We're talking about linking genes, temperament, and physical traits... I think I'm still in the same ball park.

 Quote: melissa thom

The second link I heard about was in the russian silver fox project where they selected silver foxes at a fur farm based upon temperament alone. The resulting generations produced dog like foxes with traditional dog color patterns (spotted coats with a blaze and socks), floppy ears, barking, tail wagging, and absolutely ruined the coat for fur production.

Trying to remember, but I'm pretty sure Temple Grandin sites this study in her book Animals In Translation (along with a thorough discussion of the consequences of single trait breeding, which she states causes "warped evolution"). If I also remember correctly, she discusses personal observations she's made about links between forehead hair whorls on livestock (various breeds of cattle and horses) and temperament (high strung vs more docile) - not from selective breeding for hair whorl placement, but as a general genetic connection between physical appearance and behavior. Hope I'm not mixing authors, but as far as information goes, there are links out there (official and anecdotal).

This thread has taken and interesting direction!
~Natalya

I'm really loving all this information. I wish I had something knowledgeable to add, but all I can do is read and learn! Thanks to everyone for contributing! It's reminding me of how much I DON'T know and offering so much info at the same time. I love it!

So the fox study reference is an addition to mention of the same study on page two of this thread?

There is also some interesting research involving wolf hybrids. Aggressive behavior may actually come from the dog parent, as wolves are usually pretty shy of humans.

AWIC Newsletter: The Wolf-Dog Hybrid

I do know that breeding specifically for a type (as in working Border Collies) you can produce a dogs with high variations of looks but all essentially the same type of dog. Check out the Border Collie Mueseum And breeders that have focused on setting color/body style have started to loose the stock working ability of the breed.

One of our herding trainer's trial dogs (all her dogs are BCs, except for their mini Schauzer lol) looks very different than her other dogs. He's still definitely a Border Collie, but he does have a shorter coat than her other dogs. None of them are anything close to mellow, though. But that's really interesting Mara, I always wondered why he looked so different. I never would have imagined a curly coated Border Collie!

 Quote: randy allen

So the fox study reference is an addition to mention of the same study on page two of this thread?

I missed your post. Yep... it's the same darn study.

I gave it some thought on my way to the grocery store of what I was trying to explain so darn poorly. The problem with the fluffy gene as presented in temperament studies is that in science and in studies if you can't measure it somehow it doesn't count. Please tell me where I measure temperament on my dog? I have a ruler. The beauty I found in the fox study is that it presented the first rudimentary study of friendliness to feralness as linked to a hormone produced in the brain and how that possibly may be altering outward appearances spontaneously. It was progress toward perhaps identifying a link to the heritability of temperament and possibly a link of traits to temperament.

So as of right now anything we come up with will be heresay, unprovable, and conjecture. It's part of the reason I get excited when there is a study on dogs that actually bears worthwhile data. We're still collectively in the infant stages of identifying which genes work together to produce which traits. The dog genome project just figured out which three genes effect coat type to begin with. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/326/5949/150 This was published in October this year. We'll see where this data takes us in a few years.

The cool thing I think about dog breeding and genetics is that it quickly bears how much we don't know about this stuff once you compare the data to other animals. After all when we clone a pig, a cow, or a rat we cant compare the details we can see on the family dog, compare the temperaments, trainability, and how rearing changes the end results. It also gives us a chance to see what's truly in the genes and what's random. I caught this story last summer and I have to admit it gave me pause to think things out. http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=cloned-dogs-sniff-out-contraband-in-2009-07-20

The fox study is discussed in the book "DOGS" by Raymond and Laurna Coplenger (sp).
Very interesting book on a new "theory" about how wolves became dogs. Not you wolf at the campfire traditional thoughts on the subject.
It also discusses the herd guarding breeds, herding breeds, sled dogs, and a few other direction dogs have taken.

 Quote: Joy van Veen

Of course this is a percentage, not all. The same is true in at least some other breeds. The Dachshund comes to mind.

Around here we don´t mix the coats anymore but the longhaired ones are mellower than the shorthaired but the wires have often with almost terrier-like temperaments. I have thought it is because of the longhaired dogs cuddly appearance that made pet-people take them and breed for lower energy dogs that are more problem free to keep as couchpillows.

My dachs has longhaired dogs in backround (V and VI generation that I know of and probably some more that I don´t) but she is a firecracker with more spunk than most shorthairs I know though she is bred by a show breeder (who just happens to have females with local old working line pedigrees).