Abstract
The capacity for dogs to form attachment bonds to humans has been recognized by scientists for over two decades. However, evaluations of dog-human attachment styles, including to what extent dogs experience attachment security with their human caregivers, are relatively new. In humans, the development of secure attachments is considered a predictor of social wellbeing and positive cognitive outcomes including future relationship success, persistence, mental wellbeing and executive functioning. A better understanding of dog-human attachment relationships could have important scientific and applied implications. Here we provide an overview of attachment research as it relates to the dog-human bond, and take a closer look at one experimental approach, the Secure Base Test (SBT), currently used to evaluate dog-human attachment styles.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the participant volunteers and research assistants in the Human Interaction Lab, including but not limited to Holly Duvall and Champayne Master for coding work related to this project. Owner consent for dog participation was obtained for all dogs in the original studies that allowed for the collection of these videos. The research protocols and consent processes for these studies were in accordance with the ethical standards of the United States and Oregon State University, approved under Oregon State University ACUP # 4837.
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Udell, M.A.R., Brubaker, L., Thielke, L.E., Wanser, S.S.H., Rosenlicht, G., Vitale, K.R. (2021). Dog–Human Attachment as an Aspect of Social Cognition: Evaluating the Secure Base Test. In: Anderson, J.R., Kuroshima, H. (eds) Comparative Cognition. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2028-7_18
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