SURVEY RESULTS

I would like to thank all those that took the time to respond to my questionnaire

This survey establishes what factors have the most effect on amounts of exercise the dog's is given and the subsequent effects on behaviour

During the time that I have been studying for the "Think Dog!" Advanced course I have attended many workshops given on a wide variety of topics by knowledgeable people. The topics have ranged from puppy socialisation, assessing rescue dogs, clicker training and tackling behaviour problems as well as an interesting insight into selection and care of prospective police dogs.

One of the speakers, John Rogerson, made an interesting comment that he would not let any of his puppies to go to a home that had a fenced garden. He argued that the owners of puppies and dogs who had homes with fenced gardens would be less likely to take their dogs out denying them the important opportunity to meet other people and other dogs.

He felt that the puppy would be less likely to gain enough life experiences during the 3 - 18 week window considered to be the optimum time for socialisation and habituation to take place. He felt that puppies that do go to homes with fenced gardens were more likely to experience behaviour problems later on in life because they were unlikely to get exposed to many new experiences. The behaviour problems that he would most commonly expect to see that could be attributed to lack of early learning would be fear aggression directed towards humans and other dogs.

His argument was reasonable if his first premise that dog owners with fenced gardens were less likely to take their puppies and dogs out was correct consequently I produced a survey to test his theory. As there may be other factors that might have an equally significant effect on the amount of exercise a dog or puppy receives the survey examines other likely areas that could affect the amount of exercise a dog will receive and what effects they may have on behaviour.

Just looking at whether owners have fenced gardens does not take into account the environment that the dog is living in. People with small fenced gardens may be more likely to exercise their dogs daily than those with large fenced gardens and these differences will be considered in the survey. My survey was taken from 101 dog owners from many countries representing a variety of breeds and lifestyles.

The dogs were aged from 6 months to 16 years + and the majority of owners had more than one dog. Owners enjoyed such pastimes with their dogs as Obedience, beauty shows, agility, flyball, tracking, search and rescue as well as companionship. Service dogs such as hearing dogs, seeing dogs, pat dogs and those trained to pull wheel chairs or disabled bikes as well as working as an extra pair of hands.



Are people with fenced gardens less likely to exercise their dogs?

Behaviour problems were found to occur in 49% of the dogs that were included in the survey. The typical problems displayed were towards other dogs 24%, people 9% or both dogs and people 15% and 1% said to be nervous.

67% of owners that took part in the survey had fenced gardens, 16% had partially fenced and unsecured gardens and the remaining 17% had unfenced gardens. When we look at how much exercise is given within each of the fencing categories we can see that the largest proportion of owners that exercise their dogs once or more each day have fenced gardens.

Exercise amounts	Fenced gardens	Partially fenced	Unfenced gardens	Totals
Most days	15%	3%	3%	21%
Never	1%	1%	1%	3%
Once daily	13%	2%	1%	16%
Seldom	7%	2%	3%	12%
Sometimes	10%	3%	3%	16%
Three times daily	5%	1%	2%	8%
Twice daily	17%	4%	4%	25%
Grand Total	67%	16%	17%	100%

The assumption that puppies and dogs would not be exercised sufficiently if their owners had a fenced garden seems to be unfounded the survey found no evidence to support this theory. Those with fenced gardens were more likely to exercise their dogs once or more daily while those with partial or no fencing had more owners that did not exercise dogs at all. On this basis having an unfenced garden is no guarantee that dogs would receive regular exercise, the reverse would appear to be true, exercise quotas do not increase when there is no fencing.

Does where the dog live affect the amount of exercise it might receive?
We can see from this chart that most of the owners included in the survey came from more populated areas. Very few owners came from farm or remote areas.

The sizes of gardens in the more populated areas such as the city or suburbs were mainly small or medium where gardens in small towns were mainly large or small. As would be expected locations that are less densely populated such as in rural villages, farms and remote areas tended to have large gardens. Whatever the size of the garden, the majority of gardens were fenced.


This chart indicates that a few owners had no gardens at all, these owners regularly exercised their dogs twice or more every day. Most of the owners lived in the more populated areas and had fenced small to medium sized gardens, these owners were more likely to exercise their dogs once or more every day. Contrary to John Rogerson's theory owners with fenced gardens were more likely to exercise their dogs. As these areas also had the largest amount of small or medium gardens it is not surprising that they had the greater number of dogs receiving regular exercise.

Location had a noticeable effect on garden size and on the probability that the garden would be fenced, location also affected the type of exercise given and in most cases, the amount of exercise given.

Are dogs that are left alone for long periods less likely to be exercised? The survey found that the longer dogs are left on their own the less exercise they receive.

There was an exception where a small percentage of those dogs left for 9 or more hours on a regular basis were exercised two or three times daily. The general trend was that those dogs that were left for shorter periods were more likely to be exercised once or more daily.

Does the number of dogs kept affect the amount of exercise given?

The largest number of owners 52% in this survey kept one or two dogs, another 34% had 3 or 4 dogs with the remaining 14% owning from 5 to 10 dogs.

Indications are that where only one or two dogs are kept they tend to receive regular daily exercise. The numbers of dogs kept does not seem to have a significant effect on exercise, dogs that are infrequently exercised are found in fairly high proportions no matter how many dogs are kept but generally the more dogs owned the less exercise they are liable to receive.

Conclusion: As the number of dogs increases exercise amounts would appear to diminish. Although there is evidence that owning larger numbers of dogs reduces the amount of exercise the dogs receive, there was also a high incidence of dogs being exercised infrequently or never when only one or two dogs were kept. The relevance of how many dogs were kept in respect of exercise amounts was not conclusive but was pertinent when considering the effects of numbers and the incidence of behaviour problems.

Summary
The factors that had the most impact on exercise quotas were found to be the size and location of the owner's gardens rather than the absence of fencing. The majority of people that took part in the survey were found to live in areas that were more densely populated. Typically people with small gardens in more populated areas were more likely to exercise their dogs regularly irrespective of the presence of fencing. The one factor in this group that had most impact on exercise amounts was where owners did not have a garden at all. In this category dogs were usually exercised twice or three times daily but were more likely to have behavioural problems.

Dogs that were left on their own for more than 4 hours each day received less exercise, and there was some indication that the amount of exercise reduces when more than two dogs were kept. Although this finding was not conclusive as a number of owners that seldom left their dogs alone or that only had one or two dogs were also found to never exercise their dogs at all.

Owning large numbers of dogs and leaving them for long periods does have some effect on exercise amounts but not as much as where the dog lives and the size the garden or not having a garden at all.
Does a lack of exercise have an effect on behaviour problems?
Whilst the survey attempts to establish a connection between exercise quotas and other factors that might affect the way a dog may behave, behaviour is only a problem when it is perceived as a problem by the owner. Exercise patterns may be altered to avoid encountering situations that the owner feels are most likely to give rise to problem behaviour, once the dog is no longer being given the opportunity to display the behaviour the owner may consider that the dog doesn't have a problem.

To determine if the dog's environment can influence behaviour I looked at the percentage of owners that said their dogs had behavioural problems and the factors that they may have in common. As the largest number of people in the survey had fenced gardens it is not surprising that they had the greatest incidence of dogs with problem behaviour however they also had the highest percentage of dogs without behaviour problems. Problems were proportionally less likely to occur where owners had partial or unfenced gardens, but not to any significant degree.

Aggression towards other dogs was the problem most commonly found wherever owners lived irrespective of the size or fence status of the garden. Those with fenced gardens who tended to live in the more densely populated areas preferred lead-walking exercise and those owners living on farms, remote areas or small towns were more likely to give free running exercise.

Those with unfenced gardens living in small towns, farms and rural areas that exercise by free running reported no incidences of aggression at all. Where owners had no garden at all the only type of exercise given was lead walking and all the owners reported problem behaviour either towards other dogs or humans or both.

Most owners lead walked their dogs and this group was less likely to have dogs that displayed behaviour problems. In the group where owners exercised by free running there were a greater proportion of dogs within that group displaying aggression towards other dogs and humans

Summary

Owners with fenced gardens were more likely to have dogs that had behaviour problems, they also tended to exercise dogs by lead walking. These dogs had more opportunity to meet other dogs and people and one would expect those dogs that constantly came into contact with other dogs and humans to be better socialised and equipped to cope with the interactions. However owners that fell into this category were more likely to experience behaviour problems with their dogs.
Fewer dogs came from the scarcely populated remote areas and had fenced or partially fenced gardens, they were all given free running exercise and were aggressive towards other dogs where those from rural areas were more likely to show aggression towards people.

Type of exercise, size of garden or fenced status did not seem to have a significant influence on behaviour. Location was more likely to effect behaviour with those that live in cities, suburbs or remote areas having a higher proportion of dogs with behaviour problems. Dogs living in the more isolated areas may not often meet other dogs or people and consequently seldom get the opportunity to display aggressive behaviour, therefore it may not be seen as a problem by the owner.

Is Behaviour effected by the amount of time the dog spends alone?

The owners were split into five groups starting with those owners that hardly ever leave their dogs alone to those that regularly leave them for up to 11 hours daily. There was two owners that left their dog in excess of 11 hours daily of these, one owner said that they did not have any behaviour problems with their dogs while the other owner said their dogs had problems with humans and dogs.


The largest proportion of owners left their dogs for approximately 8 hours each working day and of these the majority had behavioural problems with the biggest proportion of dogs being aggressive towards humans and or dogs.

Owners that left their dogs for 5 - 7hours, 8 hours and 9 hours or more were more likely to experience behavioural problems than those left for no more than 4 hours or that were never left at all. Only in the group that were not left alone was there a significant difference between those dogs that did not have behavioural problems and those that did. This suggests that the length of time that dogs are left alone has quite a marked effect on behaviour, dogs that are left alone for long periods are more likely to have behavioural problems.

Similar comments can be made about the effects that the amount of exercise has on the dogs behaviour. Dogs that do get regular exercise are less likely to have behaviour problems, as the exercise becomes less frequent there is a higher proportion of those dogs showing behavioural problems especially towards other dogs. The small numbers of dogs that are walked three times daily are an exception to the above, 64% of these dogs exhibit behaviour problems.

When evaluating the effect that keeping several dogs may have on behaviour, problems are less likely to occur if less than 4 dogs are kept.

However a significant proportion of these that do have behaviour problems show aggression towards other dogs and humans. Where larger numbers of dogs are kept together there would seem to be a higher proportion of those dogs that have behaviour problems. As the number of people keeping large numbers of dogs were not well represented a true comparison was not possible.

Clearly where smaller numbers of dogs are kept a high percentage of those dogs did not have behavioural problems, the picture changes as the number of dogs increase and the likelihood of problems occurring also increases.

74% of owners did not have children in the home but where there was more than one child the percentage of dogs in each group with behaviour problems increased, there was little apparent affect on the amount of exercise dogs from families with more than one child received. Numbers of adults had no noticeable effect on behaviour but the amount of exercise is generally increased when there are more than one adult in the household.

Where people had health problems the amount of exercise was reduced but dog behaviour did not seem to be affected to any great degree.

Where dogs were fed twice a day they were less likely to display behaviour problems.

Conclusion
The initial purpose of the survey was to determine if there was a connection between having a fenced garden, the amount of exercise dogs or puppies receive and the incidence of behaviour problems. The premise was that puppies and dogs whose owners had fenced gardens were less likely to receive regular exercise, less likely to be socialised and more likely to experience behaviour problems.

My findings were that the majority of owners had fenced gardens and they exercised their dogs regularly once or more daily, disproving Mr Rogerson's theory that people with fenced gardens were less likely to exercise their dogs. However, those with fenced gardens also had the highest percentage of dogs with behaviour problems.

Those with fenced or partially fenced gardens and that exercised their dogs regularly had a lower incidence of dogs with behavioural problems, dogs that were exercised infrequently and had fenced or partially fenced gardens were more likely to have behaviour problems.

In populated areas gardens would be smaller and fenced, dogs were more likely to be exercised on leads in the local neighbourhood rather than free running. In this group, those dogs that were left alone for long periods were more likely to display aggression towards other dogs, they were less likely to be regularly exercised and the same applies when owners kept larger numbers of dogs. The small number of owners that had no gardens at all exercised their dogs three times daily and their dogs had a high incidence of behavioural problems.

As the majority of the owners lived in more heavily populated areas they would be more aware of a behavioural problem as the dog would be constantly coming into contact with other dogs and people. Because they are lead walked they are less able to interact freely with other dogs and are more likely to have aggression problems with other dogs. When a dog is living in a more remote area and not constantly exposed to stimuli that might cause anxiety or aggressive responses the owner may feel that the problem is not a major problem as it is seldom displayed.

Lack of fencing is not the cause of reduced exercise amounts. The survey found that owners with large fenced or unfenced gardens were less likely to exercise their dogs regularly and therefore the dogs did not get the same opportunity to come into contact with other dogs or people as the dogs that were exercised in the more heavily populated areas. However, lack of exercise would seem to have the most significant effect on behaviour, owners that left their dogs for long periods or kept large numbers of dogs, were less likely to exercise their dogs regularly.

The amount of time a dog was left alone, the number of dogs kept and the location that the dog lives in are more likely to affect the amount of exercise given and the incidence of behaviour problems. Finding owners who had no garden at all would ensure that the dog got regular exercise but could not guarantee that they would be free from behaviour problems.

If Mr Rogerson wished to find the ideal owner to ensure that the dog would receive regular exercise the survey found that the owner would have a fenced or partially fenced garden in the suburbs or a rural location. To avoid behaviour problems the dog would receive two or more walks daily preferably lead walking in the suburbs and free running in a rural area. Ideally the dog would be an only dog or one of a group of four and the owner would not leave the dog on its own for more than 4 hours daily.

Reference:
Statistics compiled from survey questionnaire.

Charts were not able to be displayed in the web version of the survey, if you would like me to send a full version please email me at Paulinelen@pau-lin.freeserve.co.uk

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