Emotional affect and the occurrence of owner reported health problems in the domestic dog

Binomial logistic regressions were conducted, with either current or previous experience of a range of general health and pain-causing conditions included as dependent variables, and affectivity domains, aggression and age as independent variables. For most of the general health conditions (with the exception of the dental, vision and hearing problem category), only age was a predictor of both current and previous experience of a health condition. However, positive affect was associated with current experience of a pain-causing condition, with lower positive affect scores being most associated with presence of a current pain-causing condition. Only age was associated with experience of a previous condition. Finally, no difference in aggression scores was observed between dogs in any of the pain experience categories. These results provide novel findings for an association between health problems and affect in dogs.