Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31805064›Full record

ArticlePloS one2019

Behavioural risks in female dogs with minimal lifetime exposure to gonadal hormones.

Melissa Starling, Anne Fawcett, Bethany Wilson, James Serpell, Paul McGreevy

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
20citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

20 citing papers in PubMed.

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  19. Sequential Analysis of Livestock Herding Dog and Sheep Interactions.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2020
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  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Melissa StarlingSydney School of Veterinary Science, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-2394-3234
Anne FawcettSydney School of Veterinary Science, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Bethany WilsonSydney School of Veterinary Science, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
James SerpellSchool of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
Paul McGreevySydney School of Veterinary Science, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Spaying of female dogs is a widespread practice, performed primarily for population control. While the consequences of early spaying for health are still being debated, the consequences for behaviour are believed to be negligible. The current study focused on the reported behaviour of 8981 female dogs spayed before 520 weeks (ten years) of life for reasons other than behavioural management, and calculated their percentage lifetime exposure to gonadal hormones (PLGH) as a proportion of their age at the time of being reported to the online Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ). We found that 23 behaviours differed between entire and spayed dogs, of which 12 were associated with PLGH and 5 with age-at-spay (AAS). Two behaviours, chewing and howling, were significantly more likely in dogs with longer PLGH. In contrast, longer PLGH was associated with significantly reduced reporting of 10 (mostly unwelcome) behaviours. Of these, one related to fearfulness and three to aggression. The current data suggest that dogs' tendency to show numerous behaviours can be influenced by the timing of spaying. They indicate how female dog behaviour matures when gonadal hormones are allowed to have their effect. The differences reported here between undesirable behaviours of spayed and entire dogs were in the range of 5.33% and 7.22%, suggesting that, for some dogs, partial or complete denial of maturation may reduce howling and chewing and improve retrieval and recall, but have other undesirable consequences. Veterinarians may take these data into account to discuss the risks and benefits of spaying with clients, and the timing of the procedure.

Indexed as

Age FactorsAnimalsDog DiseasesDogsFemaleGonadal HormonesMental DisordersOvariectomyRisk AssessmentSurveys and QuestionnairesGonadal Hormones

Identifiers

PMID31805064
PMCPMC6894801

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.