An In-Depth Look at Fonni’s Dog Behavior under Different Outdoor Conditions

Simple Summary In this study, the common social and communicative behaviors of the Fonni's Dog maintained under different outdoor conditions were investigated in order to improve the scant knowledge currently available on the behavior features of this dog breed. The preliminary results obtained here show that both dogs confined to kennels and free-ranging ones showed a strong collaborative motivation with the owner. This indicates a behavior consistent with the attitude of the Fonni's Dog.Abstract This study aimed to investigate the common social and communicative behaviors of the Fonni's Dog under different outdoor conditions. For this study, 70 adult dogs (3-7 years; 32 intact males, 38 intact females) belonging to the Fonni's breed were used. A total of 35 dogs were kept in kennels and 35 were free-ranging dogs in their sheep/goat livestock units. A behavioral repertoire was adapted from the literature and an ethogram was filled in for each dog. All dogs were evaluated in the presence of the owner. Fisher's exact test, following Bonferroni's correction, was used to test possible differences in the categorical variables (presence or absence of the behavior) between free-ranging dogs and dogs kept in kennels. The study revealed that several categories of the dogs' body language were associated with the management condition. However, the breed motivations (guarding and defense of the territory) were satisfied both in kennel and in the animals who were free in the property. The current study suggests a good behavioral balance of the Fonni's Dogs which could be attributed to correct communication between dogs and owners.