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Comment by randomblast

Kind and caring != understands dog behaviour. 99.999% of agonistic behaviour is driven by fear. What a normal person thinks is a kind & caring behaviour can be terrifying for a dog.

Non-pointers point. Some pointer don't.

Non-retreivers retrieve. Some retreivers don't.

Non-herding dogs herd. Some herders don't.

Most dogs play-fight. "Fighting dogs" have to be trained to fight to kill.

Breeding is clearly a fantastic determinant of physical characteristics which pair well with the desired behaviour, and does contribute a little bit towards behavioural instinct, but (as per the *peer-reviewed long term study* in question) isn't on its own a good predictor of behaviour.

The ~.001%, by the way, is termed idiopathic aggression (sometimes called cocker rage, but again is NOT actually well-correlated with cocker spaniels). Idiopathic means of unknown cause.

parent randomblast 4 years ago

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