May 22, 2009 -- A floppy-eared, innocent-looking breed may be one of the world's most aggressive dogs, according to a new study that found English cocker spaniels tend to be more hostile than other breeds.
The discovery adds to the mounting evidence that aggressiveness is an inherited characteristic, suggesting that genes and breeding practices can both help determine how a dog will behave.
"In our country and according to our database, the English cocker spaniel is the breed that shows more aggression problems," lead author Marta Amat told Discovery News.
Amat, a researcher in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and her colleagues analyzed 1,040 cases of canine aggression brought to a nearby veterinary teaching hospital from 1998 to 2006. Of those cases, the majority of cases were attributed to English cocker spaniels, Rottweilers, Boxers, Yorkshire terriers and German shepherds.
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Probing the data further, Amat and her team discovered that English cocker spaniels were more likely than other dogs to act aggressively toward their owners as well as unfamiliar people. In contrast, dogs with reported behavior problems from other breeds tended to act aggressively toward other dogs. Among the English cocker spaniels, golden varieties and males were found to be the most hostile.
The findings, published in the latest Journal of Veterinary Behavior, confirm an earlier study conducted by a separate Spanish team from the University of Cordoba, which also found males and golden English cocker spaniels were more aggressive than females or those with black and mixed-color coats.
In terms of coat color, Amat explained that the coat pigment melanin shares a common biochemical pathway with dopamine and other brain chemicals involved in the control of aggressive behavior.
Amat also noted that "inadequate handling by the owners due to their lack of information on dog behavior" is a contributing factor.
Other experts place even more blame on caretakers, suggesting there are no born-to-be-bad dogs, only bad owners.
Joaquin Perez-Guisado of the University of Cordoba led one of the earlier studies on English cocker spaniels and is the lead author of a new Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances study that found poor training by owners predicted aggressive behavior in 711 test subjects from a variety of breeds.
Taking all possible reasons into consideration, he and his team found that 40 percent of dominance aggression in dogs is associated with a lack of authority on the part of owners, who performed no, or minimal, obedience training.
According to Perez-Guisado and his team, "dogs that are trained properly do not normally retain aggressive dominance behavior."
Members of the English Cocker Spaniel Club of America appear to agree. They describe their favorite breed as being "a homebody" that is "typically affectionate, loyal and reserved with strangers."
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