Quality of life of the pet dog: Influence of owner and dog's characteristics

Abstract

The present study investigates how characteristics of both the dog, Canis familiaris, and their owner\ud influence the quality of life (QoL) of the pet dog. The investigation was carried out using a multiple\ud approach: (1) three questionnaires which investigated characteristics of the dog and their owner and\ud care given to the dog, (2) simple physical examination of the dog, (3) the Strange Situation Test to\ud investigate the dog’s attachment to their owner and (4) the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS)\ud test.\ud A sample of 104 dog–owner dyads participated in the study. The level of care was found to be positively\ud influenced by marital status (single) and negatively by the age of the dog, length of the dog–owner\ud relationship and neutering. The best physical condition was found for pure breed dogs belonging to men and\ud to people who prefer dogs among pets while physical condition decreases for aging dogs or those with a long\ud relationship with their owner. Attachment to the owner was stronger for dogs with a long relationship and\ud those belonging to people who had had previous experience with pets and those with many emotional bonds.\ud Conversely, the attachment level was lower for pure breed dogs and those whose owners shared the property\ud with other people. LAPS was influenced only by owner features: people more attached to their dogs are\ud those who do not live with children and who do have many emotional bonds. Finally, the majority of dogs\ud had a high level of QoL which was influenced positively by the number of emotional bonds of the owner and\ud negatively by the dog’s age and length of the dog–owner relationship

Highly Educated Men Establish Strong Emotional Links with Their Dogs: A Study with Monash Dog Owner Relationship Scale (MDORS) in Committed Spanish Dog Owners

“…This agrees with previous research, in which human factors have been found to have an important effect in dog-owner relationship, experiences and management, such as relinquishment [7], level of attachment to the dog [26, 49], responsible dog ownership practices [19, 26] or level of relationship [18,26]. Ultimately this may indicate that certain aspects of the owner-dog relationship may be a marker of the person’s psychological state and/or the availability of, and individual ability to use, other sources of social support.…”

Dog Obesity: Can Dog Caregivers' (Owners') Feeding and Exercise Intentions and Behaviors Be Predicted From Attitudes?

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Toward a psychology of human–animal relations.

“…When dogs socialized with humans were given the choice between interacting with another dog and a human, dogs often preferred social interaction and proximity with the human (Tuber, Sanders, Hennessy, & Miller, 1996). test which type of attachment animals have developed toward their human caregivers (e.g., Marinelli, Adamelli, Normando, & Bono, 2007;Palmer & Custance, 2008;Topal et al, 2005). More re cently, Zilcha-Mano et al (201 la) directly applied Bowlby's psy chological attachment taxonomy and developed the Pet Attach ment Questionnaire, which assesses attachment anxiety and avoidance.…”