Survey of dog owners

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi everybody, I’m running a survey for my business. The goal of it is to try to build out a profile of “typical” dog owners. It doesn’t ask for your name or contact information, and there are no links from the survey to my shop so it is not a veiled attempt at a sales pitch and there won’t be any spam emails as a result of filling it out. I will aggregate all the data to build some dog owner profiles to help me do future marketing (not here) and to verify that there is an actual market for what my business is attempting to reach. The survey is in Google Forms also, so it won’t make you log in.

All who would be so kind as to help out, here is the survey link: https://forms.gle/GNnm8Fm7bhRYohcv7

2

That last question, I answered friends and family, but it did not have a place for the vet.

3

For ‘online discussion,’ you might also want to add a choice of breed-specific forums or websites.

4

I noticed that one as well. I would also be curious myself about former dog owners and if attitudes/resources/approaches have changed all that much over time beyond the obvious one; the internet.

5

I took it.
Anyone not wanting to go down a rabbit hole or something, need not worry. It was very quick and easy.

6

Done.

I would add an option about years/time of experience. New pet owner versus someone with years of experience would round this out nicely.

7

Done.

8

I wasn’t sure which area to check for my black lab. Didn’t really fit any given area. Also my previous dog was a “farm dog” (mongrel) of 5 different breeds.

9

Suggest you add some “N/A” options in the responses.

10

Thanks! It did get criticized for being too long. I know surveys need to be as short as possible but I pondered over it and all the questions are critical to dig out the data I need. I’m glad to hear that you found it quick.

11

There is an “other” blank on that question. Someone else pointed out that I missed the largest breed category (retrievers!). A lot of people have been typing in their specific breeds into other, which is perfectly fine.

12

Sure! Which ones? Some of them have “other” and people can fill out their own answer. But I don’t see any that have a “not applicable” answer. Are you thinking of that as more of a “decline to answer”?

13

Thanks, I added it!

14

I filled it out for ya.

One thing I felt was missing is that I get my training and health tips from internet searches which usually lead me to blogs, videos or Q&A’s written by vets and/or trainers.

I just searched “help with leash reactive dogs” and while “Whole Dog Journal” (which is not a magazine I subscribe to) was one of the top results, all the other results were videos or blogs.

15

I asked Trixie to do it, but she didn’t want to, so Ted did it for her.

Ted’s a Good Boy!

16

LOL, at the end of the survey I was tempted to write something like “All done! Who’s a good boy?” but didn’t do it because I thought it might offend some people. (thin-skinned women or people who just can’t take a joke) Well, it also didn’t fit the overall tone.

17

What? You didn’t ask Dixie? (my favorite, southern belle like me;))

18

First Impressions

(First thing I do when I look at a survey is see how many questions there are, and the 2nd thing I do is keep an eye out for how many are required. With that in mind…)

Wait… all responses are required? Seriously?

I’m seeing a… <counts>… 26 item survey, many of them asking questions I may not care to answer. Or even have an answer to.

Ugh. Where’s that ‘x’?

Second Impressions

If you are going to do some math with this, I would modify:

“How many dogs…” - Have an option for each number up to “7 or more”. Your ranges in this one are inconsistent - why does one spread (2-3) encompass two numbers, the other (3-6) three? Just have 8 options, 0-7+.

…

“Your Dog Breed…” You may wish to add “Pit Bull” in the category where you want it, because people are going to throw that one all over your categories, except toys. The ones I see are mostly “American Staffordshire Terriers” and “American Pit Bull Terriers”, right? So if you want Pit Bulls categorized as Terriers, then you’d better put the breed in the Terriers example(s), probably #1 on the list.)

…

Masters and PhD should be separate. Because I’m picky that way.

…

The “Dog Training Philosophy” answers are a bit scattershot as they talk about reactions to different events, yet is single-choice. What if he craps in the house and wants to fight all the other dogs?

This may be better changed to something along the lines of:

"What do you consider your role to be in relation to your dog?

(a) It’s/They’re not my dog!
(b) Friend
© Trainer
(d) Leader
(e) We co-exist in the same house, but somebody else deals with the dog(s).

Or something. Regardless, I think this question needs some revisiting so you understand what you’re really asking for.

…

The concerns are good. But you missed a BIG ONE:

“Are you concerned about your dog barking while you are away from the house?”

(Because if the dog does this, it’s the #1 concern of the guy’s neighbors).

19

That question had check boxes rather than radio buttons, so I just checked more than one box for my dog based on what I *think *she is.

I got my dog as an already-trained adult dog, so my answers of “I don’t train her” probably make her out to sound like much more of a hell-raiser than she actually is!

20

LOL, no don’t worry. It’s not a survey to justify funding for a major social research project. It’s only going to help me get a picture of a generic “Fred the average dog owner” and you know how factual it is when you boil a bunch of unique individuals down to one generic person. But the results will give me a guide.

I’m curious, isn’t is good practice to reinforce training that your dog’s already had? So if you do that, then perhaps you do reinforcement training on a frequent basis, which also doesn’t fit into my question the way I worded it. If so, feel good about your puppo. If I do another survey later on I may consider whether this scenario should be added to that type of question. (It may not since what I’m ultimately trying to target is if the products I’m trying to sell actually meet a need.)