Development and validation of the puppy blues scale measuring temporary affective disturbance resembling baby blues.

It has been described that many puppy owners experience a state called puppy blues involving stress, worry, anxiety, strain, frustration, or regret. While puppy blues is a commonly used term among dog owners, the term is nearly nonexistent in scientific literature. In turn, analogous phenomenon, postpartum affective disturbance of infant caregivers, is well described in the literature.

Pet and owner personality and mental wellbeing associate with attachment to cats and dogs.

Human-pet attachment can impact the life of both parties, and the identification of underlying characteristics related to attachment style can improve human-pet relationships. We employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore associations between human, dog, and cat personalities, owner mental well-being, unwanted pet behavior, and attachment styles in a sample of 2,724 Finnish pet owners (92% women) and their 2,545 dogs and 788 cats. Our findings reveal that owner neuroticism and poor mental well-being are linked to anxious pet attachment in both dog and cat owners.

Breed, age, and social environment are associated with personality traits in dogs.

Personality in pets and other domesticated animals is important for their well-being and it can also influence human-animal relationships. Genetic and environmental factors influencing unwanted behavior in dogs are somewhat well known, but the factors influencing dog personality remain understudied. Here we examined environmental and demographic factors associated with seven broad personality traits in a survey of over 11,000 dogs.

Feline litter box issues associate with cat personality, breed, and age at sterilization.

Objective: To identify potential risk factors for feline litter box issues (eg, house soiling).

Animals: 3,049 privately owned cats.

Procedures: Data were collected using a validated, owner-completed survey with convenience sampling.

Fearfulness associates with problematic behaviors and poor socialization in cats.

Problematic behavior is a remarkable welfare issue in cats (), as it is one of the most common reasons for relinquishment. The probability of developing problematic behaviors is likely influenced by several variables, but these remain little studied. In this study, we examined the associations of fearfulness, aggression toward humans, and excessive grooming with nearly thirty variables in a survey dataset of over 3,200 cats.

Aggressiveness, ADHD-like behaviour, and environment influence repetitive behaviour in dogs.

Repetitive behaviour ranges from variants of normal repetitive behaviours to abnormal repetitive behaviours. The domestic dog spontaneously performs different repetitive behaviours, which can be severe and impair the quality of life and the dog-owner relationship. We collected comprehensive behavioural questionnaire data from almost 4500 Finnish pet dogs and studied the effect of several demographic, environmental, and behavioural factors on canine repetitive behaviour with logistic regression.

Personality traits associate with behavioral problems in pet dogs.

Personality traits, especially neuroticism, strongly predict psychopathology. The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris Linnaeus, 1758) is used as a natural model for psychiatric disorders, but the similarity between dog and human personality and the association between dog personality and unwanted behavioral traits, such as fearfulness, aggressiveness, and impulsivity/inattention, remain unknown. This study utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) with survey data of 11,360 dogs to examine the associations and correlations between seven personality and ten unwanted behavioral traits.

Canine hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention share similar demographic risk factors and behavioural comorbidities with human ADHD.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder impairing the quality of life of the affected individuals. The domestic dog can spontaneously manifest high hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention which are components of human ADHD. Therefore, a better understanding of demographic, environmental and behavioural factors influencing canine hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention could benefit both humans and dogs.

Reliability and Validity of Seven Feline Behavior and Personality Traits.

Domestic cats are popular pets, and they have personalities, with stable behavior differences between individuals. Lately, feline behavior and personality have been studied with different approaches, for example, with owner-completed questionnaires. The majority of these studies, however, lack a sufficient validation and reliability assessment of the questionnaires used.

Aggressive behaviour is affected by demographic, environmental and behavioural factors in purebred dogs.

Aggressive behaviour is an unwanted and serious problem in pet dogs, negatively influencing canine welfare, management and public acceptance. We aimed to identify demographic and environmental factors associated with aggressive behaviour toward people in Finnish purebred pet dogs. We collected behavioural data from 13,715 dogs with an owner-completed online questionnaire.

Reliability and Validity of a Dog Personality and Unwanted Behavior Survey.

Dogs have distinct, consistent personalities, but the structure of dog personality is still unclear. Dog personality and unwanted behavior are often studied with behavioral questionnaires. Even though many questionnaires are reliable and valid measures of behavior, all new questionnaire tools should be extensively validated.

Active and social life is associated with lower non-social fearfulness in pet dogs.

Behavioural problems are leading welfare issues in domestic dogs. In particular, anxiety-related behavioural problems, such as fearfulness and noise sensitivity are highly prevalent conditions that cause distress to fearful dogs. To better understand the environmental factors associated with non-social fear, including noise sensitivity, fear of novel situations, and fear of surfaces and heights, a large online survey including data on 13,700 Finnish pet dogs was performed by the dog owners.

Prevalence, comorbidity, and breed differences in canine anxiety in 13,700 Finnish pet dogs.

Behaviour problems and anxieties in dogs decrease their quality of life and may lead to relinquishment or euthanasia. Considering the large number of pet dogs and the commonness of these problematic behaviours, a better understanding of the epidemiology and related molecular and environmental factors is needed. We have here studied the prevalence, comorbidity, and breed specificity of seven canine anxiety-like traits: noise sensitivity, fearfulness, fear of surfaces and heights, inattention/impulsivity, compulsion, separation related behaviour and aggression with an online behaviour questionnaire answered by dog owners.

Inadequate socialisation, inactivity, and urban living environment are associated with social fearfulness in pet dogs.

Problematic behaviours are severe welfare issues for one of the world's most popular pets, the domestic dog. One of the most prevalent behavioural problem that causes distress to dogs is social fearfulness, meaning fear of conspecifics or unfamiliar people. To identify demographic and environmental factors associated with fear of dogs and strangers, logistic regression was utilised with a large dataset of 6,000 pet dogs collected through an owner-filled behavioural survey.