I thought this may interest some. I took part in the study, I can't remember whether it was one or both dogs. This is an excerpt from the spring newsletter.
"by Chris P. Janelli, Executive Director
May 8, 2019 Salisbury, CT.
The Center for Canine Behavior Studies, Inc.’s latest study Demographics and Comorbidity of Behavior Problems in Dogs has been published in the Journal of Veterinary Medicine.
The study findings provide insight into the magnitude of owner-reported canine behavior problems encountered by owners. It is hoped that findings will encourage veterinarians to further incorporate aspects of behavior problem management into their daily work. More important, emerging findings from a follow up study with owners having problem dogs could make a significant impact in preventing misbehaving dogs from entering the shelter “system” in the first place and helping dogs surrendered because of behavior, escape the “system” through adoption and thus avoid euthanasia.
Some Study Highlights·
A total of 3201 dog owners submitted information about 5018 dogs, spanning mixed and pure breeds.
· Among 2,480 dog owners and 4,114 dogs, the prevalence of owner-reported problematic behaviors was 85%.
· Males and female dogs were equally represented; a majority of which were neutered.
· The top three dogs in the study were Labrador retrievers (382), golden retrievers (138) and German shepherds (132).
· The two most prevalent acquisition sources for the dogs were rescues (43
and breeders (33
, while the least reported source was pet stores (1
· Gender, neuter status, origin, and lineage were found to have a notable effect on behavior problem prevalence.
· Age, neuter status, origin, and lineage were found to have a notable effect on the number of behavior problems per dog.
· Dogs from rescue situations displayed significantly more behavior problems than dogs acquired from breeders.
· Neutered males and females were almost twice as likely to exhibit behavior problems as intact dogs.
· Fear and anxiety-based problems were reported in 44% of cases and were the most prevalent behavior problems reported.
· Aggression was the second most common behavior problem reported (30% of dogs).
· An association was found between owner-direct aggression and maleness.
· Biting: of note is the high number of dogs (91
that had never bitten a person or another dog. Of the 9% that did, almost a third (29
of the biting incidents involved more than one bite.
· A majority (92
of biting incidents reported were for neutered dogs with castrated males accounting for 52% of the total reported bites and spayed females accounting for 41%.
I must thank every one of our nearly 6,000 member “citizen scientists” not only for your participation in three huge studies, but for your patience in waiting to participate in more. Moving forward in 2019, we expect to accelerate our research with more but smaller studies. We welcome feedback and suggestions from all of our members regarding possible study ideas."
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