Puppy Love: Domestic Science, “Women's Work,” and Canine Care

Abstract

The health and well-being of pets became a significant matter of medical and scientific concern during the first decades of the twentieth century. Addressing the case of dogs, this article contends that this circumstance was not primarily a consequence of developments internal to veterinary practice but rather emerged from the broader-based domestic-science movement. The elaboration of scientifically oriented approaches to dog care signals the incorporation of pets within a maternal ideal that emphasized care and efficiency as domestic virtues. Via consideration of canine milk foods, women-led canine medical institutions, canine-concerned domestic workers, and rationalist approaches to kennel design, the article demonstrates that dogs should be placed alongside such established objects of domestic scientific reform as children, homes, and human bodies. Moreover, it shows that scientific reconceptualizations of dogs relied on an extensive network of (primarily women) laborers that included food producers, nursing staff, kennel attendants, and breeders. The article thereby contributes to a growing body of scholarship highlighting ways in which the domestic-science movement forged new scientific objects and practices around the turn of the twentieth century. By the 1930s, dogs were routinely being upheld as exemplars of the kinds of homely existence made possible by scientifically informed approaches to domestic living.

A cross-sectional study of factors associated with regular dog walking and intention to walk the dog

“…Our finding may be due to unaccounted confounding but this is probably unlikely due to the large effect size found. Although women are generally known to be slightly less physically active than men [ 3 ], they are historically placed as the main caregivers including of domestic dogs [ 49 ] and may also be more likely than men to perform recreational walking [ 50 ] which may explain their higher intention to walk dogs in our study.…”