The Occurance of Behavioural Problems in Re-Homed Dogs with Unknown Backgrounds

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of certain behavioural issues in dogs with unknown backgrounds, which had lived in their new homes for more than one year. Another aim was to find out if there was an effect on the owners satisfaction with the dog. 52 owners of rescue dogs with unfamiliar backgrounds, selected randomly from a list of 200, were chosen to take part in an online survey with 10 questions on the areas of separation anxiety, indoor urination/defecation, guarding of high value resource, on-leash aggression, aggression towards dogs, aggression towards people, escalated fear/nervousness and owner satisfaction. Each dog had lived in its new home for a minimum of one year. The results of the survey were that 92.3% of the dogs spent time alone and 93.8% of these did not have any problems with being left alone. 26.9% of the dogs had problems with protection or guarding of a high value resource and 9.6% had problems with indoor urination/defecation. 15.4% always had a problem with on-leash aggression and the owner considered it a problem while 23.1% only had an initial problem with on-leash aggression and it was not a problem. 61.4% had problems with aggression directed towards other dogs and 30.8% had problems with aggression directed towards humans. Of the dogs that reacted aggressively towards humans, 7.7% of these dogs had ever bitten a human. 11.5% had problems with escalated fear/nervousness.