A survey of owners' perceptions of fear of fireworks in a sample of dogs and cats in New Zealand

Figures & data

Table 1. Information on breed and source of dogs and cats reported as fearful of fireworks, by respondents to a self-selected questionnaire. Discrepancies in the data are due to invalid or missing responses.

Dogs	n	%	Cats	n	%
Breed
Toy	51	7.5	Pedigree	124	13.0
Terrier	151	22.2	Domestic	827	87.0
Gundog	117	17.2	Total^a	951	100
Hound	30	4.4
Working	171	25.2
Utility	73	10.7
Non-sporting	22	3.2
Unknown	65	9.6
Total^a	680	100
Source
Breeder	256	38.9		88	9.8
Pet shop	53	8.1		103	11.5
SPCA	101	15.3		225	25.1
Other	248	37.7		481	53.6
Total^a	658	100		897	100
^a Total number of responses for each category	SPCA = Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Table 2. Number (percentage) of dogs (n=684) compared with cats (n=951) that displayed fear behaviours identified by their owners as being subsequent to and associated with firework displays.

	Dogs		Cats
Behaviour	Yes (%)	No (%)	Yes (%)	No (%)	P-value^a	Prevalence ratio^b (95% CI)
Hiding	483 (71)	201 (29)	806 (85)	145 (15)	0.0001	0.83 (0.78–0.88)
Shivering/trembling	505 (74)	179 (26)	379 (40)	572 (60)	0.0001	1.85 (1.69–2.02)
Escape/run away	185 (27)	499 (73)	442 (46)	509 (54)	0.0001	0.63 (0.54–0.72)
Vocalising	185 (27)	499 (73)	119 (13)	832 (87)	0.0001	2.30 (1.89–2.86)
Urination/defaecation	37 (5)	647 (95)	28 (3)	923 (97)	0.014	1.84 (1.13–2.97)
Cowering	321 (47)	363 (53)	370 (39)	581 (61)	0.001	1.21 (1.07–1.35)
Destructive behaviour	39 (6)	645 (94)	18 (2)	933 (98)	0.0001	3.01 (1.70–5.12)
^a Significance of difference between dogs and cats	^b Estimated occurrence of behaviour in dogs relative to cats

Table 3. Number (percentage) of responses for each category of source of treatment used, and perceived success, of treatments for dogs and cats fearful of fireworks. Only 141/890 respondents had sought any form of help, and not all gave an evaluation of efficacy. Discrepancies in the data are due to invalid or missing responses.

		Owner's perception of efficacy (%)				Medication given (%)
Treatment	Total	None	Mild	Moderate	Very	Yes (%)	No (%)
Behaviourist	10 (7%)	4 (40%)	6 (60%)	0	0	3 (30%)	7 (70%)
Trainer	3 (2%)	1 (33%)	1 (33%)	1 (33%)	0	0	2 (67%)
Veterinarian	111 (79%)	28 (25%)	54 (49%)	17 (15%)	4 (4%)	81 (73%)	29 (26%)
Other	17 (12%)	2 (12%)	10 (63%)	4 (25%)	0	2 (12%)	14 (88%)