A Dog’s Behaviour isn’t Determined by its Breed

A person shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, shouldn’t judge a dog by its breed. Environment influences a dog’s behaviour.

[Please note that this page contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.]

Like how a person shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, you shouldn’t judge a dog by its breed. Its upbringing and environment more influence a dog’s behaviour.

These findings come through studies done by scientists from the MIT University of Massachusetts, Arizona State University, and The Broad Institute at Harvard.

Dog Behaviour Traits - Darwin's Ark

Kathleen Morrill, a Ph.D. student and lead author, is studying the genomics of behaviour in dogs. She has many co-researchers surveyed owners of 18,385 mixed-breed and purebred dogs and genotyped 2,155 dogs as part of a citizen science study named Darwin’s Ark.

Volunteers were given many surveys regarding their dog’s behaviour for the study. Then, they were given a DNA kit to swab their canine’s saliva and mail it back to the lab to test their genetics.

The data was organized into an open-sourced database with researchers throughout the work. In addition, the dog owners were also sent their dogs' breed and genetic profiles.

Morrill and her researchers separated specific exciting findings with the enormous amounts o’ enormous amounts of data. Nevertheless, the main conclusion was: “Dog breeds offer little predictive value for the individual, explaining only nine percent of the dog’s behaviour.”

A dog’s breed is more distinct by appearance and has almost nothing to do with its behaviour.

8 Dog Behaviour Categories 

The scientists dissected the dog’s behaviour into eight different categories: comfort levels around dogs, comfort levels around humans, desire to be close to a human, empathy towards toys, responding to human training, ease of stimulation or excitement, and if a dog is provoked easily by frightening stimulus within their environment.

Of the dog’s eight behavioural traits, the response to human training (biddability) and toy empathy was the most linked to the breed, although the associations were close.

A dog’s age was a much better way of predicting a dog’s behaviour. For example, older dogs were less excited and were much less driven by toys than younger puppies.

The modern dog breeds go back only about 160 years, “ which is less than a blink in the evolutionary history comparing it to the origin of dogs more than 10,000 years ago,” the scientists wrote. So, it makes more sense that a dog’s breed can’t explain the dog’s behaviour to a substantial degree.

11 Genetic Areas 

Going through the tens of thousands of dog genomes on file, the scientists discovered 11 genetic areas associated with many behaviours, ranging from loud frequency to a person’s sociability. Furthermore, genes in those regions differed significantly within breeds, showing that a species is only slightly linked to their behaviour.

The findings in these studies call on laws that look at specific, allegedly “dangerous” breeds and put them into question. Over 900 cities in the United States are currently a form of breed-specific legislation.