Dogs subject to stereotypes, according to research

Splash looks up adoringly with liquid brown eyes, eager for a treat. Her ears are pointed straight up, and she looks intent and pretty. She's also well-behaved and friendly-perfect qualities for a dog, but she's a doberman pinscher. That means she's not popular like her neighbour Khyber, a huge, shambling, flop-eared pooch wearing the same happy face she is. In a recent survey of 295 Edmontonians, Splash finished with only a nine per cent approval rating as a companion animal, well behind Khyber, a bernese mountain dog, who grabbed 55 per cent of the vote. The survey also revealed a low nine per cent approval rating for Splash's smaller companion, a miniature doberman pinscher, but a 27 per cent rating for a spaniel that was a smaller, but similar, physical match for Khyber. It's numbers like these that concern University of Alberta professor Gaylene Fasenko, who, with fellow NAIT researcher Linda Glasier and U of A student Alicia Glaser, conducted the study to measure the reactions people had to different breeds, and consequently, the level of social trust created among strangers, depending on what kind of dog they had with them. "There's an apparent level of discomfort towards certain breeds of dogs - in this case, the doberman and miniature pinschers - and that can lead to stereotyping that decreases not only acceptance of these dogs in public places, but also of all breeds in general," said Fasenko, an associate professor in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life and ...