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April 29, 2022 07:22 pm

Dog Behaviour Has Little To Do With Breed, Study Finds

From sociable labradors to aggressive pitbulls, when it comes to canine behaviour there are no end of stereotypes. But research suggests such traits may have less to do with breed than previously thought. From a report: Modern dog breeds began to emerge in the Victorian era and are often physically distinct -- for example, great danes are huge and chihuahuas tiny. But it has often been thought breed can predict behaviour, too. Now researchers say there's little sign that's the case. Dr Elinor Karlsson of the University of Massachusetts Umass Chan medical school, a co-author of the study, said research revealed a huge diversity of behaviours within each breed. "Even if the average is different, you've still got a really good chance of getting a dog that doesn't match what people say that breed is supposed to be," she said. Writing in the journal Science, the US researchers report how they analysed survey responses relating to the physical traits and behaviour of 18,385 pet dogs, almost half of which were purebred, with genetic data analysed for 2,155 of them. Analysis of the survey results for purebred dogs suggested about 9% of behavioural variation was explained by breed.

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