Table 4.
The description of the coded behaviors of the separation test (we used the same coding as Marx et al.26 did).
| Behavior label | Definition | Behavior category | Variable type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stand | The dog is on all four feet, not moving | Position | Duration |
| Sit | The dog's haunches are on the ground, but the elbows are not | Duration | |
| Lay down | The dog's elbows and sternum or side touch the ground | Duration | |
| Move | The dog is moving, walking, or running, 2–3 paws are on the ground the whole time | Duration | |
| Chair distance | The dog is near to the chair, within one body length | Proximity/distance | Duration |
| Door distance | The dog is near to the door, within one body length | Duration | |
| Rearing up against the door/wall | The dog stands on his/her back feet and puts the forelegs on the doors or the walls | Rearing | Duration, Latency |
| Scratching | The dog scratches the doors or the walls, with his/her forelegs, or tries to open the door by scratching the handle | Scratching | Duration, Latency |
| Orientation towards the door | The dog's head is pointing towards the door | Orientation | Duration |
| Orientation towards the chair | The dog's head is pointing towards the chair | Duration | |
| Exploration in general | Activity directed toward physical aspects of the environment, including sniffing, close visual inspection, distal visual inspection, and gentle oral examination such as licking | Exploration | Duration |
| Chair exploration | Activity directed towards the chair, including sniffing, close visual inspection, distal visual inspection and gentle oral examination such as licking | Duration | |
| Door exploration | Activity directed towards the door, including sniffing, close visual inspection, distal visual inspection, and gentle oral examination such as licking | Duration | |
| Tail-wagging | The dog is moving its tail constantly [not just because of the dogs’ movement (walking or running)] | Tail-wagging | Duration |
| Barking/yelping | A loud, short, wide pitch range sound with inverted U shaped pitch contour | Vocalization | Duration, Latency |
| Other vocalization | Other types of vocalizations that are not in the other categories (growling, howling, moaning, coughing, sneezing etc.) | Duration, Latency | |
| Whining | High-pitched, relatively tonal, short and cyclic or elongated vocalizations. (Excluded from the behavior PCA) | Duration, Latency | |
| Panting | A noise made by the dog, which sounds like a loud, moderate to rapid, open-mouth respiration | Duration |