Hello everyone! Do you have a dog and 5 minutes to spare...?

Hello fellow dog lovers, my name is Sarraa Abdulkader and I wish I had a dog. They’re loyal, love you unconditionally and make the best companions. I do have a rescue cat however and like any pet, she’s my baby and I still love her to pieces, even if she isn't as amazing as having a dog

I'm also a final year university student and I need your help.    I'm doing my final year dissertation on the factors that influence the decision to neuter a cat or dog in the UK. Neutering is a topic every pet owner has had to think about at some point (including me!), so I'd really like to know your thoughts on the whole thing and why you've decided to neuter (or not neuter) your dogs. I've made a questionnaire and I’d really appreciate it if you could fill it out. Thanks in advance to all those who take part!    Here’s a link to my questionnaire: http://goo.gl/forms/stQmVmlfJN

Hi there Sarraa! Thanks for posting that & good luck - I've just completed the questionnaire.

Can I ask how you found us?

Hi Sarraa and welcome

I have completed your questionnaire and hope it helps with your dissertation. I also congratulate you on coming this far with your vetinary studies and wish you a very successful future as a Vet!

Do stay around the forum in the future, if you care to!

Caryll wrote:Hi there Sarraa! Thanks for posting that & good luck - I've just completed the questionnaire.

Can I ask how you found us?

Thank you so much for replying. I'm on edge worrying that i'll get thrown out of the forum for posting a survey at any minute
I found the forum by doing lots of googling! I had to get creative trying to find people to fill out my questionnaire. I got so excited to find out that there's a forum for nearly every dog breed in existence which meant that the possibilities for answers were potentially endless!

LyndaW wrote:Hi Sarraa and welcome

I have completed your questionnaire and hope it helps with your dissertation.  I also congratulate you on coming this far with your vetinary studies and wish you a very successful future as a Vet!

Do stay around the forum in the future, if you care to!

Hi there Lynda, I really appreciate you taking the time to complete my questionnaire. I'm not actually at vet school yet though first i need to graduate from the course i'm currently on (bioveterinary science - sounds fancy i know ) and then I have to get into vet school as a graduate so I can qualify as an actual vet! I have a lot of hard work before I'm there, but thank you anyway

I wasn't expecting such a warm welcome either so i'll give you a double thank you for that! I may stick around after all I do love dogs and i'm sure I can learn a lot from all the experienced dog owners on here!

Hi from us.

Well done on your continuing studies.

Do you want people from outside the UK to answer your questionnaire?

Hi there

Hiya! I filled out your questionnaire!

You're very welcome to stick around! Good luck in your final year. I have to admit, I'm in awe! I'm currently doing my first year of BSc Applied Animal Studies, and I'm already struggling with Genetics! I don't think I could even imagine myself doing Bioveterinary Science; I'd probably have a panic attack!

And don't worry, you don't have to own a dog in order to post here. It's very relaxed - we just like chatting to people about dogs!

Hello and welcome to the forum. I have completed your questionnaire. I have one very minor criticism of your questionnaire, please don't be offended this is intended as a helpful comment (I hope it is). Your questionnaire asks about neutering in general, but there are differing attitudes to neutering according to gender of the animal in question - I cannot see how you could extract that information from the way your questionnaire was written.

For example, you can glean that I have one male and one female dog, that one is neutered and the other one isn't, but you cannot tell which is which - or whether the response I gave to my attitude to neutering is related to either one.

I wish you well with your studies, and hope you stick around on the forum.

tracyp wrote:Hi from us.

Well done on your continuing studies.

Do you want people from outside the UK to answer your questionnaire?

Hi, thank you!

I'm crazy enough to want to go on and study vet medicine after this degree as well, believe it or not! I'm afraid i'm keeping the study specific to the UK. I don't think I could handle the information overload if I expanded it to include other countries!
But i'm grateful for the offer

Shisa wrote:Hi there

Hi! I love the variety of dogs you've got there, it must be doggie heaven (and very hectic) in your house haha!

I think Lorraine has voiced a valid comment.

Eleanor wrote:Hiya! I filled out your questionnaire!

You're very welcome to stick around! Good luck in your final year. I have to admit, I'm in awe! I'm currently doing my first year of BSc Applied Animal Studies, and I'm already struggling with Genetics! I don't think I could even imagine myself doing Bioveterinary Science; I'd probably have a panic attack!

And don't worry, you don't have to own a dog in order to post here. It's very relaxed - we just like chatting to people about dogs!

Haha thanks! Trust me, Biovet science is pretty much the same. I have a friend doing Animal Science and she's in most of my modules. There's not much difference really except that mine is just a tiny bit more vetty and it sounds more fancy haha I'm of average intelligence really

Lorraine wrote:Hello and welcome to the forum.  I have completed your questionnaire.  I have one very minor criticism of your questionnaire, please don't be offended this is intended as a helpful comment (I hope it is).  Your questionnaire asks about neutering in general, but there are differing attitudes to neutering according to gender of the animal in question - I cannot see how you could extract that information from the way your questionnaire was written.

For example, you can glean that I have one male and one female dog, that one is neutered and the other one isn't, but you cannot tell which is which - or whether the response I gave to my attitude to neutering is related to either one.

I wish you well with your studies, and hope you stick around on the forum.

Thanks Lorraine, don't worry, I totally welcome criticism (it gives me something to put in my discussion after all!   )
I suppose I can just make general observations from the results, but I do see your point. The reason it's written so awkwardly is because I found it difficult to find a program that let you make questionnaires and include so many variables in one question (without paying for a monthly subscription). I was worried that i'd end up with 30 questions and fewer completed questionnaires so I admit I did cut a few corners, which now means I can't be as specific in my analysis as i'd like to. I'll definitely put that in my discussion, thank you for pointing it out

Caryll wrote:I think Lorraine has voiced a valid comment.

I just wanted to say that I did receive your message but it says I haven't reached the post limit to be able to reply. I didn't want you thinking I was ignoring you
The reason I made that email was so that I could use it only for the forums that I signed up to so that I could discuss my dissertation (and other relevant animal-y stuff). I like to keep things organised and I find that occasionally making another email account specifically for one thing is quite helpful

JellyBelly wrote:

Caryll wrote:I think Lorraine has voiced a valid comment.

I just wanted to say that I did receive your message but it says I haven't reached the post limit to be able to reply. I didn't want you thinking I was ignoring you
The reason I made that email was so that I could use it only for the forums that I signed up to so that I could discuss my dissertation (and other relevant animal-y stuff). I like to keep things organised and I find that occasionally making another email account specifically for one thing is quite helpful

Oh, don't worry! My comment was really about what Lorraine pointed out regarding gender. But I see what you mean about the questionnaire - it must be difficult.

JellyBelly wrote:

Shisa wrote:Hi there

Hi! I love the variety of dogs you've got there, it must be doggie heaven (and very hectic) in your house haha!

Not really, they're good dogs. They're very chilled for the most part

Well, good luck with it all! Sounds like you know what you're doing!

Designing a questionnaire to produce the analysis you want is not easy - especially if you are constrained by factors outside the intellectual design. I'd be interested to see your results and analysis when its done if you don't mind.

Done hope it helps

I was filling it out but it didn't include northern ireland so i didn't think i should finish it. Good luck on your studies.

Hi and welcome to the forum. I filled out the questionnaire, hope it helps and good luck in your studies