Anxiety Is Common In Pet Dogs Too, Study Finds

A new study revealed that anxieties and behavior problems may actually be common in pet dogs. Unfortunately, these tend to decrease pet dogs' quality of life as well.

Anxiety In Pet Dogs

Do pet dogs get anxiety, too?

For a new study, researchers looked at an owner-reported survey to examine the prevalence and breed specificity of seven anxiety-like traits and behavior problems in 13,700 Finnish pet dogs across 260 breeds. These traits are noise sensitivity, fearfulness, fear of surfaces and heights, inattention/impulsivity, compulsion, separation-related behavior, and aggression.

The survey results revealed that 72.5 percent of pet dogs had some form of problematic behavior, with noise sensitivity being the most common. Specifically, 32 percent of the pet dogs were highly fearful of at least one noise and 26 percent were fearful of fireworks. The second most common anxiety in pet dogs is fear, which includes fear of other dogs, strangers, and new situations. The least common traits were separation-related behavior and aggression at 5 percent and 14 percent respectively.

Interestingly, noise sensitivity, as well as fear of heights and surfaces, increased with age, while younger dogs were more often inattentive or impulsive. Male dogs were also more aggressive compared to female dogs, while female dogs were more often fearful.

Breed Differences

Anxiety and behavior problems were found to be common across all breeds but, certain breeds seem to present certain behaviors more. For instance, Lagotto Tomano, Wheaten Terrier and mixed breeds were found to be the most sensitive to noise while Spanish Water Dogs, Shetland Sheepdogs, and mixed breeds were most fearful.

The findings suggested that anxiety and behavior problems may be common across breeds. Unfortunately, such behavior problems also decrease dogs' quality of life and may even lead the owners to give them up or put them down.

According to the authors, seeing as such problems are quite common in dogs, efforts should be made to decrease the prevalence of canine anxieties such as by making changes in breeding policies and identifying the environmental factors that cause anxiety and behavioral problems.

"There are around 77 million dogs in the United States and 85 million in Europe, and therefore these behavior problems can affect millions of animals," the researchers wrote. "As anxiety can impair welfare and problematic behavior may be an indication of poor welfare, efforts should be made to decrease the prevalence of these canine anxieties."