Early Life Experiences and Exercise Associate with Canine Anxieties

Area of Science:

• Veterinary Behavioral Science
• Animal Psychology

Background:

• Canine anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety, phobias, and separation anxiety, share etiological factors with human and rodent anxiety.
• The shyness-boldness personality continuum is observed in domestic dogs, with significant breed and individual variations.
• Environmental and genetic factors influencing canine personality and anxiety disorders remain largely unidentified.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the environmental factors associated with fearfulness, noise sensitivity, and separation anxiety in a large Finnish family dog population.
• To explore the relationship between early life experiences, exercise, and the prevalence of anxiety-related behaviors in dogs.

Main Methods:

• Utilized questionnaire data from 3264 Finnish family dogs.
• Analyzed associations between environmental factors (socialization, maternal care, exercise) and reported anxiety behaviors.

Main Results:

• Lower quality maternal care and reduced early socialization experiences were significantly associated with increased fearfulness in dogs (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.002, respectively).
• Daily exercise levels emerged as the most significant environmental factor for noise sensitivity (p < 0.0001) and separation anxiety (p = 0.007), with less exercise correlating to higher prevalence.
• Findings indicate shared environmental influences on anxiety across species.

Conclusions:

• Early life experiences, particularly maternal care quality and socialization, are crucial for mitigating canine fearfulness.
• Adequate daily exercise is a key environmental factor for managing noise sensitivity and separation anxiety in dogs.
• These findings underscore the importance of environmental management for canine welfare and highlight crucial confounders for genetic studies of canine anxiety.