“Thus, dog breed is generally a poor predictor of individual behavior and should not be used to inform decisions relating to selection of a pet dog.”
I generally find it annoying that, failing any real evidence of genetic causes of human behavior, people (including behavioral genetic scientists), point to dog breeds to demonstrate some validity to the concept, since dog “behavior” is even more subjective than for humans and is based on the dog’s owner’s opinions, and people can be influenced by breed perceptions. Moreover, the variability in size and build of dogs could have an influence on the behavior.
It appears, however, according to this study, that a lot of claimed breed characteristics are myths. As anyone who has owned more than one dog of the same breed can attest, dogs, like humans, have their own personalities.
