Greta Kaplan, CPDT

Recently, I engaged in a discussion with a poster to a dog training list. The poster is a breeder of an AKC toy breed, and she had two intact, year-old males who were fighting. It sounded like one was resource guarding her and the other, she mentioned, was very shy. In responding, I mentioned that I thought she should neuter one or both, and that if she were to neuter one, it would make sense to neuter the shy guy.

Absolutely not, she responded, shocked. Both boys were offspring of Best-in-Show winners and had fantastic conformation potential.

My response was to offer a lot of information on the inheritability of shyness. We know a *lot* about this exact issue. Experimenters intentionally bred a line of so-called “nervous Pointers” so that they could study [Read more...]