Brachycephalic breeds’ behaviour shows more ‘helpless’ traits.

A study has suggested that brachycephalic dogs are more likely to display ‘helpless’ traits than dogs with longer snouts.

The investigation, conducted by researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, observed the reactions of flat-faced dogs and longer snouted dogs to a food retrieval task. The scientists compared the responses of 15 English bulldogs and 15 French bulldogs with 13 Hungarian Mudis, a herding dog with a mid-length snout.

The experiment involved three challenge boxes, of varying difficulty, which were presented to the dogs in a randomised order.

The dogs witnessed the experimenter place a piece of Viener sausage in the box, before they were given two minutes to try to open the box. During this, the experimenter and the dog’s owner were behind the dog and out of direct sight.

The researchers observed that the flat-faced dogs were successful at opening the box 93 per cent less often than the longer-snouted Mudis.

They also saw that the successful Mudis were quicker at opening the boxes than the successful bulldogs. After one minute, 90 per cent of Mudis had managed to open a box compared to just 50 per cent of the bulldogs.

During this study, the English and French bulldogs were 4.16 and 4.49 times more likely to look back at the people than Mudis. This was interpreted as a need for help during the task.

The study’s authors suggest that these findings may indicate that flat-faced dogs are naturally more likely to seek out human assistance when faced with problems, compared to dogs with longer snouts. These ‘childlike’ mannerisms could lead to stronger social relationships between owners and brachycephalic breeds, by making the dogs appear more helpless and needy.

The authors say that the adoption of these characteristics could result from a variety of factors. It could be that specifically small and short-faced companion dogs are genetically less likely to act independently, as a way to encourage more human care.

However it could also be that, because owners treat flat-faced dogs more like children, they associate more childlike and helpless behaviour with positive feedback.

This apparently dependent relationship could partially explain why these brachycephalic breeds remain so popular with dog owners, despite them being more likely to have serious health and welfare issues.

The full study has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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