News in English: Puppies bought during pandemic have high levels of bad behaviour

Almost all the owners said their dog had at least one problem behaviour, such as issues with control, attention-seeking or aggression. By the time the pets reached 21 months old, owners reported an average of five problem behaviours, while 20% said their pets had eight or more.

A study by the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has found four in five (82%) owners of ‘pandemic puppies’ have reported using aversive, or punishment-based, training methods to try to improve their dog’s behaviours. Aversive techniques, such as shouting at a dog, or jerking its lead, are linked to further behaviour issues and are also ineffective, researchers said.

The most frequent behavioural problems were control behaviours (84%), attention-seeking (77%), fear/avoidance behaviours (41%) and aggressive behaviours (25%). As to how they trained their dogs over the same period, nearly all (96%) owners said they praised their pets verbally, but 80% also reported using one or more aversive methods or aids and 39% admitted they used two or more.

RVC lecturer, Dr Rowena Packer, who led the study, said problem behaviours “are extremely common in pandemic puppies, and in many cases, are potentially being exacerbated by owners using punishment-based training techniques.

The study is part of the RVC Pandemic Puppies project that follows a group of puppies bought during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 under the age of 16 weeks from breeders in the UK.

source: Sky News