Neophilia and Neophobia in Dogs: How Dogs Respond to the New
A new toy is grabbed within seconds, a new garbage can on the usual walking route is circled at a distance for days. Both reactions belong to the same dog, and both are responses t…
unterHUNDs Research
Development and genetics
Much of what shows up in adult behavior was laid down earlier: in early weeks, in breeding decisions, in experience that changed how genes are expressed. These reviews cover what is inherited, what is learned, and where breeding creates welfare problems.
Looking for practical help with your own dog? Our guides for dog owners put this research into plain, everyday steps.
These articles are written in English and aimed at trainers, behavior consultants and veterinary professionals. Deutschsprachige Beiträge findest du im Hunderatgeber.
Dogs and Wolves Compared: What Domestication Changed
Dogs are often described as tamed wolves, and wolf behavior is still used to explain what dogs do and how they should be trained. The research that compares the two directly tells…
Adolescence in Dogs: Puberty, Attachment and Behavioral Change
The "teenage dog" is one of the most repeated ideas in dog training, and one of the few with direct canine evidence behind it. What that evidence shows is narrower than the cliché:…
Brachycephaly in Dogs: Health Evidence, Measurement and the Demand Problem
A French Bulldog snores through the night, tires on a summer walk, and its owner calls both normal for the breed. The description is accurate and it is the problem: signs of a chro…
Maternal Care and Early Life in Dogs: How the Mother Shapes the Puppy
Puppies spend their first weeks almost entirely with their mother, and it is natural to assume that a more attentive mother produces a better adjusted dog. The research supports pa…
Fear Periods in Dogs: What the Developmental Evidence Supports
Almost every puppy guide states the same two windows. A first fear period at eight to eleven weeks, a second at six to fourteen months, each lasting two to three weeks, timed by br…
The Domestication Syndrome: What the Evidence Supports in Dogs
Floppy ears, white patches, a curled tail, a shortened muzzle, reduced aggression, extended juvenile behavior. The claim that domesticated animals converge on this package regardle…
Temperament, Personality, and Coping Styles in Dogs: Individual Differences in Behavior and Stress Response
One dog walks straight up to the new object in the garden. Another stops at four meters, looks, circles, looks again, and approaches thirty seconds later. Both eventually investiga…
Puppy Temperament Tests: What They Predict and What They Do Not
Puppy tests are used to match litters to families and to select working prospects, and the evidence on how well they predict adult outcomes is unusually clear. A cohort followed fr…
The Genetics of Dog Behavior: What Genes Actually Explain
What heritability measures, why breed differences are large but predict little, what the gene searches found, and how genes and environment interact.
Operationalizing Dog Behavior: Defining and Measuring What Dogs Do
What does it mean to call a dog aggressive? Does a single growl qualify? A stiff posture without sound? Is a dog fearful when it tucks its tail, or only when it flees? These questi…
Dog–Dog Social Behavior: What Free-Ranging Populations Show
The pack model was taken apart, and rightly so. What replaced it was mostly silence: owners were told that dogs are not wolves and that dominance is a myth, and were left with no a…
Attachment in Dogs: How Early Experiences Shape the Human–Dog Bond
Attachment theory offers a robust framework for understanding the emotional bond between dogs and their people. In attachment paradigms, domestic dogs display all four hallmarks of…
The Neurobiology of Play in Dogs: Development, Evidence and Limits
A litter of eight-week-old puppies wrestles for four minutes, breaks off, and falls asleep in a heap. Almost everything written about that scene is an inference. That play built th…
Breed and Behavior: Genetic Predisposition versus Individual Variation in Dogs
Breed labels are the shorthand of dog culture. Border collies are "trainable," terriers "feisty," certain molossers "protective" or "aggressive," and these expectations shape how p…
The Sensitive Period in Puppies: Neurobiological Foundations for Lifelong Learning
For decades, trainers, breeders, and veterinarians have known that the first weeks of a puppy's life carry outsized weight. The sensitive period — often loosely called the "sociali…
The Merle Gene in Dogs: Genetics, Health Risk and Welfare
A breeder pairs two dogs, neither of which shows any merle pattern, and produces a litter containing a mostly white puppy that is deaf in both ears. Nothing about the parents' appe…
Epigenetics in Dogs: How Experiences Affect Their Genetic Makeup
Epigenetics describes how environmental factors and individual experiences can influence gene activity without changing the DNA sequence itself. Where classical genetics asks what…
Behavioral Aging in Dogs: What Changes Beyond Cognitive Decline
When an older dog slows down, sleeps more or stops responding when called, the explanation that comes to mind first is usually cognitive decline. Cognitive dysfunction is real and…
Sex Differences in Dog Behavior and Cognition: What the Data Show
Male or female? The question comes up before almost every new dog, and it usually carries expectations: males bolder and more likely to fight, females more attached and easier to t…
For dog owners: the unterHUNDs guides cover behavior, training, health and everyday life in practical terms, with the same sources behind them.