Julia Espinosa
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jespinosa.bsky.social
Julia Espinosa
@jespinosa.bsky.social
1K followers 570 following 31 posts
Postdoc in comparative psychology, biology, & neuroscience @YorkU & @Harvard | Interested in individual differences and life experiences shaping canine social behaviour | #ManyDogs Founder & Co-Director | My job is just dog 🐶 | she/her/ella #LatinaInSTEM
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jespinosa.bsky.social
Here are our graphs showing impact of adversity by breed. We found zero evidence that pit-bull types were more impacted by adversity than other breeds, and when it came to baseline aggressive and fearful behaviour? Look at that, solidly in the middle of the pack #CanineScience 🧪 #Boom #TheEnd 4/4
Dumbbell graph showing the impact of early life adversity by individual breed on aggressive behaviour. Permutation testing and linear regression found that there were significant effects of early life adversity for some breeds, including American Eskimo Dog. You know which breed isn't impacted in our study? Pibbles. They're not even close to the most aggressive dog listed. So knock it off and let them be. Dumbbell graph showing the impact of early life adversity by individual breed on fearful behaviour. Permutation testing and linear regression found that there were significant effects of early life adversity for some breeds, including American Eskimo Dog. You know which breed isn't impacted in our study? Pibbles. They're not even close to the most aggressive dog listed. So, knock it off and let them be.
October 4, 2025 at 8:43 PM
jespinosa.bsky.social
That's not all! Obvi, nurture doesn't tell the whole story of why dogs develop certain behaviour. We also found that the impact of trauma varied across dog breeds, suggesting that there is a genetic factor for risk or resilience to stress.
#NatureAndNurture #Genes&Environment #IndividualDifferences
Barbell plot summarizing the difference in average aggressive behaviour scores (X axis) for two groups of dogs within the same breed (Y axis). Group 1 (blue dots) are average scores for dogs without a history of early life adversity and Group 2 (red dots) are average scores for dogs of the same breed with a history of early life adversity in the first 6 months. Generally, breeds show a trend towards higher aggression scores for dogs with a history of adversity (i.e., the red dot is to the right of the blue dot), while a few breeds show the opposite trend. None of the instances where dogs with adversity scored lower than those without were significantly different. Dot size represents the number of dogs in the group, with Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers being among the most numerous, while English Shepherds were fewer. Significant differences in aggression scores between dogs with and without adversity are noted by carets next to breed names, including Siberian Husky, American Leopard Hound, and American Eskimo Dog.
October 2, 2025 at 8:22 PM
jespinosa.bsky.social
Like other studies, we found individual differences also matter for dog behaviour! Older age, smaller body size, and living with other dogs or children were associated with increased aggression and fear scores. We also found that some breeds seemed to be more impacted by stress than others 😓🐶
Image of a young human with short brown hair with their arms wrapped tightly around the neck of a light yellow, medium coated dog with dark brown eyes.
May 19, 2025 at 6:01 PM
jespinosa.bsky.social
A large sample of dog guardians (N = 4,497) shared life history and rated their dog's typical behavioural responses (with C-BARQ), e.g. when meeting an unfamiliar dog or human on a walk. We found that dogs with a history of adversity in the first 6 months were scored higher on fear and aggression
This is an infographic displaying information about the study design and participants that provided data. We asked about 7 specific types of adverse experiences that dogs could have experienced in their lifetime, including: being abandoned or living without a guardian in a shelter, physical abuse, being attacked by a dog/animal, being severely frightened by a human, suffering a physical injury, experiencing corrective punishments, and tethering outdoors for long periods of time. The right half of the figure includes a pie-chart and an icon of a person walking a dog on a leash and lists basic sample information. The total sample of dogs and guardians numbered 4,497 and included data from 211 distinct breeds (i.e., 52.3% of the sample). The mean age of dogs was 5.43 years and 44% of the total sample were female. Approximately 30% of single breed dogs were reported as experiencing adversity, while 36% of multiple/mixed breed dogs experienced adversity. Only responses that were concrete and specific were included, if guardians indicated that they were in anyway uncertain about the nature of the event or when it occured, they were not included in the "early life adversity" cohort.
May 19, 2025 at 6:01 PM
jespinosa.bsky.social
Pre-print alert📣 Interesting associations between guardian-reported early life adversity and problematic #behaviour in #dogs: doi.org/10.31234/osf... Along with Erin Hecht and colleagues, we found that adverse event timing, genetic ancestry, and environmental factors matter for dog behaviour 🐶🧪
The figure shows a 2-panel point-line graph of the mean C-BARQ scores for Aggression (left) and Fear (right) behaviour scales. Within each panel, data for 2 groups of dogs is summarized: mean scores those that have experienced early life adversity and those that have not. The Y axis indicates the mean score for on a 5-point rating scale with 95% confidence intervals around the mean. The X axis identifies the cohorts, Adversity = has a history of adversity in the first 6 months; No adversity = no adversity in the first 6 months. For both aggression and fear scores, dogs that have experienced adverse events in the first 6 months score significantly higher than those without early life adversity.
May 19, 2025 at 6:01 PM
jespinosa.bsky.social
#Science and #dogs for everyone! As special welcome, here's my dog from her days piloting head mounted eye trackers 🐶🧪
Red and white Pembroke Welsh Corgi sitting like the very best girl she is while wearing head-mounted goggles complete with eye-tracking and scene cameras attached.
November 26, 2024 at 2:12 PM
jespinosa.bsky.social
Wanted: a feed showcasing store mascots, those rare darlings that chill in boutiques/bodegas, etc 🐱❤️🐶 If you know of one please share (I don't know how to make feeds yet 🙏😂).
As down payment, here's one very good girl, Sunshine #Dogs #DogsOfBrooklyn
Tan and white dog sitting in the doorway of a boutique store looking out at the street.
November 16, 2024 at 6:08 PM