Differences in the Behavior of Landraces and Breeds of Dogs - Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals - page 193

Chapter 6
Differences in the Behavior of
Landraces and Breeds of Dogs
Kathryn Lord, Lorna Coppinger, and Raymond Coppinger
School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, USA
In 1758 Linnaeus classified the domestic dog as Canis familiaris, a species
designation. Subspecies of dogs are called landraces or breeds, which are
thought to have breed-specific behaviors that predispose its members to per-
form some task in a manner superior to any other landrace or breed. Since
there are more than 300 breeds of dogs, it might be said that behaviorally
(ethologically) dogs are the most varied species of mammals. However,
many of the modern breeds are developed by breed clubs, which often have
little interest in working ability.
Indeed many of the variations in dog sizes and shapes are simply the
preservation of mutations ( Kemper et al., 2012 ). Various forms of dwarfism,
gigantisms, and skull shapes are reasonably common in many mammals
including humans ( Kemper et al., 2012; Millien, 2006; Perry and Dominy,
2009; Zabek and Slota, 2007 ), but these are bred for capriciously in dogs
( Asher et al., 2009; Bond, 2007; Coppinger and Coppinger, 2001; Serpell,
1995 ). For example, modern breeds such as dachshunds or bassett hounds
are achondroplastic dwarfs, the result of a single gene mutation and not the
result of people artificially selecting for short legs.
Within the subspecies “dog”, landraces and breeds vary widely and are
phenotypically distinct from each other and from other members of the genus
Canis. At the same time, skeletal characteristics that clearly discriminate
dogs as a whole from other species and sub-species of the genus Canis do
not exist.
Taxonomists often characterize (normal) mesaticephalic dogs as having
robust frontal bones, overlapping dentiton or a shorter facial length, but
these characteristics are not well differentiated, statistically ( Coppinger
et al., 2010 ). So-called diagnostic features of dogs can be found in ontoge-
netic stages of other members of the genus. For example, sub-adult wolves
have short, wide palate lengths with overlapping dentition. Descriptive
differentiation of dogs is always a matter of how the sample was chosen.