Page 24 - Chiron Calling Spring 2017

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22 CHIRON CALLING
Are dogs in Developing Countries More Aggressive than those in Developed Countries?
By Lt S H Gosrani BVM&S MRCVS
The desirable traits of dogs across the world vary according to their functional usefulness. In many developed countries such as the UK, people keep dogs as household pets, gun dogs and working dogs (such as Police and Army dogs, guide dogs, sheep herding dogs) amongst other reasons. In developing countries such as Kenya, guard dogs are the most common use seen today. This makes aggression a highly desirable trait in dogs in developing countries.
Aggression has been de ned as the occurrence or likelihood of an escalating sequence of barking – growling – biting behaviour, and is an established personality or temperament trait in dogs. The kinds of aggression that can be displayed include fear-elicited, pain-elicited, intra-speci c, possessive, maternal, dominance, and protective aggression.
Numerous factors can affect how aggressive a dog is, including gender, breed, personality, the owner’s in uence, experiences in early life (socialization), and stress. Intrusive/painful stimuli such as restraint, injection or temperature taking may even trigger aggression in some dogs.
Over the years, various research has been conducted on the behaviour of dogs, but one question still remains: are dogs in a developing country more aggressive than those in a developed country? Lt Gosrani decided to carry out some research to test this hypothesis, travelling from Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, to Eldoret in rural Kenya, and from the Western Isle of Benbecula in Scotland to Yorkshire in England.
Data was collected from a total of 200 dogs in urban and rural areas in Kenya (developing) and the UK (developed). The aggressive traits observed included barking, growling, erect back hairs, baring of teeth and attempting to bite, and the aggression shown by each dog was rated on a scale of 0-3.
The percentage of dogs having an aggressiveness scale of 1,2,3
Aggressiveness in dogs in UK
Figure 1. showing the proportions of aggressiveness in dogs in the UK. At 95% con dence interval, (0.177,0.357) P=0.26
Aggressiveness in dogs in the Kenya
Figure 2. showing the proportions of aggressiveness in dogs in Kenya. At 95% con dence interval, (0.359,0.563) P=0.46
For difference P=0.003
Key to colour categories
Category 0 Category 2 Category 1 Category 3
in Kenya was 46% compared to 26% seen in the UK (P < 0.05), thus more dogs in Kenya were established to be aggressive than dogs in the UK. This is no surprise as many of the dogs observed in Kenya were bred to be guard dogs, whereas dogs in the UK often have numerous uses other than guarding duties. Many of the dogs displaying aggressive behaviour in Kenya were either GSDs or Rottweilers. A greater number of dogs in the UK were neutered than in Kenya, which could be another factor that may be affecting their aggressiveness, and needs to be considered.
The study was expanded to include age, area (rural/urban) and number of dogs living together. From the data, no relationship was established between the age of the dog and how aggressive it is. Dogs in urban areas of Kenya are seen to be more aggressive than dogs in urban areas of UK. This could be due to high crime rates in Kenyan cities resulting in dog owners keeping more aggressive dogs to ward off intruders. However, dogs in rural areas in Kenya were not seen to be more aggressive than those living in rural areas in UK. The crime rate in rural areas of Kenya may also be lower than that of the cities due to the sparse population, leading to a lower requirement of the dogs to guard properties.
In conclusion, dogs in Kenya have been evaluated to be more aggressive than those in the UK. However, additional data needs to be collected from other developing and developed countries to ascertain whether it is an individual developing and developed country difference, or if it indeed involves majority of the developing and developed countries in the world.
References have not been published due to limitations on the article size. The full paper with references is available on request via the Regimental Secretary.