A new study may help dispel negative stereotypes associated with individual dog breeds. Researchers at UMass Chan School of Medicine have identified 11 locations along the canine genome that are strongly associated with behavior. Surprisingly, none of them are specific to the breed.
The scientists collected DNA sequences from more than 2,000 purebred and crossbred dogs, as well as detailed behavioral surveys from more than 18,000 parent dogs. Their findings showed that the breed was poor, if not useless, at predicting dog behavior.
“While ‘friendly’ is a trait we often associate with a Golden Retriever, what we have found is that the defining criteria of a Golden Retriever are its physical features – the shape of its ears, coat color and quality, its size — not whether it’s friendly or not,” said senior author Elinor Karlsson, PhD, associate professor of molecular medicine at UMass Chan and director of the Genomics Group have a backbone at the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. “While genetics plays a role in the personality of any dog, breed-specific is not a good predictor of those traits.”
Keeping in mind existing stereotypes about certain dog breeds, Dr Karlsson designed the study to explain owners’ possible biases on behavioral traits such as:
- Bargaining ability (a dog’s response to human direction)
- Sociability between humans and dogs (the dog’s comfort with people, including strangers), and
- Toy-oriented locomotion patterns (a dog’s interest and interaction with toys)
The results included data from 78 breeds, including those reported by pet parents and those verified through DNA analysis. They show that breed accounts for only 9% of a dog’s behavioral variations. By comparison, physical traits such as coat color were five times more likely to be predicted by breed than behavioral traits.
In addition, behaviors often associated with specific breeds appear in other breeds that you least expect. For example, Labrador Retrievers have the lowest tendency to howl, but 8% of owners said their Lab howls occasionally. Similarly, 90% of Greyhound parents said their dogs never bury toys, but three owners labeled their puppies as “regular bearers”.
Kathryn Lord, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Massachusetts Chan School of Medicine and another author of the paper, said that, “I knew Labrador howled and Papillons pointed and Greyhounds got back as well as Retrievers.”
The researchers found that the behavioral predictions were somewhat more accurate in the purebred dogs, but “for less heritable traits, less discriminant like how easy a dog is to be found. When dogs are stimulated by feared or unpleasant stimuli, breed is virtually useless as a predictor of behavior.” according to Karlsson.
This finding could be particularly helpful in helping to break down stereotypes surrounding dog breeds that are thought to be more aggressive, such as Pit Bulls and other dogs physically. In fact, the generally mean Pit Bull is prized for its sociability with humans, which should come as no surprise to the breed’s devoted fans.
Dr Cynthia Otto, director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said the study “made complete sense to me. I think there are some big picture behavioral traits that are more common in some breeds than others, but inter-individual variation is very high within a breed. “
So if you want to know what a dog will look like, breed is very important. But if you want to know they will behaveThe puppy’s age and individual life experience will give you a much clearer picture.
H/T to UMASSMed.edu
