Citation

Canejo-Teixeira R, Neto I, Baptista LV, Niza MMRE. Open Vet. J. 2019; 9(2): 140-146.

Affiliation

CIISA, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária/Ulisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tripoli)

DOI

10.4314/ovj.v9i2.8

PMID

31360653

PMCID

PMC6626146

Abstract

The human-dog relationship is at least 16,000-years old and is mutually beneficial to both dyadic members. When the human-dog relationship becomes dysfunctional, however, there can be serious consequences for both parties and for society. Unfortunately, dysfunctional dyads are normally only identified after consequences have been felt (e.g., dog-human aggression) limiting the action that can be taken to prevent such occurrences. To evaluate whether these dysfunctional dyads can be preemptively identified, a questionnaire analyzing the owners' dog health care histories was administered to an urban dog owning population. Multiple correspondence analysis (n = 1,385) was conducted and identified three clusters accounting for 37.1% of the total variance, while four moderate positive correlations were found: "unspecified trauma" with "vehicular trauma" (r = 0.303, p < 0.001), "bitten" with "bit other animal" (r = 0.345, p < 0.001), "bit a person" with "bit other animal" (r = 0.369, p < 0.001), and "chronic illness" with "hospitalized" (r = 0.297, p < 0.001). These results suggest that a simple questionnaire can identify potential characteristics of functional and dysfunctional dyads. In functional dyads, humans tend to be responsible for their dogs' well-being, while dysfunctional dyads show the opposite characteristics, reporting experience with trauma and dog aggression.

Language: en

Keywords

Dysfunctional dyads; Human–dog bond; MCA; Ownership characteristics; Questionnaire