How do dogs’ genes affect their behaviour? Your pet could help scientists find out

Doberman pinschers are more prone than other dog breeds to compulsive behaviours such as blanket chewing. And in 2014, researchers unveiled some clues to a cause: obsessive-compulsive disorder is in some dogs’ genes.

Such studies that examine how DNA affects dogs’ behaviour and thinking could, in theory, shed light on why some breeds have better memories than others, what genes make Labradors so good at retrieving, or even what drives some dogs to bark at the postman. Linking behaviours to genes is simpler in dogs than in humans: thanks to generations of selective breeding, dog DNA is far less variable than ours.

Even so, there are obstacles to doing this research well. Scientists need a lot of information on how dogs behave or how well they perform in intelligence tests, and they also need to collect their DNA. For statistical power, they need to do it in thousands of dogs. Doing that in a laboratory would take loads of time – and sequencing DNA takes loads of money.

Now some prominent scientists are going about it from a new direction – by asking ordinary dog owners for help.

Adam Boyko, a dog geneticist at Cornell University, and Brian Hare, a canine cognition researcher at Duke University, both in the US, have each in recent years founded their own companies. Boyko says his Embark is the highest-resolution DNA test for dogs on the market. Send in a swab of your dog’s drool and US$199 and you get a report that breaks down the pup’s breed and ancestry, as well as its risk for dozens of genetic diseases. Hare’s company, Dognition, charges fees starting at US$19 for Web-based cognition tests – “interactive games” that can involve hiding treats under cups – that dog owners perform with their pets. Owners get a report outlining how their dog rates on traits such as empathy and memory, as well as a personality profile such as “Einstein” or “Socialite”.