DESCRIBING DOG BEHAVIOR PSYCHOLOGICALLY - PET OWNERS VERSUS NON-OWNERS

This paper is concerned with the interpretation of the behavior of dog s in mentalistic or psychological terms, and questions whether previou s experience with pets influences the extent to which such terminology is used. Forty undergraduate psychology students viewed and produced written descriptions of five videotaped episodes showing dogs interact ing with their owners, Twenty of the students had had at least two yea rs of experience with a dog or cat as a family pet before the age-of e ighteen. These participants produced significantly more descriptions o f the dogs' behavior in terms of desires, feelings and understanding t han did those with little or no experience of pets. Though the videota ped episodes varied in the extent to which they evoked psychological d escriptions, and the different types of psychological description vari ed in frequency, these factors did not interact significantly with pre vious pet experience. The results are discussed in terms of the influe nce of living with companion animals on the way in which such animals are perceived and understood.