Super Pawers: The Study of Brain Lateralization through Paw Preference in Dogs

Overview

Objectives/Goals We wanted to learn if dogs showed paw preference similar to human handedness. Methods/Materials We performed two tests for paw preference, ten trials each, on twenty different dogs. The first test was a walking test, in which we observed which paw the dog led with in coming toward us from a seated position. We repeated that test seven times. The second test was the Kong test. It used a Kong toy filled with treats and we observed over three minutes whether a dog used one or both of its paws to stabilize the toy in trying to extract the treats. Our main materials were several dehydrated liver treats used in calling the dogs and the Kong toy stuffed with liver treats. Results 35% of dogs showed a preference for the left paw, 35% showed no paw preference, 20% showed a right paw preference, and 10% showed ambidexterity. Conclusions/Discussion Our results indicated that some dogs do show a preference for one paw over the other. As we learned in our research, this could help people working with animals decide which dogs might make better service dogs, because paw preference has been linked to certain behaviors. In addition, this knowledge might help people address behavioral problems in their dogs because they will understand them better by knowing their preference.

Competition history

• CSEF 2016 Mammalian Biology · Entry J1204

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Animal Sciences projects
• CSEF Animal Sciences projects
• Every CSEF 2016 project