IMPLEMENTACIÓN DE PROPUESTAS DE MEJORA IDENTIFICADAS Teniendo en cuenta las propuestas presentadas, se realizaron cambios que

Both dogs and dog owners come in many varieties. What motivates one dog owner to acquire their dog will be unique to that owner. All owners though are considered by the law to be acquirers of property and have access to the protection of the consumer law. In terms of the

111 _{L Asher et al, 'Inherited Defects in Pedigree Dogs. Part 1: Disorders related to Breed Standards' (2009) 182(3)}

Veterinary Journal 402, and Paul D McGreevy et al, 'Dog Behaviour Co-Varies with Height, Bodyweight and Skull Shape' (2013) 8(12) PLOS One .

112 _{Dr Karen Hedberg – states that the aim of responsible breeding is to breed for breed soundness. This breed} soundness comes from looking at a dog’s physical, mental, genetic soundness and breed type. Dogs NSW,

Responsible Breeding - Dr Karen Hedberg (2012) <http://dogsnsw.org.au/breeding/responsible-breeding.html>. 113 _{T King, L C Marston and P C Bennett, 'Breeding Dogs for Beauty and Behaviour: Why Scientists Need to do more} to Develop Valid and Reliable Behaviour Assessments for Dogs kept as Companions' (2012) 137(1-2) Applied Animal Behaviour Science 18, 5.

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rights of consumers, the acquiring choices have a definite bearing on the extent of expected merchantability or fitness for purpose. A person who purchases a pure breed dog from a

registered breeder and pays several thousand dollars is going to expect that the puppy has been bred in an appropriate manner; fed well and socialised so that the puppy has every chance of becoming a happy and healthy member of the family. A person who acquires an older dog from a rescue organisation where the organisation is unable to provide any details around the dog’s age or history may well have lower expectations about the dog’s temperament or long-term health.

There is literature from a number of jurisdictions, (including research done by Farrow and others in New Zealand, work by Garrison & Weiss and Ghirlanda and other in the United States, work by Siettou and others in the UK and Sandee and others in Denmark) that provides insight into what people want when they acquire a dog.114 _{This literature identifies factors motivating the}

acquiring practices of individuals.115 _{Consumer behaviour literature acknowledges that factors} such as impulse purchasing, risk taking, curiosity induced purchasing, the desire for something novel, and seeking relief from boredom, can all impact on purchasers’ motivations

buying/acquiring choices.116 _{It is impossible to consider all of these factors as coming from} consumer behaviour literature, but they are recognised as added layers that might be worthwhile of deeper investigation outside this thesis.

114 _{T Farrow, AJ Keown and MJ Farnworth, 'An Exploration of Attitudes Towards Pedigree Dogs and their Disorders} as Expressed by a Sample of Companion Animal Veterinarians in New Zealand' (2014) 65(5) New Zealand

Veterinary Journal 267 and Laurie Garrison and Emily Weiss, 'What Do People Want? Factors People Consider When Acquiring Dogs, the Complexity of the Choices They Make, and Implications for Nonhuman Animal

Relocation Programs' (2015) 18(1) Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 57and , S Ghirlanda et al, 'Fashion vs. Function in Cultural Evolution: the Case of Dog Breed Popularity' (2013) 8(9) PLOS One and P Sandee and Kondrup, 'Why do People Buy Dogs with Potential Welfare Problems Related to Extreme Conformation and Inherited Disease? A Representative Study of Danish Owners of Foud Small Dog Breeds ' (2017) PLOS One 1

115 _{Hans Baumgartner and Jane-Bendict E M Steenkamp, 'Exploratory Consumer Buying Behavior:}

Conceptualization and Measurement ' (1995) 13(1996) International Journal of Research in Marketing 121, 123. 116 _{Ibid, 123.}

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What this research does though is considers the literature that looks at what pet acquisition choices. Research on what motivates owners to acquire the type of pet that they have dates back over 30 years. In 1981 Fox presented his work at a Symposium on the Human Companion Animal Bond. His research into the motivations behind pet ownership found 4 categories or types of relationships. These have been summarised by Dotson and Hyatt in their work in 2008 as:

Object-orientated (with the dog being a possession); utilitarian-exploitative (with the dog providing benefits to the human); need-dependency (with the dog as a true companion); and actualising (with the dog as a respected significant other).117

Since this time there has been growing animal welfare, consumer and psychology research that examines pet ownership in terms of the buying and consumption choices being made by owners. A recent study by Sandee and others examines what motivates buying choices in light of the fact that breeds such as French Bulldogs and Chihuahuas remain popular despite these breeds having a higher than average incidence of health and behavioural issues. The Sandee study concludes that a dog’s personality and the closeness that the owner feels to their dog, through its

personality were highly motivating factors.118 _{What emerges is that some people purchase dogs,} not just for their function or companionship but for other personal reasons.

Ghirlanda and others consider how and why owners choose the type of pet that they do, why they spend the amounts they do on their pets and what makes a breed popular for one generation and not so popular for the next. Their findings suggest that breed popularity is not influenced by such things as breed health or longevity and in fact, despite having significant health issues, some of the breeds most affected continue to be increasingly popular.119 _Morris

117 _{Michael J Dotson and Eva M Hyatt, 'Understanding Dog–Human Companionship' (2008) 61(5) Journal of}

Business Research 457, 457. There is literature that expands on the reasons why humans own dogs, this suggests that, whilst most dog owners own their dogs for the companionship a dog brings, others exhibit more

consumption behaviour, purchasing a dog not primarily for companionship but for the status, distinction or for the social exchanges that such social facilitators provide. Beverland, Farrelly and Lim, above n 61.

118 _{Sandee and Kondrup, above n 102.} 119 _{Ghirlanda et al, above n 102.}

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and Woodside examine the economic value, hedonic and social value of companion animals.120 Some other literature explores the darker aspects to pet ownership, that is, that some owners purchase a pet, not significantly for the value it brings as a companion, but because of the perceived status a certain ‘brand’ or type of dog or other pet may bring.121

The business research literature acknowledges that, despite the debatable legal status of pets as possessions many people are willing to continue to acquire, maintain and expend vast amounts of money on them.122 _{Bettany and Daly report on the utilisation of pedigree show dogs. They} explore the notion that show dogs can be considered by their owners to be pets but also collectables, things that require the expenditure of significant amounts of money and that necessitate the entering into of ‘highly significant relationships with other people’.123

There may be many reasons why owners buy the type of dogs that they do and many factors that they might consider in making their acquisition choices. It is important that dog breeders, canine associations and policy makers understand what motivates dog buyers. This is a focus of this research and the results are set out in Chapter 9.