A New Study discussing the reliability of visual breed identification

In a new study that was just released, researcher Victoria Voith once again exposes the challenges of identifying dominant breeds of mixed breed dogs, even by "experts" in the field.  I think the research is important for a lot of reasons (some different from what others have surmised), and worth reviewing as the world of DNA genetics testing continues to challenge what we think we know about canine genetics, and rapidly adding knowledge to the field.

The Study

In the study, more than 900 people who had professions in the field of animal welfare were asked to watch a 1 minute video of 20 dogs that showed the full view of the front and side of the dog, along with the weights, age, and sex of the dogs. All participants noted that they're breed identification was sometimes used for record keeping purposes and were largely made up of kennel staff, Veterinary Assistants, Animal control Field officers, dog trainers, or other animal control or veterinary/behavior triaining staff.

The survey participants then had to answer the following questions:

Do you think the dog is purebred?  yes/no

If yes, what breed to you think it is?

If No, what do you think is the most predominant breed?

What do you think is the second most predominant breed? If you are unsure, write "mix".

The answers were then compared to the DNA results for the dogs.

The Dogs

Before I get into the results for this, I want to discuss the dogs used, and DNA as a whole. It's very important to note that at this point no one is saying that DNA tests are 100% reliable. Even the researchers who are creating the tests note this. Currently, the Mars Wisdom Panel test (which was used for this analysis) says it has a 90% accuracy rate across all first generation crosses. As dogs get further removed from pure heritage, the results get less and less accurate.

It's very important to note in this study that only ONE of the 20 dogs used came back with 50% or more of any one breed -- so only ONE fell within the 90% accuracy range. So, essentially,we cannot have a lot of certainly of the actual DNA results of almost any of the dogs in the study.  However, with the other 19, we can be 90% certain that the really are very mixed breed dogs and not predominently any one breed.  I think this is very important in how the results are analyzed.

The Results

While this study is far from conclusive because of the very small sample set of dogs, I do believe the initial results are very interesting.

Based on the study results, for 7 of the 20 dogs, more than 10% of the responents thought that the dog was "probably" a purebred dog. For three of the 20, 19% or more of the respondents thought the dog was probably a purebred dog (one of these three was the only dog in the study with a mix of 50% of any one breed - Miniature Pincher - and the majority of respondents incorrectly ID'd the dog as predominently Carin Terrier). 

Also of note, there was agreement among 50% or more of the respondents in the predominent breed in only 7 of the dogs -- and in 3 of them, the visual ID did not match ANY of the DNA identification. In the other 13 dogs (65%) there was no majority guess among the panel.

In 14 of the 20 dogs used, less than half of the guesses included a breed that was even detected by the DNA results. And for one of the dogs, exactly zero of the 859 respondents correctly identified a breed of dog in the mix (and this was the dog with highest breed concentration). 

Discussion

It's important to note why this data is important. In the United States, more than 40% of the canine population is mixed breed. 

For decades, the only possible way to identify mixed breed dogs was through visual identification, and many city juristictions have used such identification to influence their animal control policies.

However, we are now getting a lot of science-based data on the efficacy of such ideals, and the results don't support visual breed ID as a basis for policy:

- Visual ID of dogs is highly inaccurate when compared to DNA results

- The Visual ID of mixed breed dogs is highly subjective, as most 'experts' don't agree on the breeds based on looks

- Even those well-educated in the field are susceptible to judgment biases

Thus, statistical data that has often used to promote breed-specific policies is, and has been, based on visual breed identification that is proving itself to be highly subjective and inaccurate. And if public policy-makers want to rely on scientific and accurate information for their decisions, then the best solution will be to focus solely on behavior-based ordinances that target how dogs (and owenrs) BEHAVE, not how they look. 

Here's a link to the entire Voith Study (very detailed)

Here's a link to the National Canine Research Council's overview of the study.

Here's a link to a very nice visual chart that shows the dogs and the study results for the dogs.

Posted at 11:24 AM in Academic Papers, Breed Mis-Identification, Genetics, Science | Permalink

http://btoellner.typepad.com/kcdogblog/2013/05/a-new-study-discussing-the-reliability-of-visual-breed-identification.html

Rethinking Dog Breed Identification in Veterinary Practice

Submitted on Apr 01, 2015 (Original item from 2012) Companion Animals |Pet Adoption, Rescue or Shelters | Psychology, Social Development, Social Motivations

by Robert john Simpson, DVM; Kathyrnjo Simpson, DVM, MPH; Ledy VanKavage, JD (No Sponsor)
More Information...

Short Description:

[Abstract Only]

The visual identification of dog breeds is made more difficult when assessing mixed breed dogs. This paper examines whether it is useful for veterinarians to attempt to visually identify mixed breed dogs, especially as a means of predicting future health problems that may be associated with certain breeds. The study recommends that animal hospitals adopt a policy of not using visual identification, and instead explain to their clientele that only purebred or DNA tested dogs will be identified by breed, while others should be identified in different, non-breed specific ways.

Abstract:

Despite the popularity of pure bred dogs in popular culture, and events such as dog shows, almost half (44%) of the dogs living in the United States are mixed breed. For many of these dogs the lineage is almost or completely unknown, and breed is assigned based on visual appearance. Of course, as this paper notes, "it is possible to describe dogs without assigning a breed. In fact, in previous times, dogs were characterized not so much by breed as by their personality." In the past, dogs have been identified as hunting dogs, guard dogs, lap dogs, etc; and in recent times, the American Kennel Club labeled mixed breed dogs that participate in obedience and agility competitions as "all-American dogs." Visual inspection is the most common way of trying to identify the parentage of mixed breed dogs at veterinary hospitals across the U.S. That being said, there are problems with this kind of visual identification. With hundreds of recognized breeds out there, it is almost impossible to accurately identify mixed breed dogs with complete certainty.

Considering that certain health problems are associated with specific dog breeds, misidentification of breeds could potentially lead to misdiagnoses or missed preventative measures. Likewise, considering that many states and countries have breed specific bans in place, misidentifying a dog breed could have dire consequences for the dogs in question. In some cases, vets could potentially be accused of intentional misrepresentation of dog breeds if they got it wrong. Because of these factors, the authors of this study "strongly recommend" that vets adopt a "consistent use of a single non-breed-based term to identify all dogs of unknown lineage, regardless of appearance and regardless of any previous identifications that might have been made." They add that "it is ill advised to alter a dog's medical record, including changing the breed identification, without documenting the change and explaining why the change was made." The researchers advise that it is not a good idea to retroactively apply the policy to existing patients, "unless a DNA analysis has been done to substantiate the change in breed identification and a copy of the test results can be included in the patient's medical record." They also recommend that vets communicate this new policy to new and existing patients with a simple statement such as this: "Because new scientific evidence has called into question the accuracy of visual breed identification of dogs, our hospital has adopted a policy to not identify canine patients by predominant breed unless the dog is purebred, the predominant breed of the dog's parents is known, or the dog's lineage has been established through the use of DNA analysis."

Ultimately, the authors of this paper wish to encourage "a paradigm shift in the veterinary profession's approach to canine breed identification. Specifically, we believe that veterinarians and animal shelters should adopt a policy to avoid visual breed identification of any dog of unknown lineage and should train their staff on the rationale for this policy, including the drawbacks of visual breed identification and misidentification." They note that "this does not preclude including breed information in the medical records of dogs when the owner has actual knowledge of the dog's lineage or when breed identification has been determined by means of DNA analysis." Considering the numerous problems that can arise if dogs are misidentified, it seems like a safer policy to use going forward.

Original Abstract:
Dog breed identification is deeply rooted in veterinary practice. Practice management programs, diagnostic service request forms, and government forms, including health certificates and rabies certificates, all require information on dog breed. Owners may ask for assistance in identifying the breed of newly acquired dogs, and veterinarians frequently use information regarding dog breed to assess the risk that dogs will develop various breed-specific medical problems. However, the utility of breed identification in veterinary practice may not be clear for mixedbreed dogs, particularly when parentage is unknown and must be guessed at on the basis of appearance.

http://avmajournals.avma.org/toc/javma/241/9

Spot Check Number: 2708

Sponsor: No Sponsor

Researcher/Author: Robert john Simpson, DVM; Kathyrnjo Simpson, DVM, MPH; Ledy VanKavage, JD

Animal Type: Companion Animals, Dogs

Record Type: Journal article

Research Method: Unknown or Not Applicable

Geographic Region: United States National

Number of Participants: Unknown

Population Descriptors: Mixed breed dogs, veterinarians

Year Conducted: 2012

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Aggression between Dogs in the Same Household What causes conflict between dogs living in the same home? Post published by Stanley Coren Ph.D., F.R.S.C. on Apr 22, 2014 in Canine Corner

My home typically contains two or more dogs, and research has shown that having more than one dog is typical for nearly one third of dog owning households in North America. In a multiple dog home probably one of the most disturbing situations is when there are aggressive incidents between the dogs. These are not only disturbing for the peace and happiness of the humans living there, but it can also be quite dangerous for the dogs and for the people who try to intervene and break up the fight. A scientific report published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association* looked at this issue, specifically assessing the characteristics of the dogs involved and what can be done to help eliminate the problem of fighting among dogs living together.

Researchers Kathryn Wrubel, Alice Moon-Fanelli, Louise Maranda, and Nicholas Dodman, recruited 38 pairs of dogs that came to the Animal Behavior Clinic at Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Grafton, Massachusetts specifically because they were involved in aggressive incidents with their housemates. The research team then conducted in-depth interviews and administered a number of questionnaires in order to determine the characteristics of dogs which had been involved in such situations. Later on they would prescribe a treatment method for the problem.

The first thing that might be surprising to most people is that female dogs are more often involved in such fights then are males. Only 32% of the aggressive incidents involved conflict between two males, while in the remaining 68% females were active participants. This is consistent with some previous research which has shown that when females get into an aggressive situation injuries are apt to be more severe and the fight tends to be longer and more furious.

If we look at the overall characteristics of the dogs involved, we find that the instigators of the aggression are usually the dog who has been most recently brought into the household (70%). Furthermore in 74% of the cases it is the younger dog that starts the fight. These fights are often a surprise to the owners, since 39% of them claim that the dogs usually get along with one another most of the time. The conflicts can be quite intense which is proven by the fact that 50% of them required veterinary care for the dogs and 10% of them required medical attention for the owners who tried to intervene. The reason that the owners were placing themselves in jeopardy was because 54% of them felt that the fight would not stop unless they separated the dogs physically, and only 8% of them successfully separated the dogs using learned obedience commands.

What tends to trigger a fight among housemates? The actions of the owner, such as paying attention to one dog rather than the other, are a trigger for 46% of the pairs. Simple excitement, usually involving the owner's arrival or other activities was involved in 31%. Conflict over food was involved in 46% of the pairs while found items or toys are triggers in 26%.

There appear to be a number of risk factors which the study isolated for one or both of the dogs. Among the pairs of dogs involved in aggressive incidents 41% had at least one member who had lived in multiple households. When at least one of the dogs in the pair was 12 weeks of age or older when adopted the rate of conflict was 39%, dogs adopted from a shelter were involved in 33% of the cases and dogs from pet shops in 16%.

There is some evidence that dogs involved in aggressive situations with the dogs that they live with do have a tendency to show aggression in other situations. For example, 40% have shown aggression to other dogs, 27% have shown aggression toward humans living in the household, and 27% toward human strangers, but most distressingly 20% have shown aggression toward their owner.

Aggression may not be their only problem since 50% of the pairs of dogs involved in conflicts had at least one member with noticeable separation anxiety, and 30% had phobias, fearfulness, and other forms of anxiety.

The good news is that aggression between housemates does appear to be treatable using behavioral techniques that owners can institute at home. The first of these is the technique that Nicholas Dodman calls "nothing-in-life-is-free". This simply requires the dogs to respond to some simple learned command (such as "sit", "down", "come" etc.) before they get any resource that they want (their meal, a treat, petting, attention and so forth). The second of these involves "supporting" one of the dogs, meaning that the chosen dog gets everything first (food, treats, attention etc.). Here the problem is which dog to select, and a pragmatic way of doing this is to choose the dog that is larger, stronger, healthier, more active and so forth. An alternate way (which seems to fit with human notions of priority, deference and respect, is to select the "senior" dog, where here the word "senior" means the dog which was in the household first, and has lived for the owner the longest. Both of these methods work, but not instantaneously since on average the data shows that noticeable improvement does not occur until more than five weeks after the process starts. The "nothing-in-life-is-free" technique produced improvement in 89% of the pairs, while the "senior support technique" produced improvement in 67% of the pairs. The researchers suggest that these techniques work for two reasons. First, because the dogs must act in a controlled manner, this takes some of the excitement and arousal out the situation. Secondly, because events occur in a predictable order, and the dogs learn that each of them will eventually get what they want and no conflict is needed.

It is important to note that the sex of the dogs not only makes a difference in the likelihood of conflict but also in the likelihood of improvement with behavioral treatment. As we noted in the beginning of this article, female dogs are more likely to engage in conflicts with their housemates and their fights are apt to be more serious. This is consistent with the fact that the improvement with behavioral treatment is found to be less pronounced, although still significant, in female pairs. In the male-male pairs, conflict was reduced in 72%, of the cases while for male-female pairs the reduction was 75%. In the female-female pairs the reduction was for only 57%, which, although not as large as in the other pairings is still a reasonable improvement rate, and well worth the effort.

To read more about canine aggression click here.

Stanley Coren is the author of many books including: The Wisdom of Dogs; Do Dogs Dream? Born to Bark; The Modern Dog; Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses? The Pawprints of History; How Dogs Think; How To Speak Dog; Why We Love the Dogs We Do; What Do Dogs Know? The Intelligence of Dogs; Why Does My Dog Act That Way? Understanding Dogs for Dummies; Sleep Thieves; The Left-hander Syndrome(link is external)

 Copyright SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd. May not be reprinted or reposted without permission

*Data from: Kathryn M. Wrubel, Alice A. Moon-Fanelli, Louise S. Maranda, and Nicholas H. Dodman (2011). Interdog household aggression:38 cases (2006–2007). Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 238, 731–740

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201404/aggression-between-dogs-in-the-same-household

WILLIAM JOHNSON ALL DOGS HAVE TO BE TRAINED REGARDLESS OF DNA?

According to the pro-bsl crowd pointers are born to point and don't need to be trained...

Once again let's do a quick google search and see what we find?

Tittle of the Google search = "how to train a pointing dog"

The Results....

"“The desire in an exceptional pup is like a rare young wine, kegged from a proven vineyard. Nurture it slowly to perfection and it will pleasure the years. Tap it prematurely, and you will squander it’s bouquet in infancy”."

""The actual mechanics of training are quite simple. The difficult and important part is how the mechanics are carried out, and what you have left when the job is done."

http://www.superiorpointers.com/puppy_development.html

About 673,000 results (0.93 seconds) 

Search Results

Preparing to Teach a Pointing Dog's Most Important ...

www.sportdog.com/...training.../preparing-to-teach-a-pointing-dogs-mos...

Without a doubt, the most important command for apointing dog is “Whoa,” which means, simply, “Stop moving, NOW.” Of course, any breed of pointing dog from ...




Searches related to how to train a pointing dog

pointing dog training videos

pointing dog training books

how to train a pointing lab

pointing dog journal

pointing dog field trials

pointing dog blog

pointing dog supplies

pointing dog breeds

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Seems you have to train all dogs?

Lesley Karen Luscombe shared her album. May 19 at 8:19pm · Please share. Dog Bite Prevention Week 2015 - One Dog is Not Like the Others. Each meme can be taken individually and shared if you like. Save faces; save limbs, save lives. Thank you

Lesley Karen Luscombe shared her album.

May 19 at 8:19pm · 

Please share. Dog Bite Prevention Week 2015 - One Dog is Not Like the Others. Each meme can be taken individually and shared if you like. Save faces; save limbs, save lives. Thank you. smile emoticon

Lesley Karen Luscombe added 5 new photos to the album: Dog Bite Prevention Week 2015.

One Dog is Not Like the Others.

Share

Lesley Karen Luscombe added 5 new photos to the album: Dog Bite Prevention Week 2015.

May 19 at 8:17pm · 

One Dog is Not Like the Others.

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• 2 people like this.
• 3 shares

the American Pit Bull Terrier was a top-three breed in 28 states,

By Vetstreet's Kristen Seymour:

We all know the stereotypes: Purse-friendly, fluffy white dogs dominate the streets of uptown Manhattan, while trendy crossbreeds must be all the rage in image-conscious Los Angeles. Would you just look at the coat on that Cockapoo!

But what's the real deal when it comes to a state's preference in pups? Are Huskies really the top dog in Alaska? Is that ubiquitous Taco Bell mascot, the Chihuahua, truly big (at least in popularity) in north-of-the-border states like Texas?

There was only one way to find out: We decided to delve into Vetstreet's data and take a look at the 10 most popular breeds by state. Some of our suspicions were confirmed — but there were also a few unexpected findings.

Top Breeds Across the Board
It came as no surprise that the Labrador Retriever took the top slot in a vast majority of states — 42, to be exact. The Lab has long been ranked as the most popular dog in the country by the American Kennel Club, and our stats bear out the appeal of this family-friendly charmer. Even in states where the Lab didn't nab the #1 ranking, the breed still came in a close second or third in every state but Nevada.

Other fan favorites: The Chihuahua was among the top three in 34 states, and the American Pit Bull Terrier was a top-three breed in 28 states, claiming the #1 ranking in Rhode Island. And the Yorkshire Terrier and the German Shepherd Dog both made the top five in 37 states.

Coastal Preferences Are Clear
While analyzing our data, we noticed a few regional trends — some of which weren't all that unexpected. For example, the only state where the Siberian and the Alaskan Husky both break the top 10 is — you guessed it — Alaska.

But others were harder to decipher. In most states, the Lab, Chihuahua and Pit Bull were in the top three, and most regions held to that formula pretty consistently — except for the Northeast, where only Delaware counted the trio as its most popular breeds. Instead, the German Shepherd Dog, Golden Retriever, Boxer, Yorkshire Terrier and Shih Tzu showed up in the top three.

Wild Card Picks
Every once in a while, we spotted a few mini trends — usually in likeminded states. The Border Collie, for instance, made the top 10 in three locales: Idaho, South Dakota and Wyoming. We don't think it's a coincidence that all three states have plenty of wide-open spaces, so the active breed can work and run.

The Bulldog made the top 10 in 10 states, which may have something to do with the breed's popularity as a mascot. Nine out of the 10 states have colleges that have adopted the breed as a sports symbol.

Designer mixes have been working their way into our hearts and homes, as well, with the Labradoodle nabbing a tenth place in Oregon, and the Goldendoodle fetching ninth in Wisconsin. So much for those fashionable Los Angelenos, who didn't have any of the "doodles" in their state's top 10.

To see which breeds made the top 10 in your state, click on the buttons of our interactive map!