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Article History

Received: 16 November 2019

Revised: 24 March 2020

Accepted: 30 March 2020

First Online: 6 April 2020

Compliance with ethical standards

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: All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

: All procedures were performed in full accordance with Italian legal regulations and the guidelines for the treatment of animals in behavioural research and teaching of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB). In Italy, observational studies of animal behaviour are not considered procedures that are subject to the National Directive n. 26/14 (transposition of the 2010/63/UE directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, article 1, comma 5), and further ethical approval is not requested for these studies. Hence, no special permission was needed to carry out this study. All dog breeders participated voluntarily and received an in-depth description of the study and its rationale, and their permission to video-record and use data in an anonymous form was obtained prior to testing. All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.