11/19/13

Dog Aggression in a Breeding Program

Should you breed from a dog that is dog-aggressive?

"Deez" was surrendered into rescue having almost-exclusively lived in a backyard for 2 years. Despite this, he was friendly with other dogs. While his breeder wasn't what would be regarded as highly ethical, they obviously were producing dogs with good temperaments.

“Deez” was surrendered into rescue having almost-exclusively lived in a backyard for 2 years, with minimal interaction with other dogs. Despite this lack of socialisation, he was friendly with other dogs. While his breeder wasn’t what would be regarded as highly ethical, they obviously were producing dogs with good temperaments. His sociability with other dogs was the reason we were able to so easily place him into a new home – he now has another dog for company.

There’s four questions concerning that particular dog’s aggression that I would consider when elevating a dog’s suitability for a breeding program.

Firstly, if the dog is biting/attacking other dogs, is it illustrating bite inhibition by not actually doing damage to other dogs? If a dog is ‘attacking’ at a lot of dogs, but never doing damage, then this is a good sign that the dog is not intending to physically harm other dogs.

Then, how common is this type of aggression in this breed? Very common, uncommon, rare? In some breeds, all you can do is pick ‘the best of a bad bunch’. Complimentary temperaments in proposed matings are important, too (you wouldn’t put a ‘bad dog’ to another ‘bad dog’, for conformation or temperament).

Is the dog so aggressive to other dogs that you can’t achieve a natural mating? If the dog is not psychologically sound enough to have sex then it shouldn’t be bred from. Consider that many solitary species, like tigers, bears, rhinos, are generally territorial and aggressive to one another – yet, they still able to reproduce naturally. That is, the instincts associated with reproduction are strong enough to override a natural dislike to their own kind. Dogs, who are naturally social animals, should at the very least have a temperament conductive to natural matings.

Finally, a question to ask yourself as a breeder: Would you be satisfied if your puppy buyers ended up with a dog of similar temperament? That is, would you be proud to produce a dog with similar dog-aggression? Are you puppy buyers able to manage or train against dog-aggression? Dog owners want dogs to be ‘friendly’, and producing dogs with dog-aggression are likely to fall short of the owners’ expectations.

What do you think? Should a dog that has dog aggression be bred from? Under what circumstances?

02/9/13

Can breeders breed better?

In June last year, I attended a webinar run by ASAP Labratory run by Dr Jacqui Ley on breeding better dogs. I was particularly excited that ASAP ran a webinar as I missed out on a live seminar in Adelaide a few weeks prior.

The seminar was called, “Behaviour = Genetics + Learning + Environment - raising even better dogs“.

Jacqui wanted to challenge breeders: Can we make improvements to the way we breed dogs?

Screenshot from Breeding Better Dogs webinar.

Jacqui’s personal experience with two dogs (pictured above) with anxiety and aggression problems has lead to her being passionate about breeders producing ‘good’ dogs. Continue reading →

02/1/12

Select, Select, Select

For too long we’ve cried “socialise, socialise, socialise”. I vote for a new slogan: “select, select, select”.

Ultimately, to bring a confident, happy, sound, enjoyable new puppy into the household, three critical selections need to be made:

We need people to select an appropriate breed. They need to know what characteristics fit in with their family or lifestyle. Genetics hugely determine the behaviours of dogs. There are countless resources explaining how to consider the breed most suitable to you. This includes practical appearance criteria, like “how big?” and physically appealing charactertisitcs. Then, nitty gritty criteria regarding owner energy compared to the dog’s, and willingness to groom. An understanding of the breed’s original purpose and how that original purpose might be annoying (e.g. a breed bred to retrieve likes to use their mouth, a breed bred to herd may nip and herd people, a breed bred to kill vermin often are indiscriminate with pocket pets). In short, new owners need to research breeds and work out what breed would love to live and thrive in their household- not a breed that they could ‘make work’.

Kari with a puppy from Savaneta Golden Retrievers from South Australia.

Puppy buyers need to select a breeder with care. By that I mean: a breeder that cares. Cares about where their puppies end up, about the pedigrees of their dogs, about choosing pups suitable to the individual’s lifestyle. A good breeder may say no to some households, because they only want the best for their puppies. A good breeder probably doesn’t have a puppy available right now. Good breeders take steps to ensure their animal never ends up in a shelter, and will live a happy and full life in a loving home. A good breeder knows some puppies are not perfectly normal, and will not let them go to any home.

And the pedigree of the dog, including the parents, need to be considered. This is in terms of temperament and in terms of health. Nervous dogs, or aggressive dogs, should not be bred from, and should not be in the pedigree. Buyers should insist on meeting at least the mother of the puppy, and any other relatives possible. The pedigree should, however, include healthy dogs – especially dogs that are old and healthy. Certificates of health should be presented for the parents, including any relevant scores (e.g. hip, eye, etc) for the particular breed. Knowing the background of the puppy provides some security and confidence in what the puppy may grow to be.

I’m sure if people went through all these steps, or even half of these steps, we’d have less dog problems than we see today. There would be no impulse buys, if people were selecting the right breed, and going through a responsible breeder. If people considered pedigrees and parents more often, there would be more healthy and stable dogs.

Selecting the right breed, from the right breeder, from the right pedigree, would right a lot of wrongs. … We can dream, can’t we?

Further reading: Can breeders breed better?

02/26/11

Belyaev’s Fox Experiment – Index

After frequently finding myself encountering references to Belyaev’s fox experiment in a number of dog-related texts, I felt the need to investigate his experiment more thoroughly. This has resulted in a lot of reading, but a lot of new found knowledge. From this reading, I hope to have a better understanding of the connection dog-authors are trying to make between dogs and the fox experiment. I hope it also proves useful for my readers.

Part I – Introduction
A summary of the work of Belaev in his ongoing experiment with foxes.

Part II – Changes
Description of the changes observed in Belyaev’s fox experiment.

Part III – Answers
Possible reasons for the changes seen in the foxes in Belyaev’s experiment.

Part IV – Dogs?
Why does the Belyaev fox experiment matter to dogs?

I hope this series has been of interest, as I thoroughly enjoyed researching. I did cut out some bits and pieces, so please feel free to comment if you feel I haven’t answered a burning question for you! Additionally, if you would like in text referencing, I can provide such.

References: Continue reading →

02/26/11

Belyaev’s Fox Experiment – Dogs? – Part IV

This post is part of the series on Belyaev’s fox experiments.
(index | part I | part II | part III | part IV )

You may have read my previous three posts, which have explained details of Belyaev’s fox experiment. And you may have wondered the relevance of studying foxes on a blog about dogs.

Obviously, foxes are not dogs. They’re not even wolves. However, they aren’t far off it. Regions of fox chromosomes correspond with those of the dog (to be specific, fox chromosome 1 seems to indicate a fusion between chromosomes 1, 33 and 12 as we see today in the dog). That means that we should not disregard this research because it is a different species.

Chiefly, this study can be used to examine the process of dog domestication. Because domestication and associated variability seemingly occurred relatively quickly, there have been doubts that Darwinian theories are applicable. However, this study shows that significant changes can be seen in a brief period of time and generations. Coppinger (in his book Dogs) uses this study to show how quickly a significant change can take place – in the foxes here, significant morphological and physiological changes were seen in just 8-10 generations. This all occurred with just one selection pressure – selecting for ‘tameness’.

Dogs are very different to wolves.

This is surprising on a surface level, but when considering the causes of these changes it is not so remarkable. Indeed, these changes have been seem occur in a similar way in terms of wolf’s domestication to dogs. For example, dogs play as adults while wolves do not, and dogs carry many other juvenile-wolf characteristics. Furthermore, dog puppies respond to human cues like fox domesticated pups and indeed are ‘dog like’ in many behavioural ways. It is likely that the causes of the foxes changes are also the reason the wolf is the dog we know today.

On a larger scale, this research shows that we can select for nature. Consider that these dogs were never trained, but were selected on their genetic amicability to humans. This is a loud message on how we should be selecting dogs to breed from.