Figure 1.
Apparatuses used in the experiment.
a) Folded cotton towel used in the pre-test, b) Nina Ottosson© Dog Pyramid (aDP), c) Hunter© Snack Cactus (aSC), d) Hunter© Snack Bottle (aSB), e) the smaller version of the Hunter© Rolling Snack (aRS).
Figure 2.
Schematic representation of the experimental set-up.
The experimental room was equipped with two doors, one connecting it to the hallway (Door 1) and one connecting it to an adjacent room with monitoring and recording equipment (Door 2). At the beginning of each trial, the dog was released by the experimenter from the release point, which was 2.5 m away from the apparatus. During each trial the experimenter stood on the right side of door 1 – timing the trial with a clock on the opposite wall. The owner either sat on the designated chair on the left side of door 1 or was in the adjacent room – depending on the pre-test trial or the condition of the test trial. The dashed lines indicate the floor markings around the owner's chair and the experimenter's position, which were used for later video coding.
Figure 3.
Duration of manipulating the apparatus –
Experiment 1. Mean duration of manipulating the apparatus in the conditions “Absent owner” (cAO), “Silent owner” (cSO), and “Encouraging owner” (cEO). Shown are mean ± s.e.m. *** represents P≤0.001.
Figure 4.
Duration spent in the proximity of the experimenter –
Experiment 1. Mean duration spent in the proximity of the experimenter in the conditions “Absent owner” (cAO), “Silent owner” (cSO), and “Encouraging owner” (cEO). White bars represent the 1st trials, striped bars represent the 2nd trials, grey bars represent the 3rd trials. Shown are mean ± s.e.m. * represents P≤0.05.
Figure 5.
Duration of manipulating the apparatus –
Experiment 2. Mean duration of manipulating the apparatus in the conditions “Absent owner” (cAO), “Replaced owner” (cRO), “Silent owner” (cSO), and “Encouraging owner” (cEO). Shown are mean ± s.e.m. *** represents P≤0.001, ** represents P≤0.01.
Figure 6.
Duration spent in the proximity of the owner and the unfamiliar human –
Experiment 2. Graph depicts box plots of duration spent in the proximity of the unfamiliar human (cRO) and of the owner (cSO), respectively. For each box plot, median values are indicated by the line within the box. The box represents 50% of the values (25th and 75th percentiles), with the upper bar representing the 90th percentile and the lower bar representing the 10th percentile. Circles indicate outliers. ** represents P≤0.01.