Good dog or bad dog? New study shows that breed isn't really a predictor of behavior

A new genetic study involving more than 2,000 dogs and 200,000 survey answers from dog owners has shown that a dog's breed is a poor predictor of behavior on its own.

The first-of-its-kind, peer-reviewed study conducted by professors, students and researchers at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School is set to be published in the journal Science this month.

The popular beliefs that breed plays a role in how aggressive, obedient or affectionate a dog can be have been found to be incorrect. Pit bulls and German Shepherds are two dog breeds that can be subject to breed-specific legislation, insurance restrictions and home bans.

Despite these widely held assumptions, there is a lack of genetic research showing a link between breed and behavior.

The authors of the study used genome-wide association studies to find common genetic variations that could be used to predict certain behavior in dogs. They combined the data with the surveys from Darwin's Ark.

The results of the tests included data from 78 breeds. None of them were specific to breed. Breed only explains 9% of the behavioral variation in individual dogs, while age or dog sex are the best predictors of behavior.

The majority of behaviors that we think of as characteristics of specific modern dog breeds have most likely come about from thousands of years of evolution from wolf to wild canine to domesticated dog.

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