[neilep (OP)]

Hi Dogologists,


If I had ten Alsatians and ten Labradors and let them free to play doggy stuff in my neighbours garden, would they be inclined to play amongst their own breed ? if so, why so ? if not, why not ?




whajafink ?

[Colin2B]

If I had ten Alsatians and ten Labradors and let them free to play doggy stuff in my neighbours garden, would they be inclined to play amongst their own breed ?

I ‘fink that the fact that mongrels exist tells us something about this 

[neilep (OP)]

If I had ten Alsatians and ten Labradors and let them free to play doggy stuff in my neighbours garden, would they be inclined to play amongst their own breed ?

I ‘fink that the fact that mongrels exist tells us something about this 

Thank you.

This is true of course, but I still wonder if they would congregate mostly with their own breed !  someone do a study !!

[alancalverd]

I've always had gundogs - sensible size, natural-looking animals bred for a cooperative temperament whether as workers or assistance dogs, and completely unconcerned with loud noises (though I fit "mutt muffs" in a plane - they look really cool with aviator sunglasses!). Being pretty average size they tolerated most others but in a free-running dog park they always seemed to associate first with other gundogs (spaniels, retrievers, pointers, and standard poodles) in preference even to other working dogs like terriers, collies and vizslas.   

That said, their dogonalities were still individual. One really friendly and placid golden retriever would not associate with any curly-haired dog and despite living in a houseful of kids, spontaneously attacked just one human - a quiet little girl with curly hair.  No harm done but most embarrassing and inexplicable. A trainee guide dog puppy disliked stairs: whenever I took her to a shopping mall with an escalator, she very determinedly dragged me to the lift (she did eventually relent, and passed out with honour). Two retrievers disliked cats to the extent that they attacked a stone statue of a cat each time we walked past our neighbour's house, whilst another liked to share her bed and go hunting with our resident moggies.     

[Bored chemist]

One weird, but obvious, trend among dogs is that they associate with humans.