Heh, there are always exceptions. 
Lucky me, I got the exceptional ones! Well, better than getting the special ones, I guess. 
Weāve had miniture poodle-bischon mixes for 30 years, after the first one was just fantastic. Best dog ever. All the rest have been great, too. Around 10-15 lbs, sweet, laid back, donāt shed. Basically the best of cats (portable, can sit on your lap, small poops, donāt need long walks) and dogs (comes when called, openly adores you, no litter box, trainable). And they donāt shed!
This little guy isnāt going to defend mefrom a burglar, but he will let me know if someoneās out there. Besides that, not yappy.
I had an online friend who had a bichon she took hiking with her, and she said people would tease her about her āfoofyā dog. But that dog could outlast a lot of the other dogs she saw on the trail.
Even some small dogs were bred for specific work, so thereās no reason they are any less āpracticalā than big breeds.
I donāt think I ever had a dog of any size who would do that. Some that sounded scary but anyone who actually came in would get love me jumps at worst.
Iāve been spoiled because Bear is 100% a defender dog who is only somewhat friendly with peopleātakes him a while to warm up to new people, especially men. Even when he does know and like someone he can be very touchy about who comes through the gate and heās given the warning nip to a couple overly optimistic friends who didnāt warn me they needed an escort through the gate. Bearās first warning nip is on the upper thigh, and if someone persists he basically aims for the junk. I have to tell him itās okay to let people in, then they can come and go for the day without a challenge. He also has a very loud, deep bark, a very scary growl and is large, muscular and very hard to see in the dark. I wouldnāt want to be the burglar who surprised Bear by coming into the house unannounced. Neither of the other two has a protective bone in their body, living alone will be a lot scarier when Bear leaves me.
Next door neighbor is notorious for being a shit Shepard owner. Absentee lazy sets no boundaries. His last two died of degenerative diseases. 6 months later Just heard heās coming home with a new puppy. Poor rottie gonna grow up aimless and angry.
I have cats.
Good heavens - I love most dogs more than I love most people, and have had at least 1 dog the 40 years of my adult life. I wouldnāt own a dog like that, and wouldnāt visit anyone who did.
If you had as many meth addict homeless people living near you as I do you might have a different view. Bear is very good, he stands and barks and only escalates if the person insists on coming through the gate without his permission. His nips donāt break the skin, theyāre the kind of nip an adult dog gives a rambunctious puppy. He is just very firm about defending his place and his person. Outside the yard heās just fine, aside from some leash aggression with other dogs. I donāt like the odds of someone trying to hurt me in Bearās presence though, heās quite protective of me.
Those English mastiffs my husbandās step mother had? She trained them to growl if she sucked in air, as you might when surprised.
They were protective without being werenāt aggressive, though. When i visited, three of them stood shoulder to shoulder in the doorway, physically blocking my entrance. They didnāt growl or threaten me, they just stood there, 400 pounds of dog between me and indoors.
My husband (then boyfriend) had to pull them aside to let me in. And once i was indoors, they wanted to be lap dogs. 
Such great dogs.
Thread readers may be interested in this article.
Interesting. Somewhat contrary to my impressions - which I will re-consider. I imagine that once I get an idea as to a characteristic of a breed, selective memory kicks in, where I only notice and remember individuals who confirm my opinion. Iāll have to look for the Ridgeback or Chow that ISNāT an assholeā¦
But I wonder what their methods were for defining the ābreeds.ā For example - golden retrievers are my favorite breed. But different breeders select basically 3 different attributes. One goes for the lovable family dog, another for more energetic hunters, and a third emphasizes looks above all else. Maybe there is a 4th group, which doesnāt pay as much attention, whose pups are more of a crapshoot.
So, even if I were getting another golden, Iād be very interested in the philosophy and intentions of the breeder.
Almost as much - if not more - important than the breed IMO, is the socialization from a very young age. Which makes me leery of adult rescues. Not saying A LOT of rescue dogs arenāt wonderful. But Iāve also known a lot of dogs (rescue or not) who were fucked up by irresponsible owners at a young age.
Details of methods can be read clicking that begin ājust 9%ā.
Breed by DNA which has a very good concordance with breed by owner report for purebreds.
Yes many of us will be at least somewhat surprised by this study. I think our sense of breed personality may be impacted by confirmation bias.
Some traits are more heritable though. Retrieving. Biddablity. But ā[f]or less heritable, less breed-differentiated traits, like agonistic threshold (factor 5), which measures how easily a dog is provoked by frightening, uncomfortable, or annoying stimuli, breed is almost uninformative.ā
My sister has had a string of rescue German shepherd dogs. They are all somewhat fucked up when she gets them, but theyāve all settled down after a few months of consistency. One, who was owned by a breeder, and spent most of her life confined to a crate (the owner hosed it down to clean it, rather than letting her out to pee and poop) was āthe best dog everā, according to both me sister and her vet. The dog did have some anxiety ā the weekend i dog-sat in my house, she barely ate, even though i microwaved her favorite food with broth ā but she was incredibly sweet, very loving, meticulously obedient, gentle, and really a wonderful pet.
My preference is anywhere between beagle size and lab size. Iāll make friends with any dog who is willing, though. We just adopted a new dog, which I will post about it the appropriate forum directly.
I had a neighbor who had the sweetest Ridgebacks. Great dogs. Sorry, Iāve only known asshole Chows.
Small dog, small brain, generally. Breeding does enter into the equation. Our Shih Tzu is considerably less smart than was our Maltoodle. Small poops are why I voted for small dogs.
Not really. The Shetland Sheepdog, Miniature Poodle, and Papillon, are some of the brightest, most trainable of all breeds.
The problem with this study is that almost certainly they used AKC conformation show breeds, which, as inbred populations, are genetically homogenous, but have been selected almost entirely for appearance. The fact that many of these originally-useful breeds still show some signs of the behaviors they were once famous for is accidental. The general public still believes in the stereotypes of the breeds because
- these traits are not being selected against, so they tend to persist.
- these traits are not being tested (because the dogs are pets not workers) so beliefs tend to persist, in the absence of proof either way.
- most people know about zero about dog behavior and just make shit up.
If instead the researchers had used only real working breeds, i.e. breeds selected for performance, such as working-bred gun dogs, racing sled dogs, herding dogs, or police K-9s, none of which use the AKC as a registry, they would have found a lot more homogeneity of personality and proclivity. Because that is what is selected for. A working Border Collie that doesnāt want to herd doesnāt pass on his genes, any more than does a lackasadaisical Alaskan Husky, or a German Shorthair that wonāt hunt.
If you instead select for a dog that simply looks like it hunts or herds or protects, that will be exactly what you get.
First off let me again point to the actual research article (and its supplements!) in which details the methods and findings in detail: breeds defined by genetics for both purebred AKC breed definitions (but definition not caring about registry one way or the other), and mixed breed ancestry.
The bottom line implication of their findings though is two fold.
-
With the exception of of moderate impact on a few specific behavioral characteristics most of the breeds do NOT show signs of behaviors they were once famous for.
-
The general public still believes in the stereotypes because the AKC and places selling genetic testing promote them, and perhaps confirmation bias.
To those points:
Lots of other points though and the many details are fascinating! Most pertinent to this thread Is this:
Half the dogs tested were mutts and guessed breed missed the largest contributor fairly often. I love figure 5D (has pictures):
That poor ability allowed to test the actual genetic contribution from self fulfilling prophecy based on stereotype expectations. (āThis analysis illustrates the power of including complex mixes in behavioral studies, because any influence of breed stereotypes is mitigated when true breed ancestry is not readily discernible from appearance.ā) Thatās where the 9% comes from: