Temperament & Genetics

This is a current topic on Martha Hoffmans FB page. She studies dog behavior and trains service dogs, specializing in dogs that come from shelters. The comments and her conversation with the comments are just as enlightening. I agree with her 100% that you can help fearful dogs but deep down you will never erase that flaw completely. For those who aren't familiar with her, she lives in Bali and has been studying the behavior of Street Dogs for years. These dogs have homes but roam the streets and are basically shared and loved by the people and the dogs have distinct personalities and hierarchies in their packs. Too much to try to describe here, but these thoughts (of several on fearful dogs) are worth the read.
I appreciate that fearfulness and reactivity are grouped together because both just different approaches by the dog to deal with "normal" things by over-reacting.

Interesting stuff, if you're into this kind of thing.

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Breeders who are inexperienced or just trying to make money, think a dog that was fearful as a pup, that they carefully with great effort, raised and socialized and were able to get it to act almost normal, is suitable for breeding. It is not.
The most telling remark: "OH, the dog doesn't have a Championship because it doesn't like to show".
Dog shows are an important temperament test. A dog that loves showing and show situations probably has a non-fearful temperament. At least it should be tolerant and relaxed at a show.
I study the primitive Bali Heritage Dogs and have watched many litters develop with not much human interference beyond owners or neighbors feeding them. The moms have superb maternal instincts and often raise a litter by themselves on their first estrus.
Fearfulness beyond the normal cautiousness of the breed/landrace is something I often observe at 5 weeks. The pup almost always remains very fearful as an adult. Many litters have a mix of very social and confident siblings and very fearful.
Following many litters to several months old or to adulthood, I have seen pairs that grew up on the same lane with same owner or adopted by neighbors, or as unowned dogs, often living with their mother.
The fearful stay fearful. The bold stay bold, with both types showing caution learned through bad experiences.
The dams influence pups by alarm barking at any danger. Pups at about 5 weeks instinctively run for the nest or den or any dark place to hide when they hear the Huff or alarm bark. They do not need to be aware of the situation that caused the dam to alarm bark and Huff.
In the next few weeks, the pups start associating whatever was going on when the dam barked, with danger. Then they start avoiding me as I observe them.
This is why I never want a pup from a fearful mother.
And yet, in a litter, there are pups who panic and run when the dam barks an alarm, and there also might be pups who ignore her signals and continue playing or run up to greet me and get treats. These are confident and and do not heed mom's warnings much.
Fearfulness is the number one cause of failure in Service, Guide and Hearing Dog programs: Steve Grunow's Ph.D thesis gathering statistics from many programs.

That is why Guide Dog programs rigorously screen out fearful dogs from breeding stock. And the pups they produce often have such good temperaments that they never go through a fear period, or just get a little hesitant for a few weeks.
Most Malinois are the opposite of sound fearful. They have been selected for at least 100 years for positive attraction to loud sounds, often with some aggressive excitement.
The well-bred are usually not fearful. They can be taught to ignore sounds and be neutral, as required in IGP and Ringsports during obedience and temperament testing.
But the Ringsports have exercises where the dog must charge and bite while the decoy fires 9mm blanks. Those are really loud!
Many Malinois will charge at loud sounds. Again, no fear component. Although, badly bred Malinois can be very fearful.

Martha Hoffman

I think it was Denise Fenzi who wrote a great piece on why she'd take an unsocialized puppy over a fearful puppy that had been well-socialized. Similar info, that a fearful dog would always be fearful, no matter how much you socialized it, while the bolder puppy socialized at a later age turned out much better.

Sunje said:

that a fearful dog would always be fearful, no matter how much you socialized it, while the bolder puppy socialized at a later age turned out much better.

Click to expand...

I agree 100%

I take care of dogs for a neighbor and it was a fearful pup when they got it from the shelter and 8 years later she still startles and slinks if something startles her. She's a great dog and she's made great improvements, but the inner code can't be trained out. To add, she was adopted as a puppy, was never neglected or abused by anyone.

Ravenbird said:

This is a current topic on Martha Hoffmans FB page. She studies dog behavior and trains service dogs, specializing in dogs that come from shelters. The comments and her conversation with the comments are just as enlightening. I agree with her 100% that you can help fearful dogs but deep down you will never erase that flaw completely. For those who aren't familiar with her, she lives in Bali and has been studying the behavior of Street Dogs for years. These dogs have homes but roam the streets and are basically shared and loved by the people and the dogs have distinct personalities and hierarchies in their packs. Too much to try to describe here, but these thoughts (of several on fearful dogs) are worth the read.
I appreciate that fearfulness and reactivity are grouped together because both just different approaches by the dog to deal with "normal" things by over-reacting.

Interesting stuff, if you're into this kind of thing.

**********************

Breeders who are inexperienced or just trying to make money, think a dog that was fearful as a pup, that they carefully with great effort, raised and socialized and were able to get it to act almost normal, is suitable for breeding. It is not.
The most telling remark: "OH, the dog doesn't have a Championship because it doesn't like to show".
Dog shows are an important temperament test. A dog that loves showing and show situations probably has a non-fearful temperament. At least it should be tolerant and relaxed at a show.
I study the primitive Bali Heritage Dogs and have watched many litters develop with not much human interference beyond owners or neighbors feeding them. The moms have superb maternal instincts and often raise a litter by themselves on their first estrus.
Fearfulness beyond the normal cautiousness of the breed/landrace is something I often observe at 5 weeks. The pup almost always remains very fearful as an adult. Many litters have a mix of very social and confident siblings and very fearful.
Following many litters to several months old or to adulthood, I have seen pairs that grew up on the same lane with same owner or adopted by neighbors, or as unowned dogs, often living with their mother.
The fearful stay fearful. The bold stay bold, with both types showing caution learned through bad experiences.
The dams influence pups by alarm barking at any danger. Pups at about 5 weeks instinctively run for the nest or den or any dark place to hide when they hear the Huff or alarm bark. They do not need to be aware of the situation that caused the dam to alarm bark and Huff.
In the next few weeks, the pups start associating whatever was going on when the dam barked, with danger. Then they start avoiding me as I observe them.
This is why I never want a pup from a fearful mother.
And yet, in a litter, there are pups who panic and run when the dam barks an alarm, and there also might be pups who ignore her signals and continue playing or run up to greet me and get treats. These are confident and and do not heed mom's warnings much.
Fearfulness is the number one cause of failure in Service, Guide and Hearing Dog programs: Steve Grunow's Ph.D thesis gathering statistics from many programs.

That is why Guide Dog programs rigorously screen out fearful dogs from breeding stock. And the pups they produce often have such good temperaments that they never go through a fear period, or just get a little hesitant for a few weeks.
Most Malinois are the opposite of sound fearful. They have been selected for at least 100 years for positive attraction to loud sounds, often with some aggressive excitement.
The well-bred are usually not fearful. They can be taught to ignore sounds and be neutral, as required in IGP and Ringsports during obedience and temperament testing.
But the Ringsports have exercises where the dog must charge and bite while the decoy fires 9mm blanks. Those are really loud!
Many Malinois will charge at loud sounds. Again, no fear component. Although, badly bred Malinois can be very fearful.

Martha Hoffman


One thing that surprised me is how much modern platforms rely on behavior rather than personal profiles. The way someone browses, clicks, or spends time on different sections can be just as valuable as basic account information. I came across this blog post that explores this idea with some practical examples.

Click to expand...

This is a fantastic read and really highlights the critical difference between management and genetics.

We often confuse a heavily socialized, carefully managed fearful dog with a genetically sound one. Martha's observation about 5-week-old littermates reacting completely differently to the exact same alarm bark from their mother is the perfect proof that confidence (or the lack of it) is largely hardwired. You can absolutely help a fearful dog cope and give them a great life through training, but as she points out, you can't out-train genetics.

It’s a tough pill to swallow for some breeders, but a very necessary conversation. Thanks for sharing this!

These are the type of dogs that you spend their lives having small victories overcoming quirks or steering a quirk to something positive. When they are gone usually the most missed.
It is reassuring to read that much of this type of behavior is hard wired instead of thinking that this type of dog was abused when receiving a older dog with a unknown history.

Thanks @Ravenbird for sharing Hoffman's research into Bali dogs, and the Service Dog connection.

I've been dog-geeking-out on "breeding for temperament" including drilling down on selection, early learning in the two big programs that have been around longest, Guide Dogs, and Canine Companions.

I've also been attempting to learn more from one local shelter to soldier type SD program.

Clearly, breeding for temperament has been done for hundreds of years in animal husbandry and in dogs for many generations...now the DNA tester consumer products are rolling out generalizations based on breed types but it hasnt yet been proven.

The large SD breeders and I'm guessing the large working dog breeders like VLK have the data and the tools like Better Bred to track characteristics by dog, but thats part of the "special sauce" so its tricky getting more info from outside in.

So the "Steve Grunow PhD" thesis caught my eye...anyone have more info on that?

Duke has been doing collaboration with Canine Companions and sharing some of that, in Service Dogs.


If anyone is interested in more, feel free to PM.

I do think this again speaks to the integrity and commitment of ethical preservation breeders in the working dogs that depend upon strong, confident temperament built in.

And perhaps, again, suggests that over-in-breeding for popular looks, has contributed to shy, weak, anxious dogs in the show lines.

As in the commercial market bred dogs for pet consumers where the temperament component is not a factor in the business model.

And how educating the consumer is the solution. Create the need, and the free market will adapt to fill it.

So keep sharing this cross breed, cross community stuff, please @Ravenbird