Domestic rabbits have received relatively little attention for personality and temperament research to date, despite being a popular pet in the UK. The field of animal personality research is still in its infancy and there is much discussion around appropriate methods of assessing personality, due in part to the many reasons for exploring this phenomenon, for example, for cross species comparisons or assessing an animal’s suitability for a particular role or job. Domestic rabbits make an interesting candidate for personality studies due to their domestication being predominantly influenced by a desire for morphological or physical traits, rather than for behavioural characteristics, as with domestic dogs. Additionally, rabbits appear to be relinquished by their owners in high numbers and a recent survey suggested that one reason for this was difficultly in bonding a newly acquired rabbit to a current pet. Personality studies may help to raise owner awareness of a rabbit’s individual characteristics, which may support the formation of a human-animal bond which may reduce relinquishment, and support owners to select a suitable rabbit when acquiring a companion for a currently owned rabbit. In addition to making a case for personality assessments being needed at the point of acquiring pet rabbits, the presentation will review companion animal personality studies and describe methods currently being developed for the assessment of personality and temperament in pet rabbits

Ellis, Clare

McCormick, Wanda D

Tinarwo, Ambrose

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See	discussions,	stats,	and	author	profiles	for	this	publication	at:	https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305478048Why	and	how	should	we	assess	pet	rabbitpersonality?Poster	·	July	2016DOI:	10.13140/RG.2.1.5084.5681CITATIONS0READS1923	authors,	including:Some	of	the	authors	of	this	publication	are	also	working	on	these	related	projects:Social	bonding	in	dairy	cattle	housed	in	dynamic	systems.	View	projectMorphometry	of	Dog	Skulls:	Impact	of	Shape	on	Manducation	and	Dental	Health	View	projectClare	Frances	EllisThe	University	of	Northampton10	PUBLICATIONS			2	CITATIONS			SEE	PROFILEWanda	Denise	MccormickMoulton	College35	PUBLICATIONS			89	CITATIONS			SEE	PROFILEAll	content	following	this	page	was	uploaded	by	Clare	Frances	Ellis	on	21	July	2016.The	user	has	requested	enhancement	of	the	downloaded	file.	All	in-text	references	underlined	in	blue	are	added	to	the	original	documentand	are	linked	to	publications	on	ResearchGate,	letting	you	access	and	read	them	immediately.This research was funded by the Thomas Harrison Trust at Moulton College.  *Human-Animal Relationship. An on-going interaction  between a person and an animal. ^ Principal Component Analysis—reductive statistics  Human-animal interactions  Identify potential characteristics as a response to humans.   Experimental observations, e.g. response to familiar and unfamiliar humans in common husbandry activities, such as handling.    Why and how should we assess pet rabbit personality? Clare Frances Ellis, Wanda McCormick, Ambrose Tinarwo  Summary  There is a great deal of discussion around the use of the term personality in animal studies, with terms such as temperament and behavioural syndromes being used synonymously, in error. The term personality is used within this study to describe individual differences that can be measured behaviourally and vary between individuals but remain stable across situations and over time for individuals. A case is presented to highlight the need for further research regarding personality in pet rabbits (Figure 1) and then a sel ection of methods used for pet animal assessment are reviewed (Table 1). Finally, methodology are suggested for use with pet rabbits (Figure 2), specifically a bottom-up approach, and discussion on these methods is most welcome.  Why study personality in pet rabbits? How can we assess  personality in pet rabbits? How could we assess personality in pet rabbits?  Clare.Ellis@moulton.ac.uk  @rabbitphd Behavioural repertoire  Record all behaviours performed and conduct reductive analysis to look for any underlying components.    Account for species specific characteristics.   Natural setting observations, e.g. home cage.  Social interactions  Account for potentially socially orientated characteristics.   Natural setting observations and experimental observations, e.g. response to familiar and unfamiliar intra-specifics.   May be beneficial to look for trends of personality types in bonded pairs, i.e. patterns for successful bonding.  Novel arena and exploration of novel resources  Enables evaluation of responses to changes in the environment.   Behavioural observations can quantify behaviours observed and these can be compared to the home cage setting.   Account for species specific characteristics, based on species natural history i.e. foraging, exploiting new feeding areas and responses to predators.  Methods of animal  personality assessment. Advantages Disadvantages Example tools / studies and species used for.  Subjective trait  descriptors  Person familiar with the animal rates animals likeness to specified  adjectives.   Non-invasive.   Quick in comparison to behavioural observations.   Can cover a range of contexts.   Potential for large sample size.   Inconsistent language use and interpretation.   Scores may be based on memories.   Rater’s interpretation of adjectives may differ.   Cat owner ratings (Lee et al., 2007). Owner ratings for likeness to 12 adjectives resulted in four components for 196 cats (following PCA^ = 65.27% of variance).   Dog Personality Questionnaire (Mirkó et al., 2012). Owners completed the questionnaire for 284 dogs. Four components were identified including Stranger-directed sociability, Activity, Aggressiveness and Trainability (Following PCA^ = 44.32% of variance).   Subjective behavioural rating scales  Person familiar with animal rates animal’s response to a variety of stimuli, based on knowledge of  Non-invasive.   Quick.   Wider application to pet population, e.g. can collect data of animals in their homes.   Scores based on memories.   Influenced by rater relationship with animal.    Some stimuli may not have been encountered.   Standardisation challenges.   Dog-ADHD rating scale (Vas et al., 2007). A 13-item questionnaire completed by dog owners to assess attention skills, impulsivity and motor activity in 220 pet dogs.   SAF Dog subjective rating (Wilsson and Sinn, 2012).  One observer rated dogs following behaviour tests for 13 item subjective rating, on 1—5 scale, with  400 GSDs (part of the Swedish Armed Forces). Found moderate to strong correlations to behaviour rating of three traits, engagement, confidence and aggression.  Behaviour observations (coding or rating) in natural or experimental setting  Animal’s behaviour is quantified in response to a variety of stimuli.     Behaviour explored may be highly relevant to species natural history.  Specific aspects of behaviour can be explored, e.g. social aspects or aggression.   Objective, less open to interpretation.   Time consuming. Difficult to standardise across study groups.   Users need to be trained.   Behavioural responses may be interpreted incorrectly.   Invasive and requires exposure of animal to stimuli that may cause fear / stress response.   Dog Mentality Assessment (Svartberg and Forkman, 2002). Explored playful, social, exploratory, avoidant and aggressive traits in dogs. Tool originally developed for working dogs by the Swedish Working Dog Association.   Feline Temperament Profile (Siegford et al., 2003). Assesses sociability, aggressiveness, and adaptability in 20 domestic cats pre and post adoption.   Match-Up Behaviour Evaluation (Dowling-Guyer , et al., 2011). Behaviour coding (presence or absence of set behaviours) in response to stimuli. Identified four components for 668 dogs (following PCA^ = 45.3% of variance).   ASPCA®’s Meet Your Match® Feline-ality™ (Weiss et al., 2015 and Slater et al., 2013). Assesses sociability and response to novel stimuli in cats in shelter setting.  Note: Each method requires validating and this is commonly done by utilising multiple methods initially. Not all of the above studi es have been validated.    Although behavioural observation methods may be preferable to animal behaviour and ethology scientists, these are not always practicable to the real world scenarios where these tools may be applied.  Hence, these are sometimes used to validate other tools that are less resource intensive such as rating of behavioural response to specified contexts. Review of pet personality assessment tools? Large number of pet rabbits in UK.  An estimated 800,000 (PFMA, 2016) to 1.2 million (PDSA, 2015) rabbits are kept as pets. But few studies exploring personality to date (Gartner, 2015).  Challenges matching  social groups.  Rabbits relinquished due to behaviour towards other animals or an unsuccessful bond accounted for 44% in UK survey (Ellis et al., 2016).  Selective breeding  during domestication.  Domestication process has  selected for morphological and physical characteristics (CAWC, 2006 ). Future selection for characteristics suited to captivity may enhance  welfare.  Rabbit welfare. Pet rabbits are said to be at risk of poor welfare  due to commonly being kept in social isolation (Rooney et al., 2014; PDSA,  2015). Tools to assess compatible individuals may encourage more group housing.  Suitability to HAR*.  It has been suggested that rabbits may not make suitable pets due to the likely response to evade captivity given the chance (Broom, 2015).  Selecting for characteristics that are better suited to human interactions  may enhance welfare.  Relinquishment.  An estimated 67,000 rabbits pass through rescue centres each year in UK (RWAF, 2012). Individual personality profiles, as used for cats and dogs, may be beneficial to support  adoption process at rehoming  centres.  Why study personality in pet  rabbits? Table 1: Review of a selection of methods used to measure personality in pets, with some examples of tools.  References:  Broom, D.M., (2015). New research relevant to companion animal welfare. Companion Animal, 20(10), pp.548-551.  Carter, A. J., Feeney, W. E., Marshall, H. H., Cowlishaw, G., & Heinsohn, R. (2013). Animal personality: what are behavioural ecologists measuring?. Biological Reviews, 88(2), 465-475. CAWC (2006) Welfare aspects of modifications, through selective breeding or biotechnological methods, to the form, function of behaviour of companion animals. Cambridge, UK, Companion Animal Welfare Council.  Dowling-Guyer, S., Marder, A. and D’arpino, S., (2011). Behavioral traits detected in shelter dogs by a behavior evaluation. Applied animal behaviour science, 130(3), pp.107-114. Ellis, C.F., McCormick, W., and Tinarwo, A. (2016). Rabbit relinquishment to two rabbit rescue centres and beyond. UFAW conference, York, 23rd June 2016.  Feaver, J., Mendl, M. and Bateson, P., (1986). A method for rating the individual distinctiveness of domestic cats. Animal Behaviour, 34(4), pp.1016-1025.  Gartner, M.C., (2015). Pet personality: A review. Personality and Individual Differences, 75, pp.102-113.  Lee, C.M., Ryan, J.J. and Kreiner, D.S., (2007). Personality in domestic cats. Psychological reports, 100(1), pp.27-29. Mirkó, E., Kubinyi, E., Gácsi, M. and Miklósi, Á., (2012). Preliminary analysis of an adjective-based dog personality questionnaire developed to measure some aspects of personality in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris). Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 138(1), pp.88-98.  PDSA. (2015) Animal Wellbeing report. People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals [Online]. https://www.pdsa.org.uk/pet-health-advice/pdsa-animal-wellbeing-report [Accessed 27.5.2016] Rooney, N. J., Blackwell, E. J., Mullan, S. M., Saunders, R., Baker, P. E., Hill, J. M., Sealey, C.E., Turner, M.J. & Held, S. D. (2014). The current state of welfare, housing and husbandry of the English pet rabbit population. BMC research notes, 7 (1), 942. RWAF. (2012) Rehome your rabbit. Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund [Online] Available from: http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/?section=rehome.html [Accessed 13.2.14] Siegford, J.M., Walshaw, S.O., Brunner, P. and Zanella, A.J., (2003). Validation of a temperament test for domestic cats. Anthrozoös, 16(4), pp.332-351. Slater, M., Garrison, L., Miller, K., Weiss, E., Makolinski, K., Drain, N. and Mirontshuk, A. (2013). Practical physical and behavioral measures to assess the socialization spectrum of cats in a shelter-like setting during a three day period. Animals, 3(4), pp.1162-1193. Svartberg, K. and Forkman, B. (2002). Personality traits in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris). Applied animal behaviour science, 79(2), pp.133-155. Uher, J., (2008). Comparative personality research: methodological approaches. European Journal of Personality, 22(5), pp.427-455.  Vas, J., Topál, J., Péch, E. and Miklósi, A., (2007). Measuring attention deficit and activity in dogs: a new application and validation of a human ADHD questionnaire. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 103(1), pp.105-117. Weiss, E., Gramann, S., Drain, N., Dolan, E. and Slater, M. (2015). Modification of the Feline-Ality™ Assessment and the Ability to Predict Adopted Cats’ Behaviors in Their New Homes. Animals, 5(1), pp.71-88. Wilsson, E. and Sinn, D.L., (2012). Are there differences between behavioral measurement methods? A comparison of the predictive validity of two ratings methods in a working dog program. Applied Animal Behaviour Science,141(3), pp.158-172.   Considering the reasons for exploring rabbit personality (Figure 1), an objective approach is considered to be most appropriate. Specifically utilising bottom-up trait methodology in the first instance, attempting to identify personality traits that may exist in pet rabbits.   This will enable the exploration of potential personality traits in rabbits in a way that may encourage a deeper consideration for the species and individual animals uniqueness, hence, more objective, bottom-up assessments are advocated (Uher, 2008).   Figure 1:  Suggested reasons for a need to explore individual differences  in pet rabbits.   Discussion  Many tools developed thus far for pet animal species have sought to explore the presence of specific personality traits. They have generally been developed as tools to predict the animal’s future behaviour in terms of our human interactions with them.   There is a need to explore personality in pets, specifically rabbits, more broadly so that the personalities that exist as a result natural selection pressures, and the domestication process as a by-product of selection for morphological / physiological traits, can be accounted for.   Such studies may be beneficial in terms of exploring animal personality as a tool to enhance welfare of captive animals.  Figure 2: Proposed methods for pet rabbit personality studies.  View publication stats

Why and how should we assess pet rabbit personality?

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Why and how should we assess pet rabbit personality?

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