sessions
took
place
indoor laboratory
containing
cordoned-off
arena
measuring 5.5 m × 3.5 m.s
area
included
door
opened into a small room
target dog
placed
before
session
began
Each
session
involved
target
single partnern
arrival, owners
brought
laboratory
placed
remained
until
settled
relaxed
target dog
released
holding room
researchers
remained
record
session
manage
pilot study
indicated
dyads
that were left alone in the arena tended to focus their attention on the researchers and so did not interact with each other. Accordingly, to overcome this, we spoke to the dogs or petted them until they either started playing or had ignored each other for 5 min. Data collection took place between 6pm and 8pm, from June to August 2011.