Study reveals dogs harder to train since COVID pandemic

By Stephen Beech

Dogs are harder to train since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research.

The study involving more than 47,000 pet pooches and their owners showed that dogs enrolled in the research after 2020 had lower average trainability scores.

The pandemic's "unique" circumstances - such as more dogs being adopted from shelters or owners being more stressed than usual - may have played a part, American scientists say.

The research analyzed four years of owner-reported data and involved more than 47,000 pets in the Dog Aging Project.

The original motivation was to find out how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the well-being of canine companions.

The researchers specifically examined trends in fear, attention and excitability, aggression, and trainability in owner-reported data from 2020 to 2023.

Study co-leader Dr. Courtney Sexton, from Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, said: "We saw that certain factors, such as a dog's life stage, sex, and size had some influence on their behavior.

"Interestingly, we found that throughout the Covid-19 pandemic time period, there were not substantial changes in dogs' overall behavioral profiles from year to year despite what we might have expected given the changes in environment and routines that many were experiencing at that time."

But the study did reveal one notable exception when it came to trainability.

Dogs enrolled in the study after 2020 had lower average trainability scores in contrast to dogs already enrolled in 2020 as adults who the researchers say probably benefited from pre-pandemic training experience.

While the data doesn't offer a definitive cause, the research team speculates that the unique circumstances of the pandemic -such as more dogs being adopted from shelters or owners being more stressed and less able to dedicate time to training, could be contributing factors.

Dr. Sexton said: “What was interesting was that the difference in reported trainability between the first year and the last year was the smallest of any in the averages.

“It’s a small statistical significance but could show that dogs, or their owners, are bouncing back.”

The researchers say the study, published in the journal PLOS One, establishes a "crucial" baseline for understanding dog behavior on a large scale.

Dr. Sexton said "With these data, we're excited to now have a starting point from which we can continue to follow changes in the behaviors of tens of thousands of dogs as they age, which will ultimately help us understand how behavior and health are linked."

She added, "When you have a data set this big, you really do have power in numbers.

"While we can't understand all the factors, when we find statistical significance, there is likely something there worth thinking about in its real-world context."

The researchers say future work will explore how factors such as a dog's location or their well-being might influence behavior over time.