1. Emily E. Bray^a,b,1,
2. Mary D. Sammel^c,
3. Dorothy L. Cheney^d,1,
4. James A. Serpell^e, et
5. Robert M. Seyfarth^a

Author Affiliations

1. ^aDepartment of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104;
2. ^bSchool of Anthropology, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721;
3. ^cDepartment of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Bioinformatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104;
4. ^dDepartment of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104;
5. ^eDepartment of Clinical Studies, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

Source :

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Significance

A successful guide dog must navigate a complex world, avoid distractions, and respond adaptively to unpredictable events. What leads to success? We followed 98 puppies from birth to adulthood. Puppies were enrolled in a training program where only ∼70% achieved success as guide dogs. More intense mothering early in life was associated with program failure. In addition, mothers whose nursing style required greater effort by puppies produced more successful offspring. Among young adult dogs, poor problem-solving abilities, perseveration, and apparently greater anxiety when confronted with a novel object were also associated with program failure. Results mirror the results from rodents and humans, reaffirming the enduring effects on adult behavior of maternal style and individual differences in temperament and cognition.

Abstract

A continuing debate in studies of social development in both humans and other animals is the extent to which early life experiences affect adult behavior. Also unclear are the relative contributions of cognitive skills (“intelligence”) and temperament for successful outcomes. Guide dogs are particularly suited to research on these questions. To succeed as a guide dog, individuals must accomplish complex navigation and decision making without succumbing to distractions and unforeseen obstacles. Faced with these rigorous demands, only ∼70% of dogs that enter training ultimately achieve success. What predicts success as a guide dog? To address these questions, we followed 98 puppies from birth to adulthood. We found that high levels of overall maternal behavior were linked with a higher likelihood of program failure. Furthermore, mothers whose nursing style required greater effort by puppies were more likely to produce successful offspring, whereas mothers whose nursing style required less effort were more likely to produce offspring that failed. In young adults, an inability to solve a multistep task quickly, compounded with high levels of perseveration during the task, was associated with failure. Young adults that were released from the program also appeared more anxious, as indicated by a short latency to vocalize when faced with a novel object task. Our results suggest that both maternal nursing behavior and individual traits of cognition and temperament are associated with guide dog success.

This article contains supporting information at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1704303114/-/DCSupplemental