Italian study reveals whether dogs can be left-handed

The cognitive world of pets continues to hold extraordinary surprises, demonstrating just how much the brain mechanisms of our four-legged companions mirror our own biological mechanisms. One of the most fascinating areas of animal neuropsychology concerns body symmetry and the functioning of the brain’s hemispheres.

A recent and innovative scientific study, conducted entirely in Italy and coordinated by Professor Marcello Siniscalchi of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Bari, has officially demonstrated that dogs, too, exhibit a marked and innate asymmetry in the use of their limbs. By adapting a cornerstone of human psychology developed in the early 1970s—the Edinburgh HandednessInventory— the team of researchers in Bari developed a combined scientific protocol to determine whether a dog is actually left-handed or right-handed.

The four tests of the Doginburgh Inventory: manipulation and movement

The scientific study relied on a diverse sample of 47 perfectly healthy dogs—22 females and 25 males—ranging in age from 1 to 10 years. To overcome the limitations of previous empirical approaches, which relied solely on observing dogs playing with food, the researchers in Puglia designed what is known as the “Doginburgh Inventory.” This diagnostic protocol combines data from four different physical tests.

The first two clinical sessions focused on direct manipulation: the animals had to manipulate the famous conical Kong toy filled with food, then perform a reaching test to obtain a hidden reward. The other two tests, meanwhile, were designed to monitor pure locomotion by studying the first static step on a staircase and the first dynamic step taken on a transition platform.

Five categories of laterality to map stress and learning

Until now, the international scientific community had limited itself to a simple dichotomy between right- and left-handed individuals. The revolutionary aspect of the investigative method developed in Bari, however, lies in its ability to classify subjects into five distinct categories of motor laterality. This mapping, accurate to the millimeter, is not merely an academic classification exercise, as limb preference is closely linked to cognitive functions, behavioral responsiveness, and the dog’s individual response to stressors.

Knowing a dog’s dominant hemisphere becomes a valuable and predictive tool for optimizing training programs, measuring animal welfare parameters, and refining the specialized training of working dogs, such as rescue dogs or guide dogs.

Source: The Royal Society