Prevalence and severity of behavior problems in dogs in the United States: A re-assessment

In a recent article in this journal, a large sample (N = 43,517) of behavioral data derived from the mini C-BARQ survey was used to estimate the prevalence of major behavior problems in the US pet dog population. According to those estimates, 49.9% of US dogs displayed moderate to severe anxiety, 55.6% displayed moderate to severe aggression, and 85.9% displayed moderate to severe separation anxiety. Here we argue that the methods used to calculate these frequencies involved choices that tend to exaggerate the severity and/or frequency of canine behavior problems. When the same set of data are analyzed using more appropriate methods, the calculated percentages of dogs displaying behavior at the moderate to severe level ranges from 14.1%–28.2% for the different types of anxiety/fear measured by the mini C-BARQ, 1.2%–30.4% for the various types of aggression, and 9.3% for separation-related behavior. The findings illustrate the need for caution when interpreting and extrapolating from the results of behavioral survey data and emphasize that the process of categorizing any behavior as "problematic" is inherently subjective since it depends on the unique perceptions of individual animal owners. This type of information is not accessible using C-BARQ or mini C-BARQ assessments. • Arecent study reported surprisingly high rates of behavior problems in US dogs. • Appropriate reanalysis of the same data revealed much lower prevalences. • These results are comparable with those obtained in previous surveys. • They highlight the need for caution when interpreting behavioral survey data. • 'Behavior problems' is an inherently subjective category.