Factors associated with pet dog behavior in Thailand

Vet World Vol.16 May-2023 Article-8

Research Article

Veterinary World, 16(5): 957-964

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2023.957-964

Worakan Boonhoh^1,2,3,4, Tuempong Wongtawan^1,2,4, Prarom Sriphavatsarakom⁵, Natalie Waran⁶, and Chaiwat Boonkaewwan^1,2,4

1. College of Graduate Studies, Walailak University, Nakhon Si Thammarat, 80160, Thailand.
2. Small Animal Research Group, Akkhraratchakumari Veterinary College, Walailak University, Nakhon Si Thammarat, 80160, Thailand.
3. Center of Excellence in Innovation on Essential Oil and Bioactive Compounds, Walailak University, Nakhon Si Thammarat, 80160, Thailand.
4. One Health Research Center, Walailak University, Nakhon Si Thammarat, 80160, Thailand.
5. Department of Preclinic and Applied Animal Science, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, 73170, Thailand.
6. Faculty of Education, Humanities and Health Science, Eastern Institute of Technology, Hawke’s Bay, 4142, New Zealand.

Background and Aim: Dog behavior problems pose serious public health and economic and animal welfare concerns. There are many factors influencing dog behavior. This study aims to explore factors associated with pet dog behavior in Thailand using the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ).

Materials and Methods: The Thai version of the C-BARQ was validated in 2022. The online C-BARQ survey (Google Forms) was advertised and distributed on social media for 3 months. There were a total of 1827 respondents to the survey. The relationship among 12 subscales and variables was analyzed using Spearman’s correlation.

Results: “Excitability,” “attachment- and attention-seeking,” and “chasing” were the three most reported behavior problems. “Trainability,” a favored dog behavior, also had a high score in the study. These behaviors were associated with the owner’s age, house type, the dog’s historical background, the number of dogs and the presence of other species in the household, the dog’s training, diet types, and the daily number of meals. The lowest mean score was for “owner-directed aggression,” and it was associated with the dog’s gender and size, the number of dogs and the presence of other species in the household, the dog’s training, and the number of daily meals.

Conclusion: This is the first empirical study demonstrating factors related to dog behavior in Thailand. It provides an in-depth understanding of the prevalence and factors associated with Thai pet dog behavior and important knowledge for further studies to advocate for dog–human relationships and contribute to a reduction in dog abandonment in Thailand. Keywords: canine behavioral assessment and research questionnaire, dog behavior, questionnaire, dog-human relationships, Thai dogs.

Keywords: canine behavioral assessment and research questionnaire, dog behavior, questionnaire, dog-human relationships, Thai dogs.

How to cite this article: Boonhoh W, Wongtawan T, Sriphavatsarakom P, Waran N, and Boonkaewwan C (2023) Factors associated with pet dog behavior in Thailand, Veterinary World, 16(5): 957-964.

Received: 28-12-2022 Accepted: 27-03-2023 Published online: 09-05-2023

Corresponding author: E-mail: chaiwat.bo@wu.ac.th

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2023.957-964

Copyright: Boonhoh, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.