An estimate of the magnitude of additive genetic variation of some mental characters in alsatian dogs

Abstract

At the Army Dog Training Center -- ADTC --, Solleftea, Sweden, a test of mentality has been designed to judge eight "components of behavior" in working dogs. The test is used to choose dogs suitable for training in different military and civil tasks. Furthermore the test results are also important in the breeding-planning at the ADTC as well as in the private Swedish breeding of working dogs. The mentality test results of 958 Alsatian dogs, born and tested at the ADTC, have been put at our disposal. The statistical analysis performed indicated the proportion of additive genetic variation to be small for all the mental characters tested. It was not possible to estimate the magnitude of non-additive genetic variation from the material available.