Diana Matusik Webboard User Reg: 04-27-2004
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Good post, Amber. This sounds like a difficult hypothesis to prove or even disprove. Yes, there are lots of issues with white cats and also dalmatians and I've also read that the black-and-white cows (Holsteiners?) are strongly preferred if they have a predominance of black.
well sheesh, even in rats i think it's pretty tough to prove. my best and worst behaved rats (out of about 50 rats!) were both identical in skin/hair pigment. the best one was like a dog - came when called, would follow me around, was always looking for something to eat. the worst one leapt about two feet from the bottom of the cage and latched onto my finger. i think i'd rather have a dog bite than a rat bite.
i think the post regarding cigarette smokers and criminals best summed up my feelings on the subject. correlation doesn't mean causation.
Diana Matusik Webboard User Reg: 04-27-2004
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Loc: Central FL
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Absolutely, Jamie. This is more like an interesting scientific notion to kick around and ponder rather than anything that could be construed as fact and it should not be. Let's allow the researchers to pick this apart and see what they come up with. Even if they manage to prove/disprove a causative correlation, things could be reversed in experiments to follow. Nonetheless, it is interesting.
You get into a good point- how would a researcher determine if the differences are due to color/pigment or genetic temperament? Would the sample size have to be very large in order to make allowances for differences in genetic temperament? This is probably why not much experimentation is done on the subject; there are many routes to a certain behavior/temperament.
Agreed! But as Charlie Snyder points out, there may be a link between two characteristics. It's not that hair color influences temperament, or vice versa, but that a different factor may have (some degree of) influence on both color and temperament, and that other factor may be obsucre or no longer present (i.e. was only around during fetal development).
"Legend has it" sable GSDs are more likely to be good working dogs than black & tans. You won't find many sables in the conformation ring. Is there a common link somewhere to coat and working ability? Or have the conformation folks simply bred for black and tan, and neglected the working drives in the process? Certainly there are good working black & tans. Yet some working breeders wont even consider anything other than sables.
Is there a common link somewhere to coat and working ability? Or have the conformation folks simply bred for black and tan, and neglected the working drives in the process?
Thats what I was trying to say. I suck at wording things. I have also heard(not stating as fact) that a majority of calico cats are female and the few that are male are sterile.
Amber Morgan Webboard User Reg: 10-18-2006
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Loc: St. Louis, MO
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Quote: anitagard
"Legend has it" sable GSDs are more likely to be good working dogs than black & tans. You won't find many sables in the conformation ring. Is there a common link somewhere to coat and working ability? Or have the conformation folks simply bred for black and tan, and neglected the working drives in the process? Certainly there are good working black & tans. Yet some working breeders wont even consider anything other than sables.
As far as I understand it, the working qualities of the dogs are paramount to color or markings in working line GSDs. And since sables are a dominant pattern, you wind up with a lot of them just by the law of averages.
If you breed for color, working qualities will head south.
If you breed for working ability over color, then color will go back to "natural," which is sable.
This is how it was explained to me...I'm not a breeder!
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Re: Study links color & behavior in dogs
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