3.2. Differences between smaller and larger dog owners
3.2.1. The owners
In the survey, 76% of the participants were women, 24%
men. Owners had a mean of 18 years’ experience of dog
ownership (S.D.: 13.0 years, range: 0–70 years) and 91%
considered themselves the person mainly responsible for
the dog’s care. Owners of smaller dogs were significantly
older than owners of larger dogs (Z = 2.885, P = 0.004,
owners of smaller dogs: mean age: 49.1 years, S.D.: 15.1
years, range: 9–89/owners of larger dogs: mean age: 47.7
years, S.D.: 14.3 years, range: 16–81).
3.2.2. Training techniques
The results on use and frequency of different training
techniques are shown in Table 1. The first group, the
punishment subscale, contained training techniques based
on positive punishment intended to reduce unwanted
behaviour. Scolding the dog verbally and jerking the leash
were the most common methods. Around 80% of the
owners reported using these techniques, and almost one in
five of these owners said they used them ‘‘often’’ or ‘‘very
often’’ (Table 1). The other punishment-based techniques
(slapping the dog, grasping it around the muzzle, shaking
by the scruff and ‘‘alpha rolling’’) were reported by a much
smaller proportion of owners (about 30%), and at much
lower frequencies (almost all ‘‘rarely’’ or ‘‘sometimes’’).
Startling the dog with noise was least common, being
reported by only 15% of owners. There were no significant
differences in frequency of use of the specific training
techniques from the punishment subscale between owners
of smaller and larger dogs. Most owners use punishment
rarely; owners of smaller dogs reported a significant
but only slightly lower overall use of punishment than
owners of larger dogs (mean: 1.75 versus 1.82 in larger
dogs, Table 1, bottom section). Punishment-related
methods accounted for an average of a quarter of all
reported training interactions with both smaller and larger
dogs.
The second group of training methods, was called
reward-based responses to unwanted behaviour. The most