Behavioural characteristics of dogs removed from hoarding situations

Autor: Franklin D. McMillan, James A. Serpell, Henrik Stryhn, Jenny Yu, Raphaël Vanderstichel
Rok vydání: 2016
Předmět:
Zdroj: Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 178:69-79
ISSN: 0168-1591
DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2016.02.006
Popis: Hoarding occurs when persons accumulate animals in numbers that exceed their capacity to provide for the needs of the animals. Typical animal hoarding environments are extremely unsanitary and unhealthy, with malnutrition, disease, and death all common elements. Anecdotal reports of dogs recovered from hoarding situations have described a wide array of abnormal behaviours. The purpose of this study was to characterize the differences between dogs recovered from hoarding situations and typical pet dogs. Dogs were recruited in this case-control study through American organizations that rehome animals recovered from hoarding situations. Behavioural evaluations of the dogs were obtained from current owners/fosterers using the Canine Behavioural Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ), which utilizes ordinal scales to rate either the intensity or frequency of the dog’s behaviours. A total of 408 formerly hoarded dogs were included in the study. Among the hoarded dogs, the male-to-female ratio was 0.82:1, and the dogs had been living in their adoptive homes for an average of 2.2 years (SD = 1.4 years) when the C-BARQ was completed. Twenty-eight behavioural outcomes were compared between formerly hoarded dogs and dogs representing a convenience sample of pets (restricted on the same breeds, age range, and rehoming status as hoarded dogs) to act as controls (n = 11,277). In comparison to the control dogs, formerly hoarded dogs were reported as displaying significantly higher scores related to fear (stranger-directed, dog-directed, and non-social; p
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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