PDSA's Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report can tell us what a carefully selected group of UK pet owners reported during a particular survey period. It cannot tell us what every dog needs or prove why an individual dog behaves in a certain way. Those limits are useful to know before turning a striking percentage into a care decision.
Who answered the 2026 owner survey?
According to PDSA's methodology, YouGov surveyed 3,440 UK adults who owned a dog, cat or rabbit. The online fieldwork ran from 25 June to 16 July 2026. PDSA says demographic quotas and, where needed, weighting were used to make the owner survey as nationally representative as possible. A separate 10,000-adult panel survey informed those quotas, including regional, age and gender profiles of owners, and the ownership-incidence calculation.
The words pet owners therefore have a defined meaning in this report: adult owners of those three species, not every UK resident and not owners of every kind of animal. A dog-only result needs the dog-owner subgroup and its question wording. The 3,440 total is not a dog-only sample size.
A survey percentage and a population estimate answer different questions
The owner questionnaire records answers from the sampled owners. PDSA's dog, cat and rabbit population estimates use more inputs: ownership incidence from YouGov's separate adult panel, the owner survey's number of pets per owner and Office for National Statistics household data. An estimated pet count is a calculation with sampling uncertainty, not a count of registered animals. This article does not create a new estimate or combine incompatible figures.
PDSA says reported differences highlighted as changes are checked statistically. Rounded percentages and different survey questions can still make a casual comparison misleading. Before comparing two years, check the edition, species, question wording, denominator, fieldwork dates and whether the source identifies a statistically significant change.
The professional survey has a different design
The methodology also describes a separate open survey of veterinary professionals, last run in 2023 with 745 responses. PDSA says it was not collected against the pet-owner survey's demographic quotas or weighted in the same way. It can describe what those respondents reported; it should not be presented as a representative poll of every UK veterinary professional or folded into the 2026 owner sample.
Use the finding as a question, then look at your dog
For a dog owner, a survey may prompt a useful conversation about exercise, coat care or comfortable handling. It does not set a universal walking time or grooming frequency. If your dog has a health or behaviour concern, ask a vet for individual advice. For the practical questions raised by PDSA's pet-knowledge findings, read our existing dog-care routine article. For an appointment, our first grooming checklist helps organise details to discuss with a groomer.
Source: PDSA PAW Report methodology, checked 2 November 2026. This is GroomNear's original analysis of the stated methods; it is not PDSA's own conclusion about an individual dog.
