Colour linked traits

[sandgrubber]

I've always poopoo-ed the notion that colour is linked to temperament.  Specifically that chocolate Labs have different temperament than blacks or yellows.  Recent studies with mice and humans show that pain tolerance and sensitivity to opioids are linked to a gene associated with red hair (and some types of blonde hair).  

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/study-finds-link-between-red-hair-pain-threshold

 

Or podcast (more complete)

 

http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0kkfjts.mp3

 

I wonder if any such studies have been done on dogs.

[persephone]

15 hours ago, sandgrubber said:

Specifically that chocolate Labs have different temperament than blacks or yellows. 

In my previous life, working with Guide Dogs , Chocolates were very new and very different! They were not as solid in temperament as the others ...and there were more often than not nervous ones  in greater percentage ....that, or 'scatty' ones. 
They were not popular at all to begin with ! 

[Dogsfevr]

15 hours ago, sandgrubber said:

I've always poopoo-ed the notion that colour is linked to temperament.  Specifically that chocolate Labs have different temperament than blacks or yellows.  Recent studies with mice and humans show that pain tolerance and sensitivity to opioids are linked to a gene associated with red hair (and some types of blonde hair).  

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/study-finds-link-between-red-hair-pain-threshold

 

Or podcast (more complete)

 

http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0kkfjts.mp3

 

I wonder if any such studies have been done on dogs.

In my own breeds the colours have different natures bigtime .
In Labs Chocs often are more scatty ,obsessive even now .
I handle a very bomb proof Choc but we board alot of fruit loop chocs.
I find the blacks more vocal 
The yellows really good all rounders 

[sandgrubber]

59 minutes ago, persephone said:

In my previous life, working with Guide Dogs , Chocolates were very new and very different! They were not as solid in temperament as the others ...and there were more often than not nervous ones  in greater percentage ....that, or 'scatty' ones. 
They were not popular at all to begin with ! 

"To begin with..."

I credited that to poor breeding, due to the high demand and price for chocolate pups back when Chocos were rare.  Back in those days I had an accidental Choco girl come out of a black and Yellow mating.  She was typical Lab and when bred to a chocolate with good credentials, produced pups with solid Lab temperament.  Thus I came to discount the negative views of Chocos.  

The work on redheads makes me admit to the possibility that there is a biological basis....that a single gene can affect temperament as well as colour.

Edited Monday at 11:15 PM by sandgrubber
Typo

[asal]

dont think the human red hair gene has the same locus or relation to dog colour genetics

[Deeds]

my pepper and salt Giant Schnauzers had different temperaments to the blacks.

[SchnauzerMax]

1 hour ago, Deeds said:

my pepper and salt Giant Schnauzers had different temperaments to the blacks.

Same for standards. Pepper and salt are quite different to the blacks. 

[Boronia]

12 hours ago, SchnauzerMax said:

Same for standards. Pepper and salt are quite different to the blacks. 

My friend has a wheaten Scottish terrier, he has the best of personalities and much less of a varminty feral than the black Scotties

[BJ.]

We had black schipperke's and creams. The blacks were "sharper" in temperament than the creams.

[DogsAndTheMob]

I wouldn’t be surprised if there were links between colours and behavioural traits. Genes determine the sequence of amino acid s in proteins and proteins can have multiple functions, either directly or as precursor proteins. It is feasible that a gene could code both for a colour,  colour dilution or absence of colour and for some neurological or endocrine trait that affects behaviour. After all, there are known links between colour genes and health or anatomical abnormalities, such dilute blue and alopecia, homozygous Merle and micropthalmia, and extended white and deafness. It’s a long time since I’ve read Horse Colour Explained by Jeanette Gower, but that book has a lot of interesting information on associations between colour genetics and health in horses.

 

I can’t say that I’ve noticed a linkage between colour and behaviour in dogs, but it seems to me that long coated dogs often tend to be more mellow in temperament than short coated dogs, even within the same breed or closely related breeds. Of course, that might be because their softer appearance prompts people to treat them differently, causing different environmental conditioning.

 

 

[Papillon Kisses]

I suspect it may be more of a case that when breeders are specifically selecting for certain colours other things get unintentionally baked in.