House dogs are more anxious than expected and noise is the first source of disturbance for them, followed by fear. This is indicated by the research conducted on 13,700 dogs, published in the journal Scientific Reports by the group of the Finnish University of Helsinki coordinated by Hannes Lohi.
Behavioral problems and anxieties in dogs, the researchers write, reduce their quality of life and can lead some owners to give up on them. For this reason, and considering the large number of companion dogs, the researchers wanted to explore the incidence of anxiety in these animals.
Thus it emerged that 72.5% of the animals in the sample had behaviors related to states of anxiety, such as aggression and fear. The first cause of anxiety for four-legged friends is noise: 32% of the dogs in the sample are anxious for this reason, especially to disturb them are the fireworks.
Dogs also fidget when they hear thunder, but this mostly happens with age. The second most common form of anxiety that emerged from the research is fear, found in 29% of dogs. In particular, fear of other dogs was found in 17% of the sample, fear of strangers in 15% and fear of new situations in 11%.
Older dogs, on the other hand, are primarily afraid of height and walking on metal grates or shiny floors. Furthermore, male dogs are more often aggressive and hyperactive than females, which however are more fearful. Finally, differences were found between the breeds: the Romagna lagotto and the Wheaten Terrier, for example, are more sensitive to noise, while the Shetland Shepherd is more prone to fear.