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Genetic parameters of personality traits in dogs based on behavioral assessment and questionnaire information

2025· article· en· W4408912857 on OpenAlexaboutno aff
E. Strandberg, K. Nilsson, Kenth Svartberg

Bibliographic record

VenueApplied Animal Behaviour Science · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
TopicHuman-Animal Interaction Studies
Canadian institutionsnot available
FundersSvenska Kennelklubben
KeywordsPsychologyBig Five personality traitsPersonalityAnimal-assisted therapyHUBzeroClinical psychologyPet therapyApplied psychologyAnimal welfareSocial psychologyBiologyEcology

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

A new behavior and personality assessment in dogs (BPH) was created in Sweden in 2012. Since the start of BPH, questionnaire data based on an extended version of C-BARQ have been collected to describe the everyday behavior of dogs. Our aim was to estimate genetic parameters for personality traits based on BPH or questionnaire data for eight breeds: American Staffordshire Terrier, Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, Lagotto Romagnolo, Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Perro de Agua Español, Rhodesian Ridgeback, and Staffordshire Bullterrier. The number of BPH records ranged from 862 for Lagotto Romagnolo to 2462 for Labrador Retriever. Average heritability across all breeds was 0.22 for Sociability, 0.23 for Playfulness, 0.16 for Non-social fearfulness, 0.26 for Aggressiveness, and 0.22 for Boldness; all traits defined based on BPH. The genetic variation between breeds was larger than the genetic variation within breeds for Sociability, Playfulness, and Boldness. Estimates of heritability for questionnaire traits were more variable, possibly owing to fewer observations, and averages ranged from 0.06 to 0.28. Genetic correlations between BPH traits, on the one hand, and corresponding questionnaire traits, on the other hand, were consistently strong between Sociability and Stranger-directed interest (average 0.93) and Stranger-directed fear (-0.89); between Playfulness and Human-directed play interest (0.77); between Non-social fearfulness and Non-social fear (0.77); between Aggressiveness and Stranger-directed aggression (0.57); and between Boldness and Stranger-directed interest (0.78) and Stranger-directed fear (-0.80). Often, we could also see that a measure at BPH involving human interactions also extended to measure reactions to interactions with other dogs, e.g., a strong genetic correlation between Sociability and Dog-directed interest (0.58). In summary, selecting dogs based on traits defined at BPH is expected to result in behavioral changes not only when measured at BPH but also changes in everyday behavior in an expected way. • Are behavior traits at test heritable and correlated with everyday behavior? • We used mixed linear models to estimate heritability and genetic correlations. • Heritabilities for behavioral traits were high enough to make selection feasible. • Behavior at test reflects behavior in everyday environments. • Selection for favorable behavior at test will change behavior at home.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.001
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.002
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Observational · Consensus signal: Observational
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.005
Threshold uncertainty score0.010

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0010.002
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.000
Bibliometrics0.0020.001
Science and technology studies0.0000.000
Scholarly communication0.0000.000
Open science0.0000.000
Research integrity0.0000.000
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0010.000

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.018
GPT teacher head0.359
Teacher spread0.341 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designObservational
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations2
Published2025
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

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