Trainability challenges? Virginia Tech study focuses on dog behavior at scale and the pandemic’s impact
The research breaks down four years of data reported by the Dog Aging Project, a massive multi-organizational initiative looking at data for 47,000 dogs.
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The COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced how easily dogs can be trained, according to a new study published by Virginia Tech University. The research was led by Courtney Sexton, a postdoctoral associate at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, and Yuhuan Li at the University of Washington.
The study looked at data from the Dog Aging Project, which included owner–reported data for 47,444 dogs from 2020 to 2023.
Researchers concluded that despite the shift in routine for pets due to the pandemic lockdowns and societal changes, dogs are resilient when it comes to withstanding the stress of these changes. Even so, it is important to note factors such as breed, age, and sex can play a role in certain behavioral traits like fear.
One takeaway was that male dogs tended to display less fearfulness, but more aggression than female dogs. Another key finding was that smaller dogs tended to behave more aggressively than larger dogs.
The numbers for fear and aggression have shifted back down towards normal levels, highlighting how routines may have started to shift back to “normal” from 2020 to 2023.
The one exception to this finding is when the study focused on trainability. Dogs who were enrolled in the study during or after thepandemic had lower trainability scores than those who enrolled beforehand. There’s no clear answer as to why, but an article published by Virginia Tech notes that “dogs being adopted from shelters or owners being more stressed and less able to dedicate time to training — could be contributing factors.”
The Dog Aging Project is still accepting dogs for enrollment on their website.
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