Critter Talk: Pick the Right Breed for You
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I often counsel my clients to adopt mixed breed dogs, but many future owners elect to go the purebred route, saying that they want to “know what they’re getting,” particularly in reference to a potential pet’s behavior.
This is an understandable point of view (as long as everyone understands that individual variation sometimes trumps the breed standard), which is why I was excited to see the results of a study published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science that clustered popular dog breeds by behavior — specifically trainability, boldness, calmness, and sociability.
The paper’s authors describe each behavioral characteristic as follows:
Dogs that scored low regarding the trainability trait are described by their owners as uninventive and not playful, whereas dogs that scored high on this trait are regarded as intelligent and playful. Boldness was related to fearful and aloof behaviour with a low score corresponding to a high degree of fearfulness/aloofness, and vice versa. The calmness trait describes the dogs’ behaviour in stressful/ambiguous situations. A low score on this trait indicated stressed and anxious behaviour in these situations, while a high score referred to calm and emotionally stable dogs, according to the owner. Finally, dog sociability refers to their behaviour toward conspecifics (other dogs), with a low score indicating a high tendency for bullying or fighting and inversely high scores related to a low tendency.
All the conventional groups of dog breeds (e.g., herding dogs, hounds, working dogs, toy dogs, non sporting dogs, terriers, etc.) had representatives in at least three of the behavioral clusters so prospective owners should be able to find a breed that meets their needs both physically and behaviorally. The data were collected using a questionnaire from a German magazine, so may not be completely representative of the situation in North America, but I bet it’s pretty close.
Here’s how the breeds were categorized:
What do you think — does your experience with a favorite breed mesh with these results?
Dr. Jennifer Coates writing for PetMD
ED: So where is the German shepherd? This is an extraordinary breed of dog that is highly trainable, very calm, sociable, super brave, and highly intelligent. So, that’s my two cents. Are there any other dogs that are conspicuously missing from the list? Let us know.
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who are u Michael John Scott
My upstairs neighbor’s mini Dachshund is generally calm, somewhat social (she’s nervous around people who pass her by on the street, and big dogs), and quite obviously intelligent. What she definitely is NOT, is easily trainable. She’s come a long way from her puppy days when she frequently would do stuff counter to her own interests just to be an adversary, but she still thumbs her nose (paws her nose?) at authority for the most part.
Also, she’s got another problem endemic to the breed, severe separation anxiety. My neighbor works from home so it’s not such an issue, but she needs to be puppysat when he steps out of the apartment without her or she’ll bark and cry–for as many hours as he is gone.
A problem my neighbor doesn’t have with his mini, since he is single, is with bonding. Dachshunds tend to bond with ONE person, not a family. As one owner told me, “I get 80% of the dog’s love, the other three family members get 20%, and there’s none left for you!” As a daily visitor to their apartment, I get some love from her, and she’s a little bit better than average for the breed about having “favorite people” outside of the home, but most of the time she’s only got eyes for “Daddy”.
She’s got personality to spare, and is literally the cutest dog I’ve ever met, but she’s been more of a pain than almost anyone would want to take on. She just turned a year old, and continues to get better though.
I’ve had some experience with dogs and dog training and I did help my neighbor with his dachshund. Everything you say is true. That little guy is totally dedicated to his “dad” and no one and nothing else matters. I managed to teach him to sit, and that’s about it. He will come on command, but only dad’s command, no one else’s and that may not be a bad thing. Thanks for stopping by.