-->PONE-D-24-49123-->-->An exploratory study of associations between judgement bias, demographic and behavioural characteristics, and detection task performance in medical detection dogs-->-->PLOS ONE

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“I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: CG and NR are employed by Medical Detection Dogs, the charity where the dogs from this study are trained and data collection was conducted.  However, they were not involved in data collection or analysis for this study.”

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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-->2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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-->5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: The manuscript is well-written and organized, following a clear roadmap of events. The introduction provides a compelling rationale for the study, and the methods are described with sufficient detail, allowing for reproducibility.

The statistical analyses are robust and thoroughly explained, and the results are presented in a logical sequence that mirrors the research questions, making it easy to follow the progression of the study.

This is a very interesting and innovative piece of work that explores the relationship between personality traits and decision-making in medical detection dogs. The findings provide valuable insights into how affective and cognitive processes might influence detection performance. By identifying traits such as optimism, confidence, and behavioral tendencies that correlate with task outcomes, the study opens the door to further research in this area.

Additionally, the study highlights the potential utility of judgment bias tasks as predictive tools, which could have implications for the selection and training of other types of detection dogs. The work has significant practical and theoretical implications, making it a strong contribution to the field.

I have no major concerns, but I would encourage the authors to consider:

The authors should consider discussing alternative explanations for why the middle position was significantly selected by the dogs. While the findings suggest that more playful and food-motivated dogs approached the middle position faster, interpreted as optimism, the association between higher specificity and slower approaches to the same position suggests a more cautious, discriminative behavior. This raises questions about the underlying factors influencing middle position selection. For instance, could the middle position's significance be related to training protocols, novelty of the setup, or the fact that the tester was positioned behind this area? It is possible that dogs heard subtle cues from the tester or other background noise, leading them to anticipate something about the task. Exploring whether this position inherently holds some predictive or environmental cues could provide deeper insights into the observed behaviors and refine interpretations of optimism versus discrimination tendencies.

Overall, this is an interesting study with the potential to inspire further research in both medical and other detection dog applications.

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Reviewer #1: Yes:  Astrid R. Concha

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An exploratory study of associations between judgement bias, demographic and behavioural characteristics, and detection task performance in medical detection dogs

PONE-D-24-49123R1

Dear Dr. Rooney,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Etsuro Ito, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE