Elsevier

Journal of Veterinary Behavior

Volume 1, Issue 3, November–December 2006, Pages 124-141
Journal of Veterinary Behavior

In brief: Practice and process
Understanding the genetic basis of canine anxiety: phenotyping dogs for behavioral, neurochemical, and genetic assessment

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2006.09.004Get rights and content

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Introduction: the Canine Behavioral Genetics Project (CBGP)

Behavioral problems account for the death, relinquishment, or the end of breeding careers of more dogs than does any other set of problems (Miller et al 1996, Patronek et al 1996, Salman et al 1998, Salman et al 2000; Scarlett et al., 1999; Shore et al 2003, Mondelli et al 2004, Shore 2005). Whereas many behavioral complaints involve management-related issues or dog-human temperament mismatches, the behavioral concerns that are most interesting to scientists and breeders alike are those with

Diagnosis vs. phenotype

The questions we are most commonly asked are: (1) “What behaviors are you interested in?” and (2) “How do you phenotype canine behavior?” Both of these questions are important and more complex than they appear, and each is related to the other and to the methodology used in the study.

In biomedically oriented genetic investigations, phenotypes are often defined by the diagnoses under study. Thus, phenotypes such as hip dysplasia, diabetes, hypothyroidism, or noise phobia are defined by consensus

Methods and tools of assessment

Participating dogs and owners in the CBGP are recruited from active owners, trainers, breeders, handlers, and the general pet-owning public. We are particularly interested in anxiety-related disorders, including many aggressions, and in families or households of dogs in which some dogs are affected, and some dogs are not affected. By using unaffected and affected dogs we can conduct a case-control analysis, which speeds the rate at which suspect genetic contributions can be readily identified.

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