Behavioural advice interventions could reduce rate of dog relinquishment
"We hope that by sharing the findings it will present other animal welfare organisations with the opportunity to consider alternative ways to help more pets and people live better lives together" - Natalie Powdrill-Wells.
Providing behavioural advice at the point of relinquishment request could reduce dog rehoming rates, a study held by Wood Green The Animal Charity's welcome centre manager and Hartpury University graduate Natalie Powdrill-Wells has discovered.
Natalie analysed the call records of 1131 relinquishment requests to establish whether the caller accepted the offer of free behavioural advice, and results showed that the advice was accepted in 24.4 per cent of cases.
Data collected suggested that owners are prepared to accept behaviour advice at the first point of contact with a charity or rehoming centre, suggesting that advice interventions could potentially impact the rate of dog rehoming.
The study also found that the type of behavioural problems experienced were a significant predictor of whether the advice was accepted, with advice accepted almost six times more frequently by owners whose dogs had general management behaviour problems, as opposed to those who has problems with aggression between dogs in the home.
Natalie Powdrill-Wells, author of the study, commented: “This paper presents a really exciting insight into alternatives to having to give up a companion dog.
“With owners willing to accept behaviour advice instead of proceeding directly to rehome their dog, there is real potential to keep more dogs with families and reduce the stress and heartache involved for both parties.
“We hope that by sharing the findings it will present other animal welfare organisations with the opportunity to consider alternative ways to help more pets and people live better lives together.
“We’re really looking forward to taking this area of research further and attempting to understand more about the impact of interventions such as this one.”
Published in Animals, the study is open access and available to read here.
BSAVA is to partner with BVA Live (11-12 June 2026) to champion clinical research.
