Creating a BLUP-index to select against fearfulness in rough collie

Article Outline

• Copyright

Key words: breeding, BLUP, temperament, collie

Fear related problems are common in the Swedish Rough Collie population. In this study the pre-requisites for developing a BLUP-index for Collie temperament, based on the standardized temperament test Dog Mentality Assessment (DMA), was investigated. In previous studies, using factor analysis of the DMA variables, the broader behavioral traits sociability, curiosity/fearlessness, playfulness, chase-proneness and aggressiveness have been defined. Genetic analyses were based on the individual DMA variables, as well as on the five broader traits. Data was available from 2550 rough collies, and parameters were estimated using a linear animal model including fixed effects of sex, year and month of test, and random effects of litter, judge, test site, genetic effect of the individual and residual. Heritabilities ranged from 0.05-0.31, and generally the higher heritabilities were found for the broader behavioral traits. Validation of the DMA was made using the C-BARQ questionnaire, to which some “collie-specific” questions were added. Owners of rough collies aged from 6 mo to 10 years were targeted and the questionnaire generated information about 1766 dogs (a reply rate of 50%). Of these, 935 had information from the DMA. There were significant correlations between the broader personality traits measured in the DMA, and the everyday life behavior of the dogs as described by the owners in the questionnaire. For example, sociability in the DMA was positively correlated with stranger-directed interest, and negatively correlated with stranger-directed fear and non-social fear. Curiosity/fearlessness in the DMA was positively correlated with human-directed play interest, and negatively correlated with stranger-directed fear and non-social fear. Playfulness in the DMA was positively correlated with human-directed play interest. We conclude that selection for temperament in rough collie, based on data from the DMA, is possible and could reduce the frequency of fearful dogs in the breed. The next step will be to build the index by deciding in detail which measurements to include, and to create routines for recurring estimation of BLUP breeding values.