Three Things to Know
Problematic dog behavior is a leading cause of owner surrenders. Researchers investigated whether offering free behavior counseling at the point of behaviour-related dog relinquishment would influence owners’ decisions.
The overall uptake of free behavioral advice was low, with only 24.4% of owners scheduling behavior-related dog relinquishments accepting it. However, owners of younger and rescued dogs were more receptive.
Owners citing general management issues (e.g., jumping, pulling) were most likely (42.6%) to accept the free advice, while those reporting inter-dog aggression at home were least likely (11.4%), likely due to the severity and potential risks.
For Dog Welfare Practitioners
Given that behavioral problems are a major cause of owner surrenders, and research indicates the limited impact of offering free advice at the point of relinquishment, a proactive approach is essential, especially for new adopters.
Shelters can play a critical role by facilitating initial introductions between resident and adopted dogs and offering trial adoptions to ensure compatibility. Furthermore, to counter the stereotype of older dogs being untrainable, shelters should promote community messaging and specialized training classes.
The Full Picture
Each year, thousands of dogs are relinquished to shelters and rescue centres in the UK and around the world, often due to behavioural problems. Behavioural issues — such as aggression and destructiveness — are among the most common reasons for relinquishment and significantly reduce a dog’s chances of being rehomed.
While support services could help many owners keep their dogs, most do not seek help before relinquishing them, often due to lack of awareness. In addition, the success of these interventions depends on understanding which behaviour issues are more likely to prompt owners to accept support. This study, titled “Reducing Dog Relinquishment to Rescue Centres Due to Behaviour Problems: Identifying Cases to Target with an Advice Intervention at the Point of Relinquishment Request”, investigates whether the specific behavioural issue reported at the time of relinquishment can predict an owner’s willingness to accept behavioural advice and keep their dog.
Study Methods
Woodgreen, an animal charity based in Cambridgeshire, UK, requires individuals to call before potentially surrendering a pet and offers free behavioural support to those calling for behaviour-related reasons. This study analysed data from 1,131 calls made to the charity, between January 2017 and August 2019, due to behavioural issues.
Each call record included details such as the dog’s sex, neuter status, age, breed group (based on Kennel Club categories), whether the dog was a pedigree or crossbreed, source of acquisition, the behavioural reason for relinquishment, and whether the owner accepted the offer of behaviour advice. The behavioural reasons were grouped into 11 categories, including various forms of aggression, anxiety, excessive activity, general management issues, and separation-related behaviours.
Study Results
Out of 1,131 analysed relinquishment request records, 62.5% of dogs were male and 59% were neutered. Most dogs (48.5%) were aged 2–7 years. Crossbreeds made up 52.7% of the sample. The top sources of dog acquisition were family/acquaintance (22.6%), internet/social media (22.4%), and breeders (21%). However, when grouped, rescue organizations (Woodgreen and others) accounted for the largest single source (24.9%).
The most cited behavioural issues were aggression between dogs in the home (20.2%) and aggression around children (19.3%). Overall, aggression-related issues accounted for 68.3% of all cases.
Acceptance of Behaviour Advice
Only 24.4% of owners accepted the offer of free behavioural advice. Acceptance was more common for:
- Male dogs (26.7%) vs. females (20.5%)
- Neutered dogs (27.7%) vs. entire dogs (19.6%)
- Dogs under 6 months old (33%)
- Crossbreeds (26.2%) vs. pedigrees (22.4%)
- Pastoral breeds (29.6%) had the highest advice acceptance; toy breeds the lowest (14.6%)
- Dogs adopted from Wood Green (40.3%) or other rescues (32.6%) were more likely to have advice accepted compared to those from family/acquaintances (14.8%).
The low overall acceptance may reflect barriers like lack of time, lack of awareness, or owners already having sought advice elsewhere. Dog owners tend to prefer free support, often seeking help online or from vets rather than from rescue organisations. Awareness and accessibility of advice services likely influence uptake. Prominent promotion of services, such as hotline numbers on websites, has been shown to increase engagement.
Analysis by Behaviour Issue
Owners reporting the following behaviour issues were most likely to accept advice:
- General management behaviours (42.6%)
- Anxious or obsessive behaviours (34.3%)
- Aggression around unfamiliar dogs (32.9%).
This study found that relinquishment-related reasons (RRR) involving general management behaviours (e.g., jumping up, pulling on a lead, poor recall) made up only 4.2% of cases. Although limited in impact, reducing these cases could still help free up resources in rescue centres. Owners of younger dogs (under 2 years) were more likely to accept advice for these issues, possibly due to the perception that younger dogs are more trainable. Free or low-cost group training classes could be a resource-efficient intervention for this type of behaviour, potentially reducing future behaviour problems and the risk of relinquishment.
IOn the other hand, owners were the least likely to accept advice for aggression-related behaviours, especially aggression between dogs in the home. Aggression between household dogs has a high chance of poor outcomes and often requires long-term management, which many owners may not be able or willing to commit to.
Notably, barriers to accepting advice for in-home aggression include concerns about complexity, time, cost, presence of children, and home environment. In contrast, owners were nearly four times more likely to accept advice for aggression towards unfamiliar dogs outside the home. This highlights that owners’ perceptions of severity and feasibility of behaviour modification significantly influence whether they accept advice.
Given these complexities, proactive strategies—such as encouraging thorough research before getting a dog, promoting attendance in training classes, or offering trial adoptions—could help prevent problems before they begin.
Conclusion
The study shows that offering free behaviour advice at the point of relinquishment request can be a valuable opportunity to prevent behaviour-related dog relinquishment. However, advice acceptance is strongly influenced by the type of behavioural problem, with complex issues like inter-dog aggression being less likely to result in advice uptake. To improve outcomes, proactive measures like early training, better-informed dog acquisition, and owner education should be prioritized. Future research is needed to understand what owner characteristics predict advice acceptance and to assess how effective advice is at preventing actual relinquishment.
Miscellaneous
Data From Study:
Shelter Dogs > Reducing Shelter Intake > Efforts to Tackle Shelter Intake
Year of Publication:
2021
External Link:
Powdrill-Wells N, Taylor S, Melfi V. Reducing Dog Relinquishment to Rescue Centres Due to Behaviour Problems: Identifying Cases to Target with an Advice Intervention at the Point of Relinquishment Request. Animals. 2021; 11(10):2766. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11102766