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What Do We Know about Dog Owners? Exploring Associations between Pre-Purchase Behaviours, Knowledge and Understanding, Ownership Practices, and Dog Welfare.
- Source :
- Animals (2076-2615); Feb2024, Vol. 14 Issue 3, p396, 24p
- Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- Simple Summary: There are around 11 million pet dogs in the United Kingdom, yet there is more to learn about how best to ensure their welfare needs are met. We know that owners have an impact on their dog's well-being and studies have suggested that what people do before they get their dog can subsequently impact their dog's welfare. We used data collected by the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) for the 2017 PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report, the primary nationally representative means of monitoring the well-being of pets in the UK. We investigated associations between how much research people did before they got their dog and what they did or thought about. We found that owners who did more research before getting their dog were likely to be younger or have a higher education level. They were also more likely to have heard of the 'five welfare needs', have a realistic idea of the cost of owning a dog, and know the best place to go for help with their dog's behaviour. These findings help us understand what influences dog owners and suggest that doing more research before getting a dog is linked to improved knowledge, understanding, and behaviours. Despite many dogs living in homes in the UK, there is still more to know about the welfare of those individual animals. Past research has shown that owners' thoughts and behaviours have a substantial impact on their dog's welfare. This study aimed to better understand owners' pre-purchase behaviours, knowledge and understanding, and ownership practices, and explore any associations between these factors and their dog's welfare. We conducted further analysis of the data collected by People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) for their 2017 PDSA Animal Welfare (PAW) Report (n = 1814). We extracted variables to describe owner demographics (7), pre-purchase behaviours (1), knowledge and understanding (4), welfare indicators, (2) and ownership practices (4), and we tested for an association between these variables. We found more pre-purchase research was carried out by younger respondents and those with a higher education level. Also, more research was associated with feeling more informed about the five welfare needs and knowing to seek help for behaviour from appropriate sources. Overall, the study found several novel and significant results worthy of note and further exploration but did not find any strong connections between the variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- DOG owners
DOGS
ANIMAL welfare
HELP-seeking behavior
WELL-being
DATA analysis
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20762615
- Volume :
- 14
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Animals (2076-2615)
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 175373530
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14030396