Genetic characterization of dog personality traits

The genetic architecture of behavioural traits in dogs is of great interest to owners, breeders and professionals involved in animal welfare, as well as to scientists studying the genetics of animal (including human) behaviour. The genetic component of dog behaviour is supported by between-breed differences and some evidence of within-breed variation. However, it is a challenge to gather sufficiently large datasets to dissect the genetic basis of complex traits such as behaviour, which are both time-consuming and logistically difficult to measure, and known to be influenced by non-genetic factors. In this study, we exploited the knowledge that owners have of their dogs to generate a large dataset of personality traits in Labrador Retrievers. While accounting for key environmental factors, we demonstrate that genetic variance can be detected for dog personality traits assessed using questionnaire data. We identified substantial genetic variance for several traits, including fetching tend...