Reducing Dog Relinquishment to Rescue Centres Due to Behaviour Problems: Identifying Cases to Target with an Advice Intervention at the Point of Relinquishment Request

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Annually, thousands of dogs are relinquished to rescue centres globally. Dog owners report that a leading cause for relinquishment are their dogs’ behavioural problems. Efforts are needed to reduce dog relinquishment, by enabling dog owners to feel comfortable and confident with having them in their home. Free behavioural advice was offered to 1131 dog owners at the time of them calling to relinquish their dog to animal welfare charity. Behavioural advice was accepted by 24.4% of the dog owners calling to relinquish their dogs. The advice was accepted almost six times more often by owners with dogs with general management behaviour problems, compared to owners who had problems with aggression between dogs in their home. Offering free behavioural advice reduced the number of dog relinquishments. Consequently, the stress associated with maintaining a dog in sheltered conditions and rehoming them, and the trauma for the owner was eliminated in a quarter of cases. Moving forward, additional strategies are needed to enable more owners to keep their dogs in their homes and reduce relinquishment. ABSTRACT: Behaviour problems are a leading reason for dogs being relinquished to rescue centres across the world every year. The aim of this study was to investigate whether free behavioural advice would be accepted at the point of an owner requesting to relinquish their dog for behavioural reasons. The call records of 1131 relinquishment requests were reviewed and analysed to establish if the offer of free behaviour advice was accepted. The results showed that advice was accepted in 24.4% of relinquishment requests and behavioural problem was a significant predictor of whether advice was accepted (p < 0.001). The odds of advice being accepted were 5.755 times (95% CI: 2.835–11.681; p < 0.001) greater for a relinquishment request due to problems with general management behaviours compared to aggression between dogs in the home, representing 4.2% and 20.2% of overall relinquishment requests. These data suggest that owners are prepared to accept behaviour advice at the point of relinquishment request, so advice interventions could have potential to impact the levels of dog relinquishment to rescue centres. The impact of an intervention offering behaviour advice may be limited by overall levels of advice acceptance by owners and therefore complimentary proactive solutions to reduce behavioural relinquishments should also be considered.