outcomes may be categorised optimistic, while those showing heightened expectations of negative outcomes may be consid- ered pessimistic. This study pioneers the use of a portable, automated apparatus to train responses to auditory stimuli and test the cognitive bias of dogs. Dogs were trained in an operant, auditory discrimination task where they touched a target in order to receive a lactose-free milk reward and abstained from touching to avoid receiving water. Their cognitive bias was then probed by presenting ambiguous tones between those trained and recording latency to touch the target. Results were analysed using a Cox’s Proportional Hazards model. Dogs responded differentially to ambiguous cues, and individual dogs were more or less likely to respond to various ambiguous cues, indicating that cognitive bias both exists in dogs and differs between dogs. Detailed examination of the response latencies revealed tipping points where average latency increased by 100% or more, giving an indication of where dogs began to treat ambiguous cues as predictive of more negative outcomes than positive. Variance scores were calculated to provide an index of optimism using average latency and standard deviation at cues after the tipping point. The use of a mathematical approach to assessing cognitive bias data in animal studies offers a more detailed interpretation than traditional statistical analyses. The development and refinement of an appropriate mathematical model offers an exciting avenue for animal welfare research. Key words: cognitive bias; dog behavior; affective state 56 Empathyand recognition of dogs’ (canis familiaris) emotions: a pilot focusing on vets ELISA S. COLOMBO, EMANUELA PRATO-PREVIDE * Dipartimento di Fisiopatologia Medico-Chirurgica e dei Trapianti, Sezione di Neuroscienze, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Fratelli Cervi 93, 20090 Segrate (MI), Italy *Corresponding author: Emanuela.Prato-Previde@unimi.it Vets play a key role with regard to animal welfare. Companion animal veterinarians care for both animals and their owners, showing empathy towards “human clients” and “non-human pa- tients” at the same time. We investigated empathy towards animals and humans by vets, assessing whether they are related, influenced by length of service or gender and whether those most empathetic were more skilled in recognizing dog’s emotions. Ninety-five vets were tested using the Animal Empathy Scale and the Empathy Quotient. A subsample of 22 vets was additionally tested with standardized images of the 6 basic emotions of the dog. We found a significant correlation between empathy towards animals and to- wards humans. As previously found, women scored significantly higher in empathy towards animals, but there was no effect of length of service. Contrary to our expectations and to findings in the literature, no gender differences emerged in empathy towards people, but a career effect was found. Vets at the beginning of their profession (0-5 years) were less empathetic than their colleagues with more than 20 years experience. Interestingly, high scores in empathy towards animals were not associated with an improved ability to recognize dog’s emotions, whereas there was an associ- ation between empathy towards people and this ability irrespective of gender: subjects scoring high in empathy towards people were more skilled in recognizing dog’s emotions. Overall vets showed a limited ability to recognize canine emotions from facial expressions and some emotions were recognized no better than would occur by chance. Key words: empathy; vets; dog; emotions; recognition 57 How to raise a friendly and relaxed dog? Reaction of pet dogs in a socially stressful situation: is it linked to the owner interaction style? GIULIA CIMARELLI 1, 2, * , BORBÁLA TURCSÁN 1 , ZSÓFIA BÁNLAKI 3 , FRIEDERIKE RANGE 1, 2 , ZSOLT RÓNAI 3 , MÁRIA SASVÁRI-SZÉKELY 3 , ZSÓFIA VIRÁNYI 1, 2 1 Clever Dog Lab, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria 2 Wolf Science Center, Ernstbrunn, Austria 3 Department of Medical Chemistry, Molecular Biology and Pathobiochemistry, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary *Corresponding author: giulia.cimarelli@vetmeduni.ac.at Behavioral and physiological measures show that dogs can benefit from their owner’s presence in stressful situations, for instance when being approached by a threatening person. It has not been investigated yet, however, in what way the owners’ behavior and interaction style in everyday life (e.g. forms of verbal and non- verbal communication) may affect how dogs react in such, poten- tially dangerous situations. In this study, we tested 220 dogs- owners dyads in 8 standardized test situations (including greeting, playing, feeding, and physical restraint) and described the owners’ interaction styles with their dogs. In particular, we recorded behavioral variables that can be related to the owners’ degree and form of control on their dogs and the emotional support they can provide. In another task, we tested if and how the dogs react when being approached by an unfamiliar person in a threatening manner. We coded whether the dogs showed behaviors indicating fear and aggression, and also, by coding how they positioned themselves relative to their owner, whether they looked at her/him and how they used their owners in this situation. We found that, in com- parison to dogs that stayed close to their owners, dogs that reacted more independently (either in and aggressive or friendly manner) to the threatening person had owners who comforted them less in stressful situations, played with them less enthusiastically, and used less eye-contact and less friendly communication when their dog faced a problem. These results show that the reliance of dogs on their owners in a potentially dangerous situation is associated with a more communicative and comforting interaction style of their owners. Key words: dogs; owner interaction styles; social support; behavior; aggression 58 The vienna canine cognitive battery: assessment of cognitive functioning during development and aging in pet dogs L. WALLIS 1, 2, * , F. RANGE 1 , C. MÜLLER 1, 2 , S. SERISIER 3 , L. HUBER 1 , Z. VIRANYI 1 1 Clever Dog Lab, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University of Vienna and University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria 2 Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria 3 Royal Canin Research Center, Aimargues, France *Corresponding author: lisa.wallis@vetmeduni.ac.at In this large scale cross-sectional study we investigated the devel- opment and aging of various cognitive functions in pet dogs; social (social learning, perspective taking and communication), physical (spatial properties, and means-ends connections) and general cognition (learning, memory and problem solving), as well as basic control processes (motivation, inhibition, persistency, flexibility, and attentiveness). In order to avoid variation of data resulting from breed differences, one single breed, the Border collie was used. One Abstracts / Journal of Veterinary Behavior 9 (2014) e1ee19 e18