Introduction

Roaming dog population size is regulated by human behaviour. In Costa Rica, it is common for owners to allow their dogs to roam during the day. However, this leads to problems such as aggression, disease transmission, environmental contamination, and mistreatment of the animals.

Objectives

This study's objective was to understand the knowledge, attitude and practices of dog owners in Costa Rica. This information aids in recognizing ownership issues that should be tackled in order to improve dog welfare.

Methods

A telephone survey was carried out with 1850 dog owners in Costa Rica. The homes called were chosen randomly, the margin of error is 2.2% and there is 95% confidence. To compensate for the lack of telephone usage in the lowest socioeconomic regions, 150 of these 1850 dog owners were obtained through house surveys.

Results

There is 1 owned dog:4 people. 43.7% of owners say that their dogs are sterilized. 62% vaccinated their dogs in the past 12 months. 45% of the dogs arrived in that home as gifts, 24.7% were bought. 49.6% of owners did not think about the responsibilities of having a dog before acquiring it. 11.5% allow their dogs to defecate on the street and 17.6% to roam without supervision and 10% say that their dogs have bitten.

Conclusions

The next step will be to interpret the results of the survey to decide how common conflicts between dogs and people can be avoided by managing irresponsible pet ownership behaviours at a national level.