI), are increasingly recognised. However, there remains a paucity of published research, particularly concerning less formal but frequent HAIs to which companion animals are typically exposed, such as stroking or petting. Additionally, few practical evidence-based guides to facilitate humans' optimal animal handling and interaction in these contexts exist. A simple set of Human-Cat Interaction (HCI) guidelines were therefore created, with the aim to enhance domestic cats' comfort during generic HCI contexts. Based around a “CAT” acronym, guidelines focused on providing the cat with choice and control (“C”), paying attention (“A”) to the cats' behaviour and body language and limiting touch (“T”), primarily to their temporal regions. Guidelines were presented to human participants during a brief training intervention, and guideline efficacy was subsequently assessed. Domestic cats available for rehoming at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, UK (n = 100) were filmed during interactions with novel members of the public (n = 120). Cats were exposed to a maximum of six, 5-min interaction sessions, balanced across “control” (interactions with humans pre-training) and “intervention” conditions (interactions with humans post-training). For each observation, cat behaviour and posture were coded and humans' cat-directed behaviour rated on the degree to which it reflected best practise principles. Data were extracted from a total of 535 observations and average human interaction ratings and cat behaviour values compared between control and intervention conditions via paired Wilcoxon tests. Compared to the control, humans' interaction styles were rated as significantly more closely aligned with best-practise principles in the intervention condition. Cats also displayed significantly greater frequencies and/or durations of affiliative and positively-valenced behaviours in the intervention. In contrast, cats in the control displayed significantly greater frequencies of human-directed aggression, in addition to greater frequencies and/or durations of behaviours associated with conflict and negative valence. Results demonstrate the positive impact of practical interaction guidelines on cats' social behaviour and comfort during HCI, with the potential to improve cats' general experiences during interactions, reduce human-directed aggression and ultimately improve cat-human relationships.
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Cats are one of the world’s most populous companion animals, yet little is known about how the home environment is adapted relative to their needs. Outdoor access is thought to be beneficial for both the physical and mental wellbeing of cats, yet as urbanisation increases, reducing owner access to outdoor spaces, an increasing number of cats are kept strictly indoors. The impact of an indoor lifestyle on feline behaviour and welfare is little explored and poorly understood. This study used a systematic review to assess scientifically validated knowledge concerning social and physical environments and their implications for indoor cats. A total of 61 papers were analysed. Only n = 21 papers directly addressed at-home indoor scenarios with the remainder consisting of shelter/cattery (n = 27) or laboratory (n = 16) (some papers explored multiple environments). Across studies there was little evidence of rigour or systematically controlled approaches. Methods frequently used were cat-stress-scores (CSS) and ethograms, neither of which were consistently standardised, substantially reducing the ability to compare findings among studies. Numerous studies explored similar variables (i.e. provision of hiding space (n = 9)) yielding little additional knowledge. Measures of welfare and behaviour were often assessed using single parameters in controlled environments. Although this may be useful and applicable to cat experiences within shelters, catteries and laboratories, the findings do not necessarily translate to dynamic and variable household environments. Major findings include the benefits of enrichment such as hiding boxes and vertical resting spaces, as often recommended by veterinarians and feline charities. However, other advice provided, such as the provision of feeding enrichment for psychological welfare, although not necessarily disputed, appears to be scientifically untested. Additionally, despite the social environment being likely to have a substantial effect on cat welfare, it is particularly under-studied in the home, especially in terms of its complexity (e.g. presence of young children or dogs). Overall, the review identified substantial gaps relative to cat experiences and welfare in multifactorial home environments. Understanding the impact of indoor lifestyles and promoting mechanisms to minimise any negative impacts whilst promoting positive ones, remains an important, yet underexplored, area of research.
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This chapter focuses on the behavioral development of cats. Evolving from solitary predators, the communication behavior of cats has functioned to maintain comfortable spacing with their conspecifics. The process of domestication and the tendency for cats to gather in greater density around reliable sources of food and shelter has modified some of these behaviors as domestic cats have evolved a more flexible social structure. Aspects of cat behavior are a result of descent from a solitary carnivore that has undergone selection to evolve as a domestic animal with a flexible social structure. Their social structure is flexible based on the circumstances and a range of agonistic, defensive, and affiliative behaviors are employed to manage access to resources and contact with other cats. The chapter presents some common situations where cats may engage in aggressive behavior toward other cats, other animals, or humans, focusing on the various types of aggression of cats.
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Our study evaluated the effects on the prefrontal cortex, especially the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), of people when touching and stroking a real or soft toy cat, using functional near infrared spectroscopy. Thirty under-graduate students (10 males, 20 females) were recruited and performed three tactile tasks with a real cat and a soft toy cat using their right hand. They also filled in the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM), to measure their emotional responses, and the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, to assess their personalities. During the tactile interactions with the real cat, the integral values of oxygenated hemoglobin in the left IFG of the females were significantly greater than in the males. The valence scores of the SAM after the real cat-associated tasks in females were significantly higher than after the toy cat-associated tasks. Additionally, the number of times the females stroked the real cat was significantly positively correlated with the activation levels of the left IFG and the valence scores of the SAM. The activation levels of the left IFG in females were also positively correlated with neuroticism when stroking the real cat. Thus, in females, especially those with higher levels of neuroticism, touching/stroking the cat improved their mood. The effects of interacting with a cat may be different between the genders.
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The study of personality or temperament is well developed in many species, but in domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) it has lagged behind. We applied one common methodology, subjective surveys, performed by their owners, to investigate the dimensions of cat temperament. To do this, we developed an eighteen question survey covering common behavioral traits of cats, and had the evaluators rank their cat on a seven point Likert scale for trait. The responses were analyzed with factor analysis, and resulted in six significant dimensions of temperament across the 251 surveys. The six dimensions, in order of importance, are: Cat Social, Active, Human Nonsocial, Human Aggressive, and Intense. Supplemental questions were also included in all the surveys, and MANOVA analysis of these showed that outdoor usage, feeding style (ad-lib vs. meal fed), living with other cats, sex, duration of ownership, and previous history as a stray all had effects on at least one of the dimensions of cat temperament. Future work is clearly needed to fully validate our model and to further investigate our findings.
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There is widespread acceptance of animal assisted therapy among the public, researchers, and clinicians. In this commentary, I argue that despite hundreds of published studies, there is actually limited evidence for the efficacy of the incorporation of animals in the treatment of medical and mental disorders. As others have pointed out, AAT studies frequently suffer from lack of appropriate control groups, no assessments of long-term effectiveness, and small sample sizes. Here I discuss additional problems that compromise the validity of AAT research. These include a bias toward the publication of positive results, the selective reporting of outcome measures, putting misleading “spin” on negative and null findings, inflated type I statistical errors (e.g., false positives), and the impact of investigator expectancies.
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Affects and their conscious representations, emotions, are the central agents of social organization in humans and non-human animals. These are bio-psychological phenomena with morphological and physiological substrates, with evolutionary functions, modulated in ontogeny and conservatively preserved in evolutionary history. Emotions “motivate” social interactions/relationships and emotionality is directly linked with basic physiology, particularly with the stress systems and also, with the most important “anti-stress” complex in mammals, the oxytocin-attachment system, which has also a major role in bonding. Emotional phenotype (“temperament”) affects social connectedness and finally, fitness in complex social systems. And there is also a clear link to social cognition, as affects are involved in virtually any decision made by the relevant brain centers in mammals and birds. Finally, the communication of emotions and satisfying each others emotional need is also at the core of human–animal relationships, which may be considered as ­indirect evidence for common principles of social organization.
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The following paper introduces a new approach to the analysis of sports performance. The approach, known as T-pattern detection, is explained and preliminary data analyses from the sports of soccer and boxing are discussed. The data presented show that specific temporal patterns can be identified within sports performances. The temporal patterns can relate to performance of specific actions (eg passes) or movement patterns. Further analysis of the soccer showed a significant correlation between coaches ratings’ of team performance during specific matches with the number of temporal patterns exhibited by those teams (r= 0. 81, p< 0. 05).
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Proposes a structural hypothesis for the regularity of human behavior, where continuous interaction is seen as the performance of a set of particular type of temporal patterns. Some of these repeated intra- and inter-individual real-time behavior patterns may be mutually exclusive in time while others may develop in various ways. Perceptual limitations making such patterns hidden to observation are illustrated. A computerized detection method and illustrative empirical findings from various types of face-to-face interactions in children and adults are presented. The specially developed pattern detection and analysis software, THEME, is briefly described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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This study investigated how depressive feelings affect the behavior of singly living persons toward their cats. Data from 47 women and 49 men, who were visited at home for one two-hour observation session, were used for the analyses. Just prior to and after the observations, participants filled out a standard questionnaire used to assess momentary mood (EWL). The mood was assigned to one of 14 sub-scales, one of which was "depressiveness." Identical questionnaires were later completed by the same subjects in the absence of the observer (43 women, 45 men), and these results compared with those of questionnaires sent to singly living, former cat owners (28 women, three men). Five behavior elements were found to be affected by depressiveness: 1) intents to interact, 2) the starting of interactions, 3) intents, where the partner is willing to comply and interacts, and 4) head- and flank-rubbing by the cat (using multiple regression, Mann-Whitney U tests and Spearman rank correlations). Results show that the more a person was depressive, the fewer intents to interact were shown. However, the more a person was depressive, the more (s)he started an interaction. This means that depressive persons had an initial inhibition to initiate that was compensated by the presence of the cat. People who felt less depressive after the two hours of the study, owned cats that were more willing to comply with their intents than those whose depressiveness stayed the same or became worse. In human-cat dyads in which the person became more depressive, the person's willingness to comply tended to correlate positively with the cat's willingness to comply. When not in close contact, the cat reacted the same way to all mood scales of the humans. This neutral attitude makes the cat an attractive pacemaker against an inhibition to initiate. Within an interaction the cat is affected by the mood. But only the willingness of the cat to comply seems to be responsible for reducing depressiveness. Female cat owners were also found to be less depressed than former owners.
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Unmanipulated human-cat interactions in established relationships and in the common but very complex home setting are described and analyzed quantitatively. Fifty-one cat-owning Swiss families were visited in their homes. In a total of 504 hours of observation, the interspecific interactions of 162 persons and 72 cats were recorded. Quantitatively, the interactive behavior of both partners in a human-cat dyad increases with increasing duration of human presence at home: this independent variable is largest in adult women and smallest in adult men, while children and juveniles show intermediate values. Therefore, adult women are generally predestined to be the main human partner in human-cat relationships. Even so, when based on mean duration of human presence, effects of human sex and age can still be found for some human and cat behavior. Judged by the amount and reciprocity of interactions, woman-cat dyads have the best and juvenile-cat dyads the worst relationships. Cat behavior toward individual family members not only depends upon characteristics of the human (availability, sex, and age) but also upon characteristics of the whole family, such as family size and number of cats living in the household (negative correlation for both factors). Cat housing condition (indoor versus outdoor) appears to be unimportant in the human-cat relationship, although it affects the duration of a cat's presence at home. The results show the complexity of human-cat relationships in the privacy of the home. The list of factors shown to influence such relationships was increased by several variables. Thus, observation of unmanipulated interspecific interactions was useful despite problems inherent to most field studies.
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The goal of our study was to describe tween a human and a cat and to determine the social behavior during the first encounter beinfluence of the sex of the cat, individuality of the cat, activity state of the person, and person type on the cat's behavior; and the influence of the age and sex of the human partner (person type) on his/her behavior. Nineteen colony cats encountered 240 unfamiliar test persons in a standardized one-cat/one-person situation. In half of the encounters, the behavior of the cat was recorded (A experiments); during a first five-minute phase (Ph 1), the test person was not allowed to interact with the cat; during the second five-minute phase (Ph 2), he/she was allowed to behave without any restrictions. In the other half of the encounters (B experiments), the behavior of the human partner was recorded, and the test person was allowed to behave freely from the start for the duration of five minutes. The influence of the factors listed above was tested by analyses of variance and t-tests. Cats show an enormous individual variation in their behavior. Neither their sex nor the age-sex class of the partner influences their behavior nearly as much as their own individuality. The activity state of the test person (reading a book versus interacting freely) influences the behavior of the cat with respect to most of the parameters observed. Human behavior toward the cat is influenced by the person's age (adults versus children from six to ten years of age) and, to a lesser extent, by the person's sex. The first body contact is a key event and occurs more quickly in the dyadic situation than when the person is looking at a book, since the human partner usually initiates social interactions and motivates the cat to accelerate coming into contact. In addition to the speed and chronology of contact initiation, proximity and behavior regulating the distance between the partners are useful measures for describing human-cat interactions in different social contexts. Single behavioral elements of the cat and the human also may be used as indicators of the character of the relationship.
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This study examines the frequency of pet possession and its covariation with family variables (family size, housing conditions, parents' employment, maternal support) among elementary school children. Additionally, children's pet caring activities and their emotional relationship to pets were investigated. Subjects were 426 fourth graders (213 boys, 213 girls). Results indicate that pets are very frequently present in families, with the dog as the most common and most preferred animal. Parents' employment and maternal support do not covariate with pet possession, but housing conditions do. The child-pet relationship depends on childrens' gender, pet type and status of ownership (child vs. family). The intensity of pet caring is mainly related to pet type and ownership, whereas the quality of emotional contact depends on pet type and childrens' gender. On the background of manifold articles reporting case studies and educational, respectively clinical counseling experiences the discussion emphasizes the need for sound empirical research on the relationship between personality characteristics and pet ownership.
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Humans are generally biophilic. Still, for unknown reasons, interest in animals varies substantially among individuals. Our goal was to investigate how differential interest of children towards animals might be related to social competence and personality. We proposed two alternatives: 1) Children may compensate for potential deficits in social competence by resorting to animals, and 2) Socially well-connected children may show a particular interest in animals. We focused on relationships between age, gender, family background, play behavior, personality components, and contact with rabbits in 50 children (22 boys/28 girls; 3 to 7 years of age) at a preschool in Krems/Austria. Data were analyzed using GLM. We found that each one of these variables had significant impact on intensity of engagement with the rabbits. In general, girls, children with siblings, and children without pets were more oriented towards the rabbits than were boys, children without siblings, or pet-owning children. The older the children, the less frequently they occupied themselves with the rabbits but the longer they remained when they did engage them. Furthermore, we found that the more “Confident/Respected” (PCA factor 1) and less “Patient/Calm,” “Cheerful/Sociable,” and “Solitary” (PCA factors 2-4) the children, the more time they spent in direct occupation with rabbits. Most effects of the investigated variables varied between boys and girls. By and large, our findings support the hypothesis that the “socially competent” children were particularly interested in the animals. Also, children's social styles, as evinced in interactions with peers, were generally reflected in how they interacted with the rabbits.
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I review the direction and magnitude (effect sizes) of gender differences that have been reported in several areas of human-animal interactions. These include: attitudes toward the treatment of animals, attachment to pets, involvement in animal protectionism, animal hoarding, hunting, animal abuse, and bestiality. Women, on average, show higher levels of positive behaviors and attitudes toward animals (e.g., attitudes towards their use, involvement in animal protection), whereas men typically have higher levels of negative attitudes and behaviors (e.g., hunting, animal abuse, less favorable attitudes toward animal protection). The effect sizes of gender differences range from small (e.g., attachment), to medium size (e.g., attitudes toward animal use) to large (e.g., animal rights activism, animal abuse by adults.) In most areas, there is considerable overlap between men and women, with much greater within-sex than between-sex variation. Research on the roles of gender in human-animal relationships is hindered by the omission in many reports of gender difference effect sizes and basic descriptive statistics.
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In this paper, we identify two obstacles that have hindered the integration of personality research in anthrozoology. The first of these interrelated obstacles is the difficulty of obtaining large samples in anthrozoological research. Without large samples investigators must rely on replication studies to establish the generalizability of their findings. However, the second obstacle—the lack of a standard taxonomy of personality descriptors—makes it difficult to see whether findings replicate across studies. To address these issues and to stimulate a more integrative approach to personality studies, we: (a) provide normative data for personality ratings of dogs, cats, ferrets, horses, rabbits, and hedgehogs on 50 traits; (b) provide personality profiles of the owners of these six species; (c) provide the instrument on which the pet and human data were collected; and (d) demonstrate the viability of the internet as a tool for collecting large samples of personality data on pets. We show how the normative data can be used to convert findings from other studies into a standard-score metric that facilitates cross-study comparisons. Finally, we consider some limitations of this study and make a number of recommendations aimed to promote a more programmatic science of anthrozoology.
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Personality influences on social relationships and vice versa were longitudinally studied. Personality affected relationships, but not vice versa. After entry to university, 132 students participated for 18 month in a study in which the Big Five factors of personality, the subfactors Sociability and Shyness, and all significant social relationships were repeatedly assessed. A subsample kept diaries of all significant social interactions. After the initial correlation between personality and relationship quality was controlled for, Extraversion and its subfactors, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness predicted aspects of relationships such as number of peer relationships, conflict with peers, and falling in love. In contrast, relationship qualities did not predict personality traits, and changes in relationship qualities were unrelated to changes in personality traits. Consequences for dynamic-interactionistic views of personality and relationships are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Three methods of describing behavioural activity – conventional statistics (number of bouts, mean bout length and total duration), detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and T-patterns (THEME) – were compared. Behavioural observations were obtained by focal sampling of feed restricted broiler breeders. Hybrid commercial females were fed to the commercial body weight target (SR) or to gain 40% more live weight (SE) during rearing. Half the birds were fed on a conventional diet (C) and half on a diet with more crude fibre (F) in a 2×2 factorial experiment. Videotapes of the behaviour of the birds in each pen were recorded for 1h before feeding (B) and in the afternoon (A). Focal behavioural sampling was performed for 600s on a single bird in each videotape and conventional data (number of bouts, mean and total duration), T-patterns and fractals (from DFA) were analysed by ANOVA of a factorial model with a split plot term for time within pen. SR had longer bouts of preening than SE. SE had more T-patterns and spent more time on them compared with SR whereas no differences were detected by DFA. Diet F increased drinking and pecking at the environment and decreased time standing compared with C. Birds fed on C had longer bouts and more time preening compared with F. C was associated with longer and more frequent litter scratching of similar bout length than F before feeding but the opposite was observed in the afternoon. No differences between the diets were detected by THEME or DFA. The conventional analysis showed that more time was spent drinking in B compared with A. More T-pattern bouts of longer mean duration and longer total duration were detected in B compared with A whereas no differences were identified by DFA. These results may reflect the anticipation of feed. We conclude that a technique to assess behavioural organisation such as THEME or DFA in addition to conventional analysis of focal behavioural sampling should be used in behavioural and welfare research.