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Jordan Mayhew
Professor Debra Dagher
UWRT 1102-P090
September 27, 2014
Double Entry Journal of Peer Reviewed Article
The Personality of Aggressive and Non-Aggressive Dog Owners.

Page #

Source Notes

First Thoughts

770 male owners of aggressive dogs were

found to be significantly less neurotic than
women who kept aggressive or nonaggressive dogs.

Interesting. Cant wait to find out why?

770 owners of breeds widely considered to

be aggressive harboring more psychotic
tendencies than people who choose to keep
dogs with a reputedly less aggressive
temperament.

This sounds scary and dangerous. I think its

important to point out here that they use the
words tendencies and harboring vs.
diagnosis or a more concrete term. These
meaning these people have the potential for
these traits but dont necessarily display them.

770 the British public now share their homes

with over 8 million cats and 8 million dogs

Nice fact to include but I need to find out the

U.S.s numbers

770 there is now substantial evidence to

suggest that such animals may be able to
promote their owners health

Are these aggressive breeds aiding in the

repression of such psychotic traits in their
owners?

771Exploring the personality of people who

Bingo! This is exactly why I want to research

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choose to own specific breeds of dog may
yield important information. Such research, for
example, may shed useful light on the
compatibility of specific breeds to certain types
of owner, a factor that may influence the
success of the humananimal partnership (see
Coren, 1998). Such work could also help to
elucidate the mechanism of cause and effect in
relation to phenomena such as canine behavior
problems, helping to establish whether owners
with certain personality traits are more likely to
induce behavior problems in their pets, or
whether pets with specific behavior problems
cause people to respond in certain ways, e.g.
become more nervous.

this topic! Hopefully the information in this

article and my future research will answer
some of these ideas and if implemented lead to
healthier communities, pets, and people!

771 aggressive dog ownership may be a

useful marker of deviant social behavior.

This could lead to a slippery slope of profiling

and misjudgment conflicts, but also helpful in
eliminating and discouraging these types of
people from owning aggressive breeds

771The findings from the study revealed a

significant difference in the personality of
aggressive versus nonaggressive dog
breed owners

The fact that the word significant is used here

intrigues me. I didnt expect that much of a
difference.

Interesting fact. I would like to read Ragatz

772 Ragatz and colleagues (2009) found that
study as well.
owners of dog breeds labeled as vicious
(Chow chows, pit bulls, Rottweilers, wolf
hybrids, Japanese Akitas, Doberman pinschers)
scored higher on
traits associated with primary psychopathy
(e.g. carelessness, selfishness,
tendency to be manipulative) than owners of
large dogs, small dogs or non-dog owners.
772Recent years have witnessed an increasing
concern over the acquisition of so-called
I have never heard of aggressive breeds
status dogs (e.g. Rottweilers, Akitas), fearing referred to as status dogs. This brings up a

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that such breeds are being used by people to
boost their reputation and status, and/or for
illegal activities, e.g. dog fighting

whole new idea of why people choose

aggressive breeds.

772Owners of aggressive dog breeds do

indeed harbor more aggressive personality
traits than owners of non-aggressive dog
breeds.

This solidifies my thoughts on certain

prerequisite testing being done on persons
wishing to own an aggressive breed, and
laws that govern these test and those that do
not comply.

773It is also possible that a form of

spontaneous trait transference explained
some of the results, with owners taking on
some of the characteristics associated with the
breed of pet owned

I would have thought this trait transference

would have been the opposite, with dogs
displaying and learning some of their owners
traits; e.g. the dog sleeps when the owner does.
However it does make sense that we in fact
take on our dogs traits because most effective
owners dote on their pets and base their
activities off of their dogs behavior.

773 it would be interesting to ascertain

whether dogs with clinically diagnosed
aggressive behavior (as opposed to breeds that
are just perceived as aggressive) are more
likely to have aggressive owners.

Great question that I would like to further

investigate and answer.

773 According to Coren (1998), the best dogowner match occurs when the personality of
the person fits the behavioral characteristics of
the dog.

I would like to confirm this case and

potentially determine a few different
personality groups to categorize people in, to
narrow down how to actually label pet owners
personalities. E.g. Unstable, stable, extrovert,
introvert

Wells, Deborah L., and Peter G Hepper. The Personality of aggressive and non-aggressive
Dog Owners. Personality and Individual Differences 53.6 (2012): 770-73. Academic
Search Complete. Oct. 2012. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.