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Dog Owners (dog + owner)
Selected AbstractsDo they buy for their dogs the way they buy for themselves?PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 9 2010Goitom Tesfom Motivated by the fact that pet food and pet care is a big business and pet owners in the United States spend more on their pets each year, the objective of this research is to determine whether dog owners buy for their dogs the way they buy for themselves. The data show that dog owners are more loyal to dog food brands than human food brands. Dog owners are also found to be more sensitive to human food price than dog food price. The survey results also show that dog owners are more serious about buying healthy dog food than buying healthy human food. The findings are significant because they suggest that manufacturers and marketers of dog food and vet care service providers can gain some insight about the type of food and medical services dog owners might buy for their dogs by studying dog owners' food and medical service consumption decision patterns. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Feeding Practices of Dog and Cat Owners Reflect Attitudes Toward Pet FoodsJOURNAL OF ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY AND NUTRITION, Issue 11-12 2005K. N. Willoughby The PET DINER study was a telephone survey conducted to better understand why pet owners make certain nutritional decisions for their pets. Both dog and cat owners were included, which allowed us to differentiate the way people feed pet cats vs. pet dogs and how that might reflect owners' attitudes about pet foods. Prospective survey respondents were selected from local telephone books using a randomized process. A total of 18,194 calls were made from the five study sites between May and August, 2004. 1074 people (6%) representing 619 dogs and 455 cats completed the survey. Detailed information about feeding practices was collected. Pet owners' perceptions were assessed based on agreement/disagreement with statements regarding pet foods and the pet food industry. The Mann,Whitney Rank Sum test was used to detect differences between dog and cat owners and the Kruskal,Wallis one-way analysis of variance on ranks was used to evaluate differences among pet owners based on both type of pet and feeding practices (,75% commercial vs. ,50% home-prepared diets). More cats than dogs ate commercial pet food as ,75% of their main diet (96% vs. 87%, respectively; p < 0.001), and more dogs than cats ate a home-prepared food as ,50% of their main diet (6% vs. 3%, respectively; p < 0.009). For five of the statements, a difference in the attitudes of cat vs. dog owners was detected (p < 0.05). In general, this reflected more positive attitudes regarding commercial foods and less positive attitudes regarding home-prepared foods on the part of cat vs. dog owners. Analysis based on both type of pet and feeding practices identified significant differences among groups for 18/26 statements. However, when the Dunn's Method for pairwise multiple comparisons was applied, significant differences were due to feeding practices rather than type of pet for 17/18 statements. Only differences in attitudes about the statement ,raw bones can be safely fed to pets' remained significant for cat vs. dog owners feeding commercial foods. In conclusion, more cat owners than dog owners feed ,75% commercial foods to their pets and this is reflected in different attitudes about the nutritional soundness of commercial pet foods. [source] Why Do Some Owners Allow Their Dogs to Foul the Pavement?JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2000The Social Psychology of a Minor Rule Infraction This study combines observational, attitudinal, and self-report measures, and compares a group of irresponsible dog owners who allow their dogs to foul with a control group of responsible owners who clean up after their dogs. The owners are compared on a variety of attitudinal and personal orientation measures. We observed 101 instances of dog fouling in both park and pavement, and 87 respondents subsequently returned questionnaires. The majority (59%) of people observed cleaned up after their dogs. The irresponsible owners were significantly more tolerant of fouling (dog feces were seen as natural waste and biodegradable) and were more likely to agree that the laws were illegitimate and restrictive. [source] An epidemiological study of environmental factors associated with canine obesityJOURNAL OF SMALL ANIMAL PRACTICE, Issue 7 2010E. A. Courcier Objectives: To assess the relationships between socioeconomic and other environmental factors with canine obesity. Methods: This was a cross-sectional questionnaire study of dog owners attending five primary veterinary practices in the UK. Owners were asked about dog age, neuter status, feeding habits, dog exercise, household income and owner age. The body condition score of the dogs was also assessed. Factors hypothesised to be associated with obesity were investigated. Results: In total, data from 696 questionnaires were evaluated. Out of those data evaluated, 35·3% of dogs (n=246) were classed as an ideal body shape, 38·9% (n=271) were overweight, 20·4% (n=142) were obese and 5·3% (n=37) were underweight. Identified risk factors associated with obesity included owner age, hours of weekly exercise, frequency of snacks/treats and personal income. Clinical Significance: Environmental risk factors associated with canine obesity are multifactorial and include personal income, owner age, frequency of snacks/treats and amount of exercise the dog receives. Awareness about health risks associated with obesity in dogs is significantly less in people in lower income brackets. This phenomenon is recognised in human obesity. [source] Traumatic myiasis in dogs caused by Wohlfahrtia magnifica and its importance in the epidemiology of wohlfahrtiosis of livestockMEDICAL AND VETERINARY ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 2009R. FARKAS Abstract In the province of Al Hoceima, northern Morocco, and on two farms in Hungary, dogs were inspected for the presence of traumatic myiasis. Nine and four infested dogs were found in Morocco and Hungary, respectively. All the larvae and adults reared from them in the laboratory were identified as Wohlfahrtia magnifica (Schiner) (Diptera: Sarcophagidae). To our knowledge, these are the first cases of wohlfahrtiosis in dogs to be reported in these countries. All infested animals lived close to livestock, where wohlfahrtiosis was endemic. Infested body sites included limbs (six cases), external genitalia (two), ears (three), nose (one) and neck (one). Developing larvae caused severe welfare problems and tissue destruction in most cases. Although the number of cases reported here is small, wohlfahrtiosis in dogs may be very important from an epidemiological perspective because farm and stray dogs can act as both reservoirs and carriers of this parasitic fly species. Therefore, education of dog owners concerning the risk factors in endemic regions is recommended in order to reduce the prevalence of wohlfahrtiosis in dogs and thereby in livestock. Both owners and veterinarians should pay regular attention to any wounds and to the natural orifices of dogs, especially during the fly seasons. [source] Do they buy for their dogs the way they buy for themselves?PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 9 2010Goitom Tesfom Motivated by the fact that pet food and pet care is a big business and pet owners in the United States spend more on their pets each year, the objective of this research is to determine whether dog owners buy for their dogs the way they buy for themselves. The data show that dog owners are more loyal to dog food brands than human food brands. Dog owners are also found to be more sensitive to human food price than dog food price. The survey results also show that dog owners are more serious about buying healthy dog food than buying healthy human food. The findings are significant because they suggest that manufacturers and marketers of dog food and vet care service providers can gain some insight about the type of food and medical services dog owners might buy for their dogs by studying dog owners' food and medical service consumption decision patterns. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] The influence of dog ownership in childhood on the sociality of elderly Japanese menANIMAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 3 2010Miho NAGASAWA ABSTRACT In Japan, care for the elderly has been a serious social issue. The relationship between dog ownership and health of the elderly has attracted considerable attention, but it is still unclear whether dog ownership affects the health of owners. In this study, we focused on the experiences of dog ownership in the past. The questionnaire survey was conducted targeting elderly Japanese men and asking them to clarify whether the experience of dog ownership in the past influences their current mental and physical health. To examine the characteristics of the experience of dog ownership, we divided past dog owners by a hierarchical cluster analysis using the variables related to the experiences of dog ownership. We added the ,never owned a dog' group to the three groups that were provided by the cluster analysis, and conducted analysis of variance and multiple linear regression analysis using the variables of physical and mental health. The results showed that the group that owned their first dog at an early age and owned more dogs later scored higher in the companionship and social support scales. These results suggested that the experiences of dog ownership in childhood were related to the sociality of older men, such as the enhancement of their companionship with others. [source] Association analysis between canine behavioural traits and genetic polymorphisms in the Shiba Inu breedANIMAL GENETICS, Issue 5 2009Y. Takeuchi Summary The relationships between behavioural trait data and the genotype of 15 polymorphisms in eight neurotransmitter-related genes were analysed in 77 dogs of the Shiba Inu breed, an indigenous Japanese dog. The data were obtained from a 26-item questionnaire on the dog's behaviour, distributed to the dog's owners, through veterinary hospitals and the Shiba Inu breed magazine. A factor analysis of the questionnaire items extracted eight factors accounting for 66.8% of the variance. An association analysis between these factors and genetic polymorphisms indicated that the polymorphism of c.471T>C in the solute carrier family 1 (neuronal/epithelial high-affinity glutamate transporter) member 2 (SLC1A2) gene was significantly associated with Factor 1, referred to as ,aggression to strangers'. This association remained stable in separate analyses of data from surveys obtained from the hospitals and those obtained from the magazine. The results suggest that the c.471T>C polymorphism is associated with some types of aggressive behaviour in the Shiba Inu. Further studies using other dog breeds are necessary to extend these findings to dogs in general. [source] | ||||||||||