Prevalence, comorbidity, and behavioral variation in canine anxiety

Not a one-way road – severity, progression and prevention of firework fears in dogs

“…In line with past studies, the results indicate that fear of fireworks is highly prevalent in the pet dog population, with 52.16% in the sample at least partly affected, and almost one third of dogs receiving the highest possible severity score. Previous studies found a prevalence of noise fears ranging from 23% to 49% (1–3). While it was explicitly stated that dogs both with and without noise fears were of interest, it is conceivable that owners with affected dogs might have a higher motivation to participate in the survey.…”

“…This may indicate that neutering per se may not actually be causative for a higher fear severity (or prevalence, as in (1,3)), but it may just be coincidental with other factors predisposing to firework fears, and this could even explain contrasting results from previous studies: (1) reported that neutered dogs (odds ratio: 1.73) were more likely to be affected by noise fears, whereas (2) found no effect of neutering. The current study used a Type 3 model, meaning that all other variables were accounted for when calculating the effect of a given predictor.…”

“…Fireworks appear to be the most common trigger of noise fears in dogs, although the great majority of affected dogs concomitantly show fears of gunshots and thunderstorms (1,2,12). Breed or breed group has consistently been identified as being associated with different susceptibility to firework fears (1–3,12), pointing to contributing genetic factors. While the observed breed differences in noise fears are likely polygenic (12), a few genes contributing to noise fears in some breeds have recently been identified (15,16).…”

“…Besides breed, age is a common risk factor, with the prevalence of firework fears increasing with age (1–3). While fear of noises is usually observable at an early age (median onset: 2 years in (3)), one possible factor contributing to the development of noise fears may be pain, and this may explain why in some dogs an onset of noise fears occurs at a later age: In a recent study comparing ten noise-sensitive dogs with an underlying muscoskeletal pain problem and ten noise-sensitive dogs with no detectable pain, the age of onset was almost four years later in the painful dogs (mean 6.5 years), compared to the non-painful dogs (mean 2.67 years)(17).…”

“…Although a number of publications indicate behavioural signs shown by dogs when exposed to loud noises (e.g. trembling, freezing, panting, salivation, lowered body posture, tucked tail, hiding, escape attempts, social withdrawal, pacing, involuntary elimination, and destructive behaviour with or without self-injury (3,12,13,18–21), there is a lack of knowledge on how long such behavioural changes as a result of firework exposure typically persist. One study reports that the median duration of behavioural changes in the aftermath of a firework was two hours (with a mean of 1.83, SD 0.044, (4)), but little is known on the distribution of responses, and how many dogs may be affected beyond the timeframe of a few hours.…”