Differences in the Behavior of Landraces and Breeds of Dogs - Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals - page 221

Household dogs are dangerous to humans. According to Langley's (2009)
study, dog bites exist at epidemic proportions with an average of 19 human
fatalities per year in the U.S. alone. The number of fatal dog bites has been
increasing with the growth of the human population and concurrent growth
of the dog population ( Langley, 2009 ). One of the most common questions
asked of behavior therapists is how to treat aggression in dogs ( Bamberger
and Houpt, 2006; Dodman, 1996; Mugford, 1995; Voith, 2009 ). Certain
people (most notably, postal carriers on foot, and also running children) are
frequently threatened by dogs.
Uncontrolled barking by dogs is also more than a nuisance. Beck (1973)
posits that barking may reduce human productivity. An article by Lord et al.
(2009) generated numerous responses from people who were tormented by
barking dogs.
Seldom mentioned by humans is that depriving the animals of their
reproductive potential might be the biggest hazard faced by the pet dog
population.
Evolution
For household dogs, being a good companion should be the object of selec-
tion and evolution. Even though 5 million are culled annually, this may not
be a high percentage compared with other working breeds. Information on
culling rates across the various classes of dogs is not known, but theory pre-
dicts that genetic divergence (in this case selection for good companion
behavior) is dependent on over-reproduction and culling those animals that
perform unacceptably.
The question has to be asked, is good behavior being selected for?
Behavior should be more important than unique colors or morphologies.
Some studies have focused on what makes a good pet or companion. The
work of King et al. (2009) investigates what traits people think they would
like in a pet dog. The most popular characteristics listed for an ideal dog
were obedient, friendly, affectionate, healthy, and loyal. The authors note
that while obedience was important to many (40.7%), trainability was not
(only 3.6%). Many people also desired to get their dog as a puppy (75.8%).
This is interesting because adult behavior is greatly influenced by early envi-
ronment. Therefore, it would be difficult to identify the adult behavior of the
pup they are adopting. Furthermore, the owner would need to pay attention
to the early rearing of their new pup in order to develop the dog they desire.
Geneticists estimate the heritability of behavioral characteristics of tem-
perament, nervousness, shyness, or aggressiveness (see Houpt, 2007 , for a
review). The assistance dog industry funds heritability studies as well as tem-
perament testing, attempting to predict adult behavior from juvenile behavior
( Beaudet et al., 1994; Goddard and Beilharz, 1986; Serpell and Hsu, 2001 ).
It is difficult to find behaviors that are the results of simple Mendelian ratios,