About the Authors

Alison M. Skipper

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

askipper@rvc.ac.uk

Affiliation Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, The Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

Rowena M. A. Packer

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Clinical Science and Services, The Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

Dan G. O’Neill

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, The Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests. AMS: previously received grant funding from the Wellcome Trust; various connections (membership, committee service, etc) with The Kennel Club (https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/ - the parent organisation of KCCT (The Kennel Club Charitable Trust, a funder of this research.) These connections have included travel expenses for attending committee meetings and paid honoraria and expenses for veterinary work at Crufts dog show, which is run by The Kennel Club). RMAP: previously received grant funding from Battersea, BBSRC, Blue Cross, BVA AWF, Dogs Trust, KCCT, RSPCA, RVC ACT, SCAS, and UFAW. DO’N: previously received grant funding from: Battersea, BVA AWF, BSAVA PetSavers, Dogs Trust, KCCT; Petplan Charitable Trust, and The Waltham Foundation. All funders listed also appear in this dataset and thus have been declared as possible competing interests. See additional data sharing information for full details of restrictions on third party data used in this study and for organisation contact details in all cases. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.