Paw Preference Correlates to Task Performance in Dogs

A study involving 36 domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) in a simple search task provides evidence of a correlation between paw use and performance. The study was carried out to determine whether or not paw use is related to task performance. Different aspects of task performance were taken into consideration. The results of an experiment indicate that dogs departing with the left front paw perform significantly better than dogs departing with the right front paw. Moreover, gender differentiation was not replicated by our data, thus opening new avenues of research with other or other additional factors to gain insight in the gender differentiation found earlier.