CBARQ Desexing Data

These data underpin an original article that reports strong associations between castration and undesirable behaviour in domestic dogs. This is of importance because it indicates that denial of puberty has many long-term undesirable behavioral consequences. This finding runs counter to current veterinary advice and could have transformational consequences for veterinary medicine. Furthermore, it is of societal importance because behavioural problems are the most common cause of euthanasia in dogs under three years of age and are the main reason for dogs being surrendered to shelters. Drawing on data from 6,235 male dogs desexed before ten years of age for reasons other than behavioral management, the report introduces a novel index: percentage lifetime exposure to gonadal hormones and shows how this reveals more detail than other metrics such as age at desexing. The current study focused on the reported behavior of 6,235 male dogs castrated before 520 weeks of life for reasons other than behavioral 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). Forty behaviors differed between entire and castrated dogs, of which 25 were associated with PLGH and 14 with age-at-castration (AAC).

本数据集支撑了一篇原创研究论文，该论文报道了阉割与家养犬不良行为之间存在显著关联。该发现具有重要学术与实践价值，其揭示了青春期发育受阻（即阉割）会引发诸多长期不良行为后果。此研究发现与当前兽医临床主流建议相悖，或将对兽医学领域产生变革性影响。此外，该研究具备社会层面的重要意义：行为问题是3岁以下犬只实施安乐死的最常见诱因，也是犬只被移交至动物收容所的首要动因。本研究依托6235只于10岁前因非行为管理原因接受去势的公犬数据，提出了一项全新的衡量指标——终身性腺激素暴露占比（percentage lifetime exposure to gonadal hormones，PLGH），并证实该指标相比去势年龄等其他衡量指标，能够揭示更多精细化细节。本项研究聚焦于6235只于520周龄前接受非行为管理原因阉割的公犬的问卷自述行为，并以这些犬只提交至在线犬行为评估与研究问卷（Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire，C-BARQ）时的年龄为基准，计算出它们的终身性腺激素暴露占比。完整性腺犬与阉割犬之间存在40种行为差异，其中25种与终身性腺激素暴露占比相关，14种与阉割年龄（age-at-castration，AAC）相关。