What a dog’s breed can, and can’t, tell you about its behavior

Sandy, a mutt who is part Australian cattle dog, part collie, part American cocker spaniel and part Australian shepherd, participated in the study about dog breeds and behavior. The concept of the modern dog breed was invented only about 160 years ago, what the authors call “a blink in evolutionary history.” Only a few genetic differences are responsible for the striking variations we see in dogs’ form and appearance. One now-extinct type known as a “turnspit,” or kitchen dog, was raised to run on a sort of dog-sized hamster wheel that turned roasting spits over flames, said Katherine Grier, a retired University of Delaware history professor and author of the book “Pets in America: A History.” In “The Invention of the Modern Dog: Breed and Blood in Victorian Britain,” authors Michael Worboys, Julie-Marie Strange and Neil Pemberton likened the difference in dogs pre- and post-breeding to colors in a rainbow versus in a book of paint chips. “Therefore, attempting to separate individual breeds based on behavior would not be fruitful without separating them into ancestral selected populations of herding dogs, hunting dogs, etc.” Historians of dog breeding counter that breeders’ preference for specific physical traits over the years has often come at the cost of original behaviors. Dog breed is largely defined by an animal’s appearance, and “when you breed for appearance, you can lose behaviors,” Grier said.