Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ): Validation of the Italian Translation

SIMPLE SUMMARY: A large percentage of dogs expresses problematic behaviors that can be explored using questionnaires. However, due to the subjectivity of owners’ replies, before their use in research, questionnaires should undergo a process evaluating their reliability and validity. This is also necessary when an existing and valid questionnaire is translated into a different language. The aim of this study was to validate an Italian translation of the widely used Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ), originally developed in English. The statistical analysis showed that 62 of the 100 questionnaire items could be grouped into 13 factors, each underlying a category of dog behaviors, as expected from the original structure of C-BARQ as well as from previous research using this tool. The main differences between the Italian factorial structure and that of the most recent English version regarded: items related to stranger-directed fear and aggression, which are represented by two separate factors in the English version, were grouped in a single factor in the Italian one; the factor Dog rivalry, present in the English version but not in the Italian one; and factors Dog-directed aggression and Touch sensitivity, which emerged in our analysis, but are not present in the English one. In spite of these differences, there is large overlap between our factorial structure and that of studies using C-BARQ in other languages, indicating that the 62-item Italian version presented in the current study can be reliably used in research. ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to develop an Italian translation of the 100-item Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ) version and to validate its psychometric properties, in order to facilitate systematic, large-scale studies on dog behavior for Italian-speaking dog owners. A total number of 803 responses by dog owners were collected online. Using the Principal Axis Method and Common Factor Analysis with Quartimin oblique rotation (p < 0.05), a factorial structure was found including 13 factors composed of 62 items and explaining 53.5% of the total variance. Eight factors showed high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.70), namely: stranger-directed aggression/fear, dog-directed fear, owner-directed aggression, separation-related behavior, chasing, dog-directed aggression, attachment/attention seeking, and elimination problems. Three factors were slightly under the threshold and two had only modest reliability (non-social fear, energy level, touch sensitivity, excitability and trainability). A potential explanation for factors with low reliability is that the composing items do not describe behaviors resulting from homogeneous stimuli or situations. Although our factorial structure resembled in most respects that of the most recently published Canadian version, some important exceptions are present regarding dog rivalry, intraspecific aggression, fear/aggression towards strangers, touch sensitivity and chewing inappropriate objects. Such differences may be due to demographic and/or cultural differences between the sampled populations. Overall, the results suggest that a 62-item Italian C-BARQ can be reliably used in studies on dog behavior.