A multivariate discriminate analysis of behavioral measures in genetically nervous dogs

For some years we have studied a strain of genetically nervous dogs in the Neuropsychiatric Research Laboratory, Veterans Administration Hospital, North Little Rock, Arkansas. In the manner of Pavlov and Gantt and later Scott and Fuller we have characterized these dogs in such descriptive terms as timid, human aversive, and catatonic-like. Behavioral tests have been administered on nearly all dogs in this longitudinal study, and we are using these data to try to develop statistical procedures to maximize the discriminatory power of the behavioral assay and to more accurately characterize the behavioral deficit. A multivariate discriminate analysis of 13 variables on 91 healthy and 63 nervous dogs assayed at 3 months of age shows: (1) that much of our present behavioral testing procedures is redundant, and (2) that simple "friendliness to humans" in the dog is as effective for discriminating between the two groups as any of the 13 measures, taken either singly or collectively.