Advances in the Study of the Relationship Between Children and Their Pet Dogs

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Abstract
We report in this paper data from research carried out in two fields: 1. the study of the characteristics and mechanisms of the spontaneous child-dog interactions and communications in a familiar setting, home and immediate surroundings, for both individuals, and 2. an experimental analysis of the sensory characteristics that regulate child-dog interactions. The main results can be summarized as follows:1. Of the child's behavioral and verbal patterns, touching behavior is the most frequent.2. The frequency of the child's touching behavior as compared to non-touching behavior is significantly different when the child is in front of or behind the dog's head.3. Only 43% of the child's behaviors are followed by an observable modification in the dog. The dog reacts aggressively to the child's behavior in fewer than 4% of the observations.4. Forty-eight percent of the dog's behaviors are not followed by an observable modification in the child's behavior.5. The age of the child appears to be the most discriminating variable in distinguishing different types of behavior that regulate the child-dog interactions.6. In spontaneous interactions, the child's behavior significantly directs the olfactory behavior of the dog. The dog smelled the face more in appeasing and linking contexts and the hands and arms more in agonistic contexts.7. The dog does not seek the same olfactory information when he is in the presence of a familiar child or of the underclothes that this child has worn, as when he is in the presence of the odors of an unfamiliar child.

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