Dogs as Pets and Pests: Global Patterns of Canine Abundance, Activity, and Health

Synopsis Dogs (Canis familiaris) were the first domesticated species and, at an estimated population of 1 billion individuals, are globally ubiquitous today. Describing tremendous morphometric diversity and evolutionary origins dogs is a scientific endeavor that predates Darwin, yet our interdisciplinary understanding just beginning. Here, I present global trends in dog abundance, activity, health. While human–dog relationship has for millennia been close, it also complicated. As pets, companion often treated as family members constitute largest sector ever-growing >$200 USD pet care industry. pests, free-roaming emerging threat to native via both predation nonconsumptive effects (e.g., disturbance, competition resources, hybridization). Furthermore, briefly discuss mounting evidence not only infectious disease reservoirs but bridges transmission pathogens between wild animals humans zoonotic spillover events, triggering intensive management strategies such culling. Dog mobility across urban-wildland interface important driver this other adverse canines on wildlife populations active topic ecologists conservation biologists. Other canine scientists, including veterinary clinicians physiologists, study more mechanistic aspects mobility: comparative kinetics, kinematics, energetics locomotor outline prevalent methodological approaches breed-specific findings within activity health research, then conclude by recognizing promising technologies bridging disciplinary gaps science.