Breed differences in everyday behaviour of dogs

In this project we will study differences in everyday behaviour among 20 breeds: American Staffordshire terrier, Australian shepherd, Bernese Mountain dog, Boxer, Briard, Chihuahua, Doberman, German Shepherd, Giant Schnauzer, Golden Retriever, Hovawart, Jack Russel Terrier, Kelpie, Lagotto Romagnolo, Malinois, Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Rottweiler, Rough Collie and Shetland Sheep Dog. We will use behavioural data from a questionnaire to dog owners about everyday life behaviour. The questionnaire is web-based and information about the questionnaire will be sent out to owners of the specific breeds. The person answering the questionnaire will not be identified, but in order to perform the genetic analyses later the dogs unique SKK registration number will be recorded. Using this registration number we can link questionnaire data to pedigree data from SKK. In this first step we will focus on describing breed difference in various everday behaviour traits and also differences between working and non-working dogs.