寵物狗也分"樂天派"和"悲觀者"大綱

If your dog destroys the furniture when you are away, it could be a pessimist, researchers have concluded。

A study has found that some dogs are natural gloom-mongers while others have sunnier dispositions。

"We know that people's emotional states affect their judgments and that happy people are more likely to judge an ambiguous situation positively," said professor Mike Mendl, an author of the study and head of animal welfare and behavior at Bristol University。

"What our study has shown is that this applies similarly to dogs."

To measure canine psychology, researchers trained dogs to recognize that bowls on one side of a room contained food, while bowls on the other side were empty. They then placed the bowls in "neutral" locations between the two sides。

Just as happy people tend to see the positive in any situation, so optimistic dogs sprinted toward the bowl, expecting to find food, while pessimistic dogs hesitated or ran more slowly。

The study, published in Current Biology, which looked at 24 dogs at two UK animal centers, found that dogs' temperaments correlated with their behavior when separated from their owners。

Dogs that saw the bowl as half-full were calmer when left alone, sure their owners would return, while pessimistic dogs were more likely to worry, bark and misbehave。

About half of the 10 million dogs in the United Kingdom show "separation-related behavior" at some point, Mendl said。

Instead of getting rid of anxious dogs or ignoring them, owners should recognize that their dogs may have emotional issues and seek treatment for them, he said。

最新研究顯示，如果你的愛犬趁你不在時破壞傢俱，那它可能是一條悲觀的狗。

研究表明，有些狗天生就有“憂鬱範兒”，另外一些則是“樂天派”。

研究報告的作者之一、布裏斯托爾大學動物康樂和行爲系主任邁克•門德爾教授說：“我們都知道情緒會影響人的判斷，快樂的人更有可能在前景不明朗時朝積極的方向去想。”

“我們的研究表明，這個規律也適用於狗。”

爲了把握狗的心理，研究人員通過訓練使狗明白放在房屋一側的碗裏有食物，另一側的碗卻是空的。隨後，他們把碗放在了房屋中間的“中立區”。

就像樂觀者總會朝好處想一樣，樂觀的狗會飛快地跑到碗邊，希望能找到食物，而悲觀的狗卻猶豫不前，或者慢吞吞地挪過去。

研究表明，當主人不在身邊時，狗的行爲就會受其性情的影響。這項研究對英國兩家動物中心的24只狗進行了觀察，研究成果在《當代生物》上發表。

看到碗“半滿”的狗獨處時表現得更爲冷靜，肯定主人會回來，而悲觀的狗更容易焦慮，狂吠，行爲失常。

據門德爾稱，在英國一千萬只狗中，大約有一半都會在某些時候表現出“分離焦慮”。

他還說，狗主人不應該拋棄那些焦慮的狗，或者對它們不理不睬，而應該意識到他們的狗可能有情緒問題，並尋求治療。