Smart Border Collie, good-natured golden retriever and sociable pug: each dog breed has its own special character, my dog friends – and that character is a decision criterion for many animal lovers when buying. Race doesn’t matter at all, as American researchers have discovered: it says little about the temperament of the four-legged friend. According to a recent study, many behaviors are hereditary, such as whether a dog is more playful, docile or alert. However, differences between individual dogs are generally greater than between individual breeds, report researchers Kathleen Morrill of the University of Massachusetts Chan School of Medicine in the journal Science.
Modern dog breeds are less than 160 years old – a blink of an eye in evolutionary history compared to the origin of dogs more than 10,000 years ago, the scientists write. Humans have bred dogs for about 2,000 years, most often for the roles they would play, such as herding dogs, hunting dogs, or guard dogs. It was only later that dogs were bred according to a physical ideal and with the idea of the purest possible lines. To this day, behaviors are attributed to the resulting races, which are also attributed to their former areas of application.
Nearly 20,000 dog owners surveyed
The researchers have now tested whether this is true through a large-scale study. They collected information from 18,385 dog owners about the nature and behavior of their purebred and crossbred companions. They also analyzed genetic data from a total of 2,155 dogs and linked it to the dogs’ reported behaviors.
Evaluation of the survey data showed, among other things, that differences in behavior between modern breeds are usually only small. Breed alone explains only about 9% of the differences in individual dogs’ behavior, the researchers write. Values were higher for some behaviors, such as the tendency to howl or the desire to search. Huskies, beagles and hounds were particularly fond of howling, while border collies were particularly docile.
The researchers found no behavior unique to one race. Although Labradors are considered a breed that rarely howls, some owners have reported that their pets do so sometimes or often. Greyhounds are said to not bury their toys, but this behavior has also been reported by some owners. Furthermore, behavior changed with age: puppies of many breeds were just as playful as German Shepherds, who are considered particularly obsessed with toys.
few special features
Analysis of the genetic data showed that individual breeds had very few genetic traits. Breed has little value in predicting a dog’s behavior, the researchers write. Although most behaviors are hereditary, they are influenced by various genes and the environment.
When choosing a suitable dog, looking at the breed as a whole is of limited help, explains Marjie Alonso of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (Cranberry Township, USA). “Breed will not determine whether we are happy with a dog or the dog with us. Appearance simply says little about how the dog will behave.”