Dog Owners’ Perceptions of Canine Body Composition and Effect of Standardized Education for Dog Owners on Body Condition Assessment of Their Own Dogs

Abstract

Overweight in dogs is an increasing problem, with a prevalence of about 30% in Sweden. To prevent the negative health effects of overweight, it is important to identify and treat canine overweight. Dog owners are essential for such interventions. The aim of this study was to evaluate dog owners’ perceptions of various canine body compositions via indirect assessment based on photos and direct assessment of their own dogs. A second aim was to evaluate the effect of a standardized practical education for dog owners on body condition score (BCS) assessment of their own dogs. The 9-point BCS scale was used, and two study samples were recruited: one was a survey sample where 564 dog owners assessed the BCS of dogs using photos, and one sample was a separate clinical sample where 82 dogs were assessed by their owners and by veterinary health care personnel. The initial BCS assessment by the dog owners in the clinical sample (mean ± SD) was significantly lower (4.6 ± 1.0) than the BCS assessed by the veterinary health care personnel (5.2 ± 1.1), but the owners improved significantly after receiving the standardized education (5.1 ± 1.0) (both p < 0.0001) and performed as accurately as the veterinary health care personnel (p = 0.99). The results should be verified in the broader dog owner population based on a randomized selection of participants. “Weight blindness”, defined here as an underassessment of normal-weight dogs and an inability to identify overweight dogs, is likely to have a negative impact on canine overweight prevalence. Deeper knowledge about dog owners’ perceptions can inform the development of new strategies to help prevent and manage canine overweight, whereof standardized practical education on BCS assessment is shown here to be one example.