An estimated 65.1 million households in the United States owned at least one dog according to a 2023/24 pet owners survey, making them the most widely owned type of pet across the U.S. at this time. Cats and freshwater fish ranked in second and third places, with around 46.5 million and 11.1 million households owning such pets, respectively.

Freshwater vs. salt water fish

Freshwater fish spend most or all their lives in fresh water. Fresh water’s main difference to salt water is the level of salinity. Freshwater fish have a range of physiological adaptations to enable them to live in such conditions. As the statistic makes clear, Americans keep a large number of freshwater aquatic species at home as pets.

American pet owners

In 2023, around 66 percent of all households in the United States owned a pet. This is a decrease from 2020, but still around a 10 percent increase from 1988. It is no surprise that as more and more households own pets, pet industry expenditure has also witnessed steady growth. Expenditure reached over 136 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, almost a sixfold increase from 1998. The majority of pet product sales are still made in brick-and-mortar stores , despite the rise and evolution of e-commerce in the United States.

According to the most recent pet population survey in 2024, approximately 36 percent of responding households in the United Kingdom (UK) owned at least one dog. Between 2010 and 2020, the percentage of households who own at least one dog remained between 22 and 26 percent. In 2021, the survey changed its format from face-to-face to online, meaning that data should not be directly compared with previous years. Pet dogs in the United Kingdom A downward trend is also reflected in the number of pet dogs owned in the UK, which was approximately 12 million in 2023. This constitutes a decrease of one million compared to 2022. The majority of British dog owners get their pets from a breeder of one specific breed. Approximately 14 percent get their dog from a rescue or rehoming center/shelter based in the UK. Most popular dog breeds in the United Kingdom The most frequently registered dog breeds in the UK are Labrador Retrievers and French Bulldogs. Since 2011, the number of registered French Bulldogs has increased from approximately 2,700 to over 54,000. The number of Labrador Retrievers remained relatively stable between 2011 and 2020. Both breeds saw a notable increase in registrations during the pandemic year of 2021. For example, the number of Labrador Retrievers increased from around 39,000 in 2020 to over 61,000 in 2021.

Off-leash areas When exercising dogs off-leash, owners and handlers must maintain control over their dogs at all times. Be alert and make sure that your dog isn't behaving aggressively towards other dogs or people. Dog owners are responsible for cleaning up after their pets. Fully fenced dog exercise areas Wellington has three fully fenced off-leash dog exercise areas: lower part of Treasure Island / Kainui Reserve, Hataitai (land opposite Cog Park) Ian Galloway Park in Karori / Northland – this area is lit from dusk until 8pm Taylor Park, Tawa (access through Redwood Station car park). On-leash areas Leashed dogs are welcome in many popular gardens, most of the Wellington Town Belt and on city streets. Central city Dog owners are welcome to walk through the central city with their dogs on-leash at all times of the day and throughout the year. Dogs across the city are not allowed to be left unattended in any public place.

Active Dog Licenses.

All dog owners residing in NYC are required by law to license their dogs. The data is sourced from the DOHMH Dog Licensing System (https://a816-healthpsi.nyc.gov/DogLicense), where owners can apply for and renew dog licenses. Each record represents a unique dog license that was active during the year, but not necessarily a unique record per dog, since a license that is renewed during the year results in a separate record of an active license period. Each record stands as a unique license period for the dog over the course of the yearlong time frame.

Dataset Card for Cats Vs. Dogs

  Dataset Summary

A large set of images of cats and dogs. There are 1738 corrupted images that are dropped. This dataset is part of a now-closed Kaggle competition and represents a subset of the so-called Asirra dataset. From the competition page:

The Asirra data set Web services are often protected with a challenge that's supposed to be easy for people to solve, but difficult for computers. Such a challenge is often called a CAPTCHA… See the full description on the dataset page: https://huggingface.co/datasets/microsoft/cats_vs_dogs.

This dataset is a modelled dataset, describing the predicted population of dogs per postcode district (e.g. YO41). This dataset gives the mean estimate for population for each district, and was generated as part of the delivery of commissioned research. The data contained within this dataset are modelled figures, based on national estimates for pet population, and available information on Veterinary activity across GB. The data are accurate as of 01/01/2015. The data provided are summarised to the postcode district level. Further information on this research is available in a research publication by James Aegerter, David Fouracre & Graham C. Smith, discussing the structure and density of pet cat and dog populations across Great Britain.

With an estimated 12. 5 million dogs in the UK alone, many people acquire a dog at some point during their lives. However, there are gaps in understanding about why UK owners decide to get dogs. Using a mixed-methods convergent design, this study identified the reasoning behind dog acquisition in a sample of UK current and prospective owners. An online survey of current (n = 8,050) and potential (n = 2,884) dog owners collected quantitative and qualitative data. Current owners were asked about the acquisition of their most recently acquired dog, whilst potential owners were asked about their dog ownership aspirations. Additional qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with current (n = 166) and potential (n = 10) dog owners. Interviews focused on the factors that affected why and how people acquire dogs. Of survey responses, companionship for the respondent was the most common reason for wanting to get a dog, reported by 79.4 and 87.8% of current and potential owners, respectively. Facilitating exercise was reported as a reason for wanting to get a dog by 48.2 and 69.7% of current and potential owners, respectively. There were significant differences between current and potential owners in their likelihood of reporting pre-defined reasons, factors and influences involved in their decision to get a dog. Compared to current owners, potential owners were significantly more likely to report being motivated by most of the survey response options offered (including companionship for themselves or other adults in the household, helping a dog in need, lifestyle changes and previous experiences of meeting dogs), suggesting that current ownership status may affect experience and/or reporting expectations around dog ownership. Reflexive thematic analysis of qualitative data confirmed the importance of these motivations and identified additional reasons and factors that drive dog acquisition. These were organized into three overarching themes: Self-Related Motivation, Social-Based Motivation, and Dog-Related Positive Affect-Based Motivation. These findings provide insights into owners' expectations of ownership which may inform the development of interventions to support potential owners' decision-making around acquisition to maximize both dog and human welfare.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is very common cause of chronic pain in dogs. We currently assume that all dogs with OA suffer similarly from pain and show similar altered sensitivity to sensory stimuli such as heat and pressure. However, in people suffering from OA, different types of pain associated with different sensory sensitivities are recognized, and these distinct pain patterns are likely associated with different underlying changes in the sensory nervous system. Furthermore, these distinct pain patterns are likely to predict response to different analgesic drugs. We predict, given the similarity between the disease of OA in dogs and people, that we will be able to identify similar distinct pain patterns in dogs suffering from osteoarthritis. We will study pet dogs with OA, recruited through liaison with veterinary surgeons. We will use a simple, validated experimental paradigm to determine underlying pain mechanisms in individual dogs and subsequently map the individual pain pattern or pain phenotype to allow us to link pain mechanism with clinical pain expression. These data support the publication "Alfaxalone anaesthesia facilitates electrophysiological recordings of nociceptive withdrawal reflexes in dogs (Canis familiaris" [PLoS One]

Dogs do not use their own experience with novel barriers to infer others’ visual access

https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9cnp5hqsh

This study reports two implementations of the "goggles task" with dogs.

Description of the data and file structure

All information needed to reproduce the analyses is in the folder "Data_and_code_for_Lonardo_et_al_2024_PRSB.zip".

The dogs' age is always reported in months. In all data files, missing data are indicated with NAs.

Experiment 1 - gaze following in a cooperative, foraging context.

The data are in the folder "data".

The script containing the statistical analyses is in the file called "goggles_analysis.rmd".

The R project and workspace are called "dog_goggles_exp.Rproj" and "goggles_workspace.RData", respectively.

The R functions kindly provided by Roger Mundry are in the folder "functions", the plots are in the folder "graphics".

The model outputs are in the folder "saves".

The script to...

NYC Reported Dog Bites.

Section 11.03 of NYC Health Code requires all animals bites to be reported within 24 hours of the event.

Information reported assists the Health Department to determine if the biting dog is healthy ten days after the person was bitten in order to avoid having the person bitten receive unnecessary rabies shots. Data is collected from reports received online, mail, fax or by phone to 311 or NYC DOHMH Animal Bite Unit. Each record represents a single dog bite incident. Information on breed, age, gender and Spayed or Neutered status have not been verified by DOHMH and is listed only as reported to DOHMH. A blank space in the dataset means no data was available.

The oldest confirmed remains of domestic dogs in North America are from mid-continent archeological sites dated ~9,900 calibrated years before present (cal BP). Although this date suggests that dogs may not have arrived alongside the first Native Americans, the timing and routes for the entrance of New World dogs are unclear. Here, we present a complete mitochondrial genome of a dog from Southeast Alaska, dated to 10,150 ± 260 cal BP. We compared this high-coverage genome with data from modern dog breeds, historical Arctic dogs, and American precontact dogs (PCDs) from before European arrival. Our analyses demonstrate that the ancient dog shared a common ancestor with PCDs that lived ~14,500 years ago and diverged from Siberian dogs around 16,000 years ago, coinciding with the minimum suggested date for the opening of the North Pacific coastal (NPC) route along the Cordilleran Ice Sheet and genetic evidence for the initial peopling of the Americas. This ancient Southeast Alaskan dog occupies an early branching position within the PCD clade, indicating it represents a close relative of the earliest PCDs that were brought alongside people migrating from eastern Beringia southward along the NPC to the rest of the Americas. The stable isotope δ13C value of this early dog indicates a marine diet, different from the younger mid-continent PCDs' terrestrial diet. Although PCDs were largely replaced by modern European dog breeds, our results indicate that their population decline started ~2,000 years BP, coinciding with the expansion of Inuit peoples, who are associated with traditional sled-dog culture. Our findings suggest that dogs formed part of the initial human habitation of the New World, and provide insights into their replacement by both Arctic and European lineages.

Contact patterns strongly influence the dynamics of disease transmission in both human and non-human animal populations. Domestic dogs Canis familiaris are a social species and are a reservoir for several zoonotic infections, yet few studies have empirically determined contact patterns within dog populations. Using high-resolution proximity logging technology, we characterised the contact networks of free-ranging domestic dogs from two settlements (n = 108 dogs, covering >80% of the population in each settlement) in rural Chad. We used these data to simulate the transmission of an infection comparable to rabies and investigated the effects of including observed contact heterogeneities on epidemic outcomes. We found that dog contact networks displayed considerable heterogeneity, particularly in the duration of contacts and that the network had communities that were highly correlated with household membership. Simulations using observed contact networks had smaller epidemic sizes than those that assumed random mixing, demonstrating the unsuitability of homogenous mixing models in predicting epidemic outcomes. When contact heterogeneities were included in simulations, the network position of the individual initially infected had an important effect on epidemic outcomes. The risk of an epidemic occurring was best predicted by the initially infected individual's ranked degree, while epidemic size was best predicted by the individual's ranked eigenvector centrality. For dogs in one settlement, we found that ranked eigenvector centrality was correlated with range size. Our results demonstrate that observed heterogeneities in contacts are important for the prediction of epidemiological outcomes in free-ranging domestic dogs. We show that individuals presenting a higher risk for disease transmission can be identified by their network position and provide evidence that observable traits hold potential for informing targeted disease management strategies.

Estimation of the population size is essential for understanding population dynamics. Estimating animal density using multiple methods and/or multiple attempts is required for accurate estimations. Raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) is native to East Asia, including Japan, and has become an invasive species in Europe. Information on raccoon dog density in their native range is important to understand their invasion; however, relatively few studies have been conducted on raccoon dog density in their native range. In this study, we extracted DNA from fecal samples of raccoon dogs inhabiting a small island in Japan and conducted density estimation over two periods using DNA capture-recapture methods: CAPWIRE and SECR. We also investigated sex ratio using genetic sex identification. Density estimates using SECR were approximately threefold different between the two study periods: 17.2 individuals per km2 in 2018 and 49.0 individuals per km2 in 2020. In contrast, estimates using CAPWIRE were relatively stable: 21.7 individuals per km2 in 2018 and 24.3 individuals per km2 in 2020. A drastic increase or decrease is not expected during the study period, and thus, density estimates using CAPWIRE are more reasonable than those using SECR. The small number of samples per individual might result in low accuracy of density estimates by SECR. The density estimated by CAPWIRE was similar to that in the main island in Japan and higher than that in Europe. Feeding competition with other omnivorous carnivores and/or predation risk by wolves might maintain the low density in Europe. The sex ratio of raccoon dogs was 1:1, which was similar to the values in invasive raccoon dogs and other canids. Further genetic census, including sex identification in various landscapes in their native and invasive range, will enable us to understand not only the ecology of raccoon dogs but also their adaptations to their invading areas.

Dog Licences FCC. Published by Fingal County Council. Available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0).The data in this is Dog Licensee's that shows the number of annual and Lifetime License's purchased in Fingal County Council.A yearly License costs €20 and a Lifetime License costs €140. We will continue to promote the requirement for a Dog License. It is a legal requirement to hold a valid License for any dog you own or are responsible for.Control of Dog Act 1982 & Control of Dogs Act 1992The Dog Warden service looks after stray and unwanted dogs and enforcement in relation to the Control of Dogs Acts. Links to the Control of Dogs Act, 1986, and the Control of Dogs (Amendment) Act, 1992. If you find a stray dog or wish to surrender your dog please contact Environment@fingal.ieor phone: 01-8905000....

This data package was produced by researchers working on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) Project, administered at Colorado State University. Long-term datasets and background information (proposals, reports, photographs, etc.) on the SGS-LTER project are contained in a comprehensive project collection within the Digital Collections of Colorado (http://digitool.library.colostate.edu/R/?func=collections&collection_id=3429). The data table and associated metadata document, which is generated in Ecological Metadata Language, may be available through other repositories serving the ecological research community and represent components of the larger SGS-LTER project collection. Additional information and referenced materials can be found: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/83512. We investigated the use of prairie dog towns by cattle (Bos taurus) on the shortgrass steppe of northeastern Colorado by conducting surveys of cattle and vegetation from June to August 1999. Cattle presence and behavior were recorded 3 times a week during driving surveys of 15 black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) towns. A subset of 3 pastures with prairie dog towns was intensively surveyed twice weekly wherein the habitat and activity of a randomly chosen focal animal was recorded every 6 minutes for 3.5 hours. Bite and step counts of other individuals were recorded for 5-minute intervals. Vegetation height and cover data were collected monthly on each of 6 habitats. Results from driving surveys and intensively surveyed pastures were similar; cattle neither significantly preferred nor avoided prairie dog towns. Bare ground cover on prairie dog towns did not significantly differ from most other habitats, but vegetation on prairie dog towns was significantly shorter on (mean = 6.7 cm) than that off (mean = 11.9 cm) prairie dog towns. Nevertheless, foraging observations indicated that there was no significant difference between cattle foraging rates on swales (70.9 bites/min) and prairie dog towns (69.5 bites/min). Thus, cattle on the shortgrass steppe appear to use prairie dog towns in proportion to their availability and, while there, they graze as intensively as they do on habitats not inhabited by prairie dogs. Resources in this dataset:Resource Title: Website Pointer to html file. File Name: Web Page, url: https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/mapbrowse?scope=knb-lter-sgs&identifier=526 Webpage with information and links to data files for download

Dogs are one of the most common species to be found as pets and have been subjects of human curiosity, leading to extensive research on their socialization with humans. One of the dominant themes in dog cognition pertains to their capacity of understanding and responding to human referential gestures. The remarkable socio-cognitive skills of pet dogs, while interacting with humans, is quite well established. However, studies regarding the free-ranging subpopulations are greatly lacking. The interactions of these dogs with humans are quite complex and multidimensional. For the first time, we tested 160 adult free-ranging dogs to understand their ability to follow relatively complex human referential gestures using dynamic and momentary distal pointing cues. We found that these dogs are capable of following distal pointing cues from humans to locate hidden food rewards. However, approximately half of the population tested showed a lack of tendency to participate even after successful familiarization with the experimental set-up. A closer inspection revealed anxious behavioural states of the individuals were responsible for such an outcome. Finally, we compared the results using data from an earlier study with dynamic proximal cues. We found that free-ranging dogs follow distal cues more accurately compared to proximal cue. We assume that life experiences with humans probably shape personalities of free-ranging dogs, which in turn influence their responsiveness to human communicative gestures.

Posterior mean, standard deviation, credible intervals, and convergence diagnostics for estimated effects on the logit (probability of deaths) due to rabies after a dog bite.

Variation in the spatial ecology of animals influences the transmission of infections and so understanding host behaviour can improve the control of diseases. Despite the global distribution of free-ranging domestic dogs Canis familiaris and their role as reservoirs for zoonotic diseases, little is known about the dynamics of their space use. We deployed GPS loggers on free-ranging dogs from six villages in rural Chad, and tracked the movements of 174 individuals in the dry season and 151 in the wet season. We calculated 95% and core home ranges using auto-correlated kernel density estimates (AKDE95 and AKDEcore), determined the degree to which their movements were predictable, and identified correlates of movement patterns. The median AKDE95 range in the dry season was 0.54km2 and in the wet season was 0.31km2, while the median AKDEcore range in the dry season was 0.08km2 and in the wet season was 0.04km2. Seasonal variation was, in part, related to owner activities. Dogs from hunting households had ranges that were five times larger in the dry season. At least 70% of individuals were more predictably ‘at home’ (<50m from the household) throughout the day in the dry season. 80% of dogs demonstrated periodicity in activity levels (speed) and just over half the dogs exhibited periodicity in location (repeated space use). In the wet season, dogs mostly exhibited 24-hour cycles in activity and location, with peaks at midday. In the dry season, dogs exhibited both 12 and 24-hour cycles, with either a single peak at midday, or one peak between 6am and 12 noon and a second between 6 and 10pm. Strategies to control canine-mediated zoonoses can be improved by tailoring operations to the local spatial ecology of free-ranging dogs. Interventions using a door-to-door strategy in rural Chad would best conduct operations during the dry season, when access to dogs around their household more reliably exceeds 70% throughout the day. Given the importance of use in hunting for explaining variation in dog space-use, targeting approaches to disease control at the household level on the basis of owner activities offers potential to improve access to dogs.

Methods GPS tracking of a large sample of domestic dogs living in human households in rural Chad.

Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are the first species to have been domesticated, and unlike other domesticated species, they have developed a special bonding with their owners. The ability to respond to human gestures and language, and the hypersocial behaviours of dogs are considered key factors that have led them to become man's best friend. Free-ranging dogs provide an excellent model system for understanding the dog-human relationship in various social contexts. In India, free-ranging dogs occur in all possible human habitations. They scavenge among garbage, beg for food from humans, give birth in dens close to human habitations, and establish social bonds with people. However, there is ample dog-human conflict on the streets, leading to morbidity and mortality of dogs. Hence the ability to assess an unfamiliar human before establishing physical contact could be adaptive for dogs especially in the urban environment. We tested a total of 103 adult free-ranging dogs to investigate their response to immediate social and long-term food and social rewards. The dogs were provided a choice of obtaining a food reward either from the experimenter's hand or the ground. The dogs avoided making physical contact with the unfamiliar human. While immediate social reward was not effective in changing this response, the long-term test showed a strong effect of the social contact on the dogs' response. Our results revealed that these dogs tend to build trust based on affection, and not food rewards. The study provides significant insights into the dynamics of dog-human interactions on the streets and subsequent changes in behaviours of dogs through the process of learning.

Social learning is highly adaptive in transmitting essential information between individuals in many species. While several mechanisms have been observed, less is known about how much animals can remember. However, results on observational spatial memory among caching species, i.e. a form of social learning allowing individuals to remember and pilfer food caches made by others, suggest that this ability correlates with their social organization. Both wolves and their domesticated form, dogs, are social species known to make food caches, and previous studies have shown that they both can use observational spatial memory abilities to find hidden food. In order to test how much socially transmitted information wolves and dogs can remember, we tested both species in a task requiring them to find 4, 6 or 8 caches after they observed a human hiding food items, or after a control condition where they could not observe the hiding. We found that both wolves and dogs retrieved more caches and were more efficient for the first few caches if they observed the hiding than in the control condition, suggesting that they did not simply rely on scent to find the rewards. Interestingly, wolves outperformed dogs irrespective of whether the caching could be observed or not. We suggest that this result is due to a difference in motivation/persistence between wolves and dogs rather than observational spatial memory.