WHAT MAKES A GOOD TEST OF CANINE BEHAVIOUR?
Pauleen Bennett Director, Anthrozoology Research Group, Animal Welfare Science Centre, Monash University A core responsibility for local government in Australia is to increase community safety through the removal or control of dogs likely to represent a threat to the health of humans or other animals, while simultaneously facilitating responsible ownership of the vast majority of dogs, who represent no such threat but confer on the community a great number of benefits. Dangerous dogs are not currently identifiable by breed, type, size or any other measurable physical or physiological characteristic. Assessors therefore typically rely on observations of canine behaviour to make inferences about the temperament or personality of a particular dog, and to predict how that dog is likely to react in various situations. This is made difficult by the fact that dogs which are dangerous in one situation may be entirely safe and well-behaved in another. Similar problems have challenged behavioura
