Stability of motor lateralisation in maturing dogs

Abstract

Previous studies of motor laterality in dogs have produced some conflicting results, with inconsistencies in lateral biases across sexes, over time, and across tasks. The current study modified published food-retrieval and tape-removal tests before applying them to 43 dogs. It showed that results derived from 50 observations of a food-retrieval task (Kong™ test) were consistent with 100 observations. Further, observations during both Kong™ and the tape-removal tests were consistent both within and between observers. Lateralisation results from both the Kong™ and Tape tests were generally consistent between breeds and sexes and over time, the only exceptions being the categorical groups during the Tape test and the strength of lateralisation in the Kong™ test. Of greatest interest in this study was the lack of consistency between results from the two different motor lateralisation tasks conducted. Given that motor lateralisation is said to reflect differences in brain structure or function, differences in task results may indicate differing complexities of the two tasks.

Keywords:

• Lateralisation
• Motor laterality
• Dog
• Sex
• Task complexity
• Reliability

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr John Black, the team at Guide Dogs NSW/ACT Glossodia training centre, and Lisa Tomkins for their help with and support of this study, which was funded by Guide Dogs NSW/ACT and the Australian Research Council.