Looking for safety in all the wrong places: India’s new ban on 23 dog breeds cannot succeed
Thankfully, banning dogs of certain breeds is increasingly rare. But when this choice is made, as with the recent national BSL legislation in India, we are reminded of some of the reasons that it simply cannot help prevent dog bite injuries: Behavioral genetic science shows conclusively that a dog’s breed simply cannot predict anything about […]
Ground-Breaking Research Shows Breed As a Poor Predictor of Behavior
The Darwin’s Ark study on dog behavior and genetics might reset how we all think about and talk about dog behavior.
Red herrings and just plain lies: Insurance companies vs. dog loving families
There has been much discussion lately explaining how denial of insurance coverage based on the breed of one’s family dog is a practice that discriminates against and unduly penalizes both less affluent customers and people of color.
“What kind of dog is that?” Asking the wrong question and answering it badly
Our review has revealed no findings of breed based behavioral differences that successfully overcome all the difficulties presented by this question.
Welcome Back to SPARCS + 2018 Conference
The SPARCS Initiative is now maintained by National Canine Research Council.
What type of dog is that? Can you tell just by looking?
Take a look at the growing body of evidence on visual breed identification, and commit to shifting the paradigm of how we identify and discuss dogs in our daily lives.
New Edition of “Dog Bites: Problems and Solutions”
Second edition of “Dog Bites: Problems and Solutions” Released.
Florida animal services agency strikes breed labels from kennel cards and website
Evidence has mounted in recent years that guesses as to a dog’s breed or breeds usually do not correspond with breed identification using DNA technology. Different observers, even those engaged in dog-related professions, frequently disagree with each other when looking at the same dog. Animal behavior and ethology studies have demonstrated that we cannot reliably […]
Animal professionals shown to disagree with each other when assigning breed(s) to dogs of unknown parentage.
Summary A survey of more than 900 people in dog-related professions and services showed that they frequently disagreed with each other when making visual breed identifications of the same dog, and that their opinions may or may not have correlated with DNA breed analysis. More than 70% of the study participants reported that now, or […]
NCRC Video Interview with Janis Bradley
Janis Bradley, veteran dog trainer and author of the NCRC Vision Series publication, ‘The Relevance of Breed in Selecting a Companion Dog,’ discusses whether breed is a useful indicator of the suitability of a companion dog. Click to view other NCRC Video interviews.