Which ARISTOPERRO breeds are the most sociable?
Those of us who live with an ARISTOPERRO tend to think that ours is the handsomest, smartest, friendliest, most sociable… But that is not the case. At least, not according to science. Specifically, according to a recent study published in Science, which suggests that the personalities of our ARISTOPERROS could come from the factory.
According to the scientists from Princeton University (U.S.) who conducted the research, dogs are social and sociable by nature. This is not due to an increase in their social cognition, but to a genetic mutation related to Williams-Beuren syndrome: a human developmental disorder with symptoms such as hypersociability, which affects one in every 7,500 newborns in Spain.
The study, led by Bridgett Von Holdt, focused on the chromosomal region involved in canine sociability and analyzed the behavior and DNA of several dog breeds from the American Kennel Club. The breeds included the Alaskan malamute, Bernese mountain dog, border collie, boxer, basenji, cairn terrier, golden retriever, Great Pyrenees, Jack Russell terrier, saluki, pug, miniature poodle and miniature schnauzer.
We already knew that loneliness and isolation cause behavioral problems in dogs, such as aggression or an inability to interact with other dogs or people. In fact, integrating dogs into the family group and maintaining daily contact with people and other animals is recommended.
However, this new study suggests that dogs have a genetic condition that may lead to an exaggerated motivation to seek social contact compared with wolves. The results indicate that the GTF2I and GTF2IRD1 genes are connected with hypersociability in dogs, and that this is not due to an advanced form of social cognition developed as a result of domestication, as had been believed until now. Monique Udell, a scientist at Oregon State University (U.S.) and the study’s lead co-author, says that these findings «provide new insight into the behavioral divergence between dogs and wolves».
In the study, the researchers evaluated the sociability of 18 domestic dogs from different breeds and 10 captive gray wolves from different continents through two problem-solving tasks.
The first involved opening a box containing a sausage within two minutes, with a human present. The results showed that dogs were more likely to abandon the task to look at the person, while wolves generally persisted and solved it, even with someone nearby.
Something similar happened in the second test: a person sat inside a circle, and two tests were conducted. In the first (active phase), the person called the animal by name and encouraged contact. In the second (passive phase), they sat silently and ignored it. The result: both dogs and wolves quickly approached people. However, the wolves tended to move away after a few seconds, while the dogs persisted in trying to capture the attention of both familiar and unfamiliar individuals.
According to this study, the most sociable ARISTOPERROS and carriers of the genetic mutation were: Bernese mountain dogs, border collies, boxers, golden retrievers, Jack Russell terriers, miniature poodles and pugs. By contrast, Alaskan malamutes, basenjis, cairn terriers, Great Pyrenees, miniature schnauzers, salukis and semi-domesticated dogs did not seek human attention. These are interesting results that many ARISTOPARENTS of the supposedly less sociable breeds will surely disagree with…
In any case, the importance of this research lies in the fact that it is the first to integrate behavioral and genetic data to understand the molecular foundations of the changes that occurred in dogs’ social behavior during domestication. Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that the analysis was based on a small number of animal samples, and although the genes identified are good candidates for explaining hypersociability, a larger and more diverse group would need to be studied to confirm the results.
If you would like to read other studies we have covered at ARISTOPET, click here.