title: Intranasally administered oxytocin affects how dogs (Canis familiaris) react to the threatening approach of their owner and an unfamiliar experimenter.
abstract: Fear and aggression are among the most prominent behavioural problems in dogs. Oxytocin has been shown to play a role in regulating social behaviours in humans including fear and aggression. As intranasal oxytocin has been found to have some analogous effects in dogs and humans, here we investigated the effect of oxytocin on dogs' behaviour in the Threatening Approach Test. Dogs, after having received intranasal administration of oxytocin (OT) or placebo (PL), showed the same reaction to an unfamiliar experimenter, but OT pretreated dogs showed a less friendly first reaction compared to the PL group when the owner was approaching. Individual differences in aggression (measured via questionnaire) also modulated dogs' first reaction. Moreover, subjects that received OT looked back more at the human (owner/experimenter) standing behind them during the threatening approach. These results suggest that oxytocin has an effect on dogs' response to the threatening cues of a human, but this effect is in interaction with other factors such as the identity of the approaching human and the 'baseline' aggression of the dogs.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Ethology, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hernádi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Ethology, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary. Electronic address: vargane.kis.anna@ttk.mta.hu.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kis
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Orsolya
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kanizsár
authors.affiliation: Department of Ethology, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Katinka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tóth
authors.affiliation: Department of Ethology, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Bernadett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Miklósi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: József
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Topál
mesh_terms: D000281:Administration, Intranasal / Q000662:veterinary; D000374:Aggression / Q000187:drug effects; D000378:Agonistic Behavior / Q000187:drug effects*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D004285:Dogs; D005239:Fear / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D001841:Human-Animal Bond; D008297:Male; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012919:Social Behavior
chemical_list: D010121:Oxytocin
keywords: Aggression; Dog; Oxytocin; Social behaviour; Threatening Approach Test