Interesting... Why Dont We List Breed on Our Website? If youve visited our newly redesigned website, you might have noticed that we no longer list the breed of our shelter dogs. Why is that? The simple answer is that breed rarely tells you anything about a dog’s personality and temperament. Often adopters want a certain breed of dog because that specific breed is known to have certain personality characteristics. Historically, working dogs were bred for certain roles and functions, like herding, and dogs of the same breed did exhibit very similar behavioral traits. Over the years, the number of working dogs has decreased while companion dogs have become more popular. With that change breeders began focusing more on dogs appearances than behavior, and over time the personality traits associated with a specific breed became more varied. Today, looking at a dogs breed is no longer our best method for predicting personality. Moreover, most of our dogs have a mix of breeds. Its surprisingly difficult to accurately guess a dogs breed based on appearance. Research has shown that even those who work with animals professionally make accurate breed assessments only about 30% of the time. What’s most important is that we match the personality of a dog to an adopter’s needs and lifestyle. All dogs at the San Francisco SPCA are given a behavioral test and then grouped into one of many personality categories, like Social Butterfly or Delicate Flower. This is a much more accurate way to predict a dogs demeanor, and weve found that it greatly assists adopters in finding their perfect match. Want to learn more about which type of dog would be best for you? Come visit us and talk with our adoption counselors! sfspca.org/adopt
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 20:51:03 +0000
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