Scientific Results: Validation of the shortened version of the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ) using participants from the Dog Aging Project

August 30, 2024 - 7 minutes read

Posts in our Scientific Results series introduce recent papers published in the scientific literature by members of the Dog Aging Project research team. Follow this series to learn more about the scientific questions we’re asking, the kinds of results we’re getting, and what it all means for you and your dog.

 

Who worked on this research?

Vanessa Wilkins
Jeremy Evans
Christina Park
Dog Aging Project Consortium
Annette L Fitzpatrick
Kate E Creevy
Audrey Ruple

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Where was it published?

Where was it published?

PLOS One

 What is this paper about?

The Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionaire  (C-BARQ) was developed in 2003 by Yuying Hsu and James Serpel. It was initially designed to measure the prevalence and severity of behavioral problems in privately owned and working dogs, and that remains its primary value and purpose. It is a 100-item questionnaire that examines how canine behavior is associated with things like early life experiences, how the dog joined the family, and breeds. Previous studies have shown that the C-BARQ can help identify behavioral issues associated with relinquishment to shelters,  as well as predict success as a service or guide dog. The C-BARQ is available in multiple languages and is used worldwide.

While the C-BARQ is a valuable tool in identifying behavioral issues, the questionnaire is very long. This can be fine in the dog’s usual environment, but it is inconvenient in a potentially distressing situation. Some owners may not have the capacity to complete it when relinquishing dogs at a shelter. Therefore, a shorter, 42-item questionnaire was developed to screen for behavioral issues in shelter-relinquished dogs. The shorter version was compared to older data and questionnaires, but our study was the first to validate the short version against the long version using the same human/dog pairs.

All 749 Dog Aging Project participants who joined the Pack between July 1, 2020, and July 30, 2020, were invited to take the long C-BARQ at the website, and 435 did so. The short version of the C-BARQ was included in the Dog Aging Project’s Health and Life Experiences Survey that every Pack member completes. Working with the C-BARQ site, we could access the long C-BARQ answers for our 435 new Pack members to compare with the short version from the Dog Aging Project survey.

We compared questions contained in both surveys to evaluate whether the participants agreed with themselves when asked the same question twice. We also compared single questions in the short C-BARQ to combinations of separate questions in the long C-BARQ. We found that the percentage of agreement was high in most areas.

By comparing the answers to both instruments using the same human and dog pairs, we concluded that the shortened version of the C-BARQ is a valid tool to evaluate the behavior of dogs by their owners and a complement to the long C-BARQ.

What do these results mean for me and my dog?

These results validate the short form of the C-BARQ, which is included in the longitudinal study of the Dog Aging Project. The survey information from our Pack members will be available for researchers who have questions about the relationship between behavior and aging and other exciting directions. As in any longitudinal study, the longer we collect data, the more we learn!

Where can I learn more?

Wilkins V, Evans J, Park C, The Dog Aging Project Consortium, Fitzpatrick AL, Creevy KE, et al. (2024) Validation of the shortened version of the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ) using participants from the Dog Aging Project. PLoS ONE 19(4): e0299973. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299973

Abstract

The Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ) is a 100-item owner-completed survey instrument used for assessing behavior and temperament of companion dogs. The shortened version of the C-BARQ (C-BARQ(S)) consists of 42 items of the long C-BARQ. We aimed to validate the shortened C-BARQ(S) by comparing it with the long questionnaire in the same human-dog pair. We examined data from a nationwide cohort of companion dogs enrolled in the large-scale longitudinal Dog Aging Project (DAP) study. Among 435 participating owners who completed both the long and shortened versions of the C-BARQ within 60 days of each other, agreement between individual questions of the long and shortened C-BARQ using an unweighted kappa statistic and percent agreement was examined. Associations between the two questionnaires for mean behavior and temperament domain scores and mean miscellaneous category scores were assessed using Pearson correlation coefficients. Of 435 dogs in the study, the mean (SD) age was 7.3 (4.3) years and 216 (50%) were female. Kappa values between the long and shortened C-BARQ for individual questions within the 14 behavior and temperament domains and a miscellaneous category ranged from fair to moderate (0.23 to 0.40 for 21 items and 0.41 to 0.58 for 26 items, respectively). Pearson correlation coefficients above 0.60 between both questionnaires for 12 of the 14 mean behavior and temperament domain scores and a category of miscellaneous items were observed. Kappa values for individual questions between the long and shortened C-BARQ ranged from fair to moderate and correlations between mean domain scores ranged from moderate to strong.

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