Canine obesity in the Netherlands: prevalence, predisposing factors, and the effect of the owner’s knowledge and actions

Abstract

Background: Canine obesity is a medical disorder with many negative consequences. It has a prevalence of 34% up to 59% throughout the world and its predisposing factors consist of breed, age, gender and sexual status. Nevertheless, the primary cause of obesity is excessive intake of food energy and reduced physical activity. The causation of canine obesity can therefore almost exclusively be attributed to the husbandry strategies chosen by the owner. To make the right decisions, owners have to be able to assess their dog’s body condition and they also have to be aware of the predisposing factors for canine obesity. Objectives: 1) To see if owners are able to accurately assess the body condition score (BCS) of their dog. 2) To examine if the owner is aware of any predisposing factors for canine obesity, from which source they gained that information, and if they take any action to prevent their dog from becoming overweight. 3) To see if the answers to the questions listed above are associated with an above ideal body condition of their dog. 4) To analyze the prevalence of and predisposing factors for canine overweight in the Netherlands. Subjects: 119 dogs and their owners from four different, conveniently selected, veterinary practices in the Netherlands. For the multivariate risk factor analysis on predisposing factors, data (BCS and description) of 512 dogs from two other studies on canine obesity in the Netherlands were included. Methods: The dog’s BCS, on a 9-point scale, was assessed by both the owner and the researcher and the level of agreement between the two was analyzed using Cohen’s kappa coefficient. A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted, for which the researcher asked the owner various questions with the aforementioned objectives in mind. Multivariate binary logistic regression analyses were used to examine the association between the different variables and an above ideal body condition of the dog. Results: The prevalence of canine overweight was 46.1% and significantly associated risk factors were the gender, age and breed of the dog. There was a minimal level of agreement (p < 0.001) between owner and researcher regarding the dog’s BCS and weight category, with κ = 0.294 and κ = 0.246 respectively. 45.4% (n=54) of owners was aware of one or more of the predisposing factors, the majority of the owners gained their information from experience (n=28), and more exercise (n=69) was most often mentioned as a preventive action. Only underestimation of the BCS of the dog by the owner was associated with significantly higher odds (OR = 3.14, p = 0.011) for the dog of becoming an above ideal body condition. Conclusions: Underestimation of the BCS by the owner was significantly associated with an above ideal body condition of the dog, so veterinarians need to pay more attention to educating the owner about the BCS of their dog and which body condition is a healthy one. Nevertheless, this won’t be enough, because it apparently doesn’t matter if the owner knows about predisposing factors for canine obesity or says that they take action to prevent their dog from becoming overweight. More needs to be done in researching and addressing owner compliance regarding prevention and reduction of canine overweight, especially because the human-animal relationship and over-humanization of the dog by the owner both play an important role in managing canine obesity.