Earlier this month, the animal husbandry ministry banned the sale and breeding of 23 dog breeds, a decision taken in the wake of a number of dog attacks on humans across the country in recent years. The ministry described these breeds as “ferocious”, which begs the question: what makes some dog breeds more aggressive than others if that is indeed the case?

Genes determine the characteristics of all individuals, and research has shown that they do influence dog behaviour, including aggression or lack of it. But dog behaviour experts also caution against putting it all down to breed. A large number of factors can influence behaviour, not least of which is the way a dog has been reared.

Part of the connection between breed and behaviour is intuitively understood from the evolutionary history of dogs. Over the centuries, humans have bred and interbred dogs aiming mostly at specific characteristics, and occasionally at looks. German shepherds, for example, are bred as guard dogs, sheepdogs as herders, and greyhounds as chasers in a hunt. Each breed excels at its designated task, and these are inheritable traits.

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The role of genes

In a study in PNAS in 2019, researchers examined 131 genetic variants in 101 dog breeds and found that genetic differences are associated with 14 different behaviours across breeds. The researchers used data from C-BARQ, a survey of over 50,000 dog owners, and found that the most inheritable traits included trainability, predatory chasing, and stranger-directed aggression.

Even the study’s lead author, however, cautions against reading too much into a breed. Evolutionary geneticist and veterinarian Evan MacLean, director of Arizona University’s Canine Cognition Center, said he does not believe there is any science that appropriately justifies breed-specific legislation or breed bans.

“On average, there are breed differences in behaviour, but the distributions overlap enormously across breeds,” MacLean said over email. He drew an analogy with the heights of men and women – on average men are a bit taller, but there is enormous overlap in male and female heights. “Genetics are a small nudge, but never a destiny, when it comes to dog behaviour. Far more important is training and socialisation,” he said.

The other factors

So, what role do training and socialisation play? Adnaan Khan, a dog behavioural expert who runs a training centre called K9 in Delhi, weighed in.

“Most of these situations that are happening are actually a result of bad breeding issues,” Khan said. This includes inbreeding between relatives, which Khan described as a major factor contributing to aggression (“any breed of dog can go crazy”) and a problem that commonly arises when dogs are purchased from unregulated dealers.

Another factor is people procuring a dog and not raising it in the way it should be raised. As examples, Khan cited the pit bull and the rottweiler, both in the banned list and both strong athletic breeds that need a lot of exercise. Aggressive behaviour can result “when people are getting these breeds as a show-off element in a small area, not giving them the exercise they need, and are just keeping them tied up… ultimately, that’s a byproduct of bad upbringing and poor sourcing. The breed is not to be blamed.”

Pit bulls and rottweilers have often been involved in attacks on humans. In 2018, a pit bull in Lucknow killed its owner, an 80-year-old woman. In 2018, two rottweilers killed another elderly woman in Wayanad in 2018. While both breeds are widely regarded with fear, Khan reiterated his argument about poor rearing and said, “Pit bulls are actually among the nicest dogs with human beings, but they can kill small animals such as mice and small dogs.”

What’s banned, what’s not

Breeds other than the Rottweiler and the Pit Bull, too, can defy stereotypes. One example is the Japanese Akita, also on the banned list. In 2022, an Akita in Bhubaneswar bit a neighbour’s child, but that was an American Akita, a breed that has diverged from the Japanese variety.

While Japanese Akitas are known to be aggressive towards other animals, the prevailing image of their relationship with humans is a result of popular culture. An Akita called Hachiko in Odate in Akita prefecture, unaware that his owner was dead, waited for him to return to the railway station every day for almost 10 years until his own death in 1935. His story was made into the Japanese film Hachikō Monogatari (1987) and then Americanised by the Swedish director Lasse Hallström in Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009), with Richard Gere as the owner.

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The government’s list mentions “Japanese Tosa and Akita”, which would imply that the sale-and-breeding ban is on the Japanese Akita. Literature in the public domain suggests that aggression towards humans is very rare in the Japanese Akita.

Khan said some breeds have been mislabelled in the list, and many of those named are large breeds that need exercise. One breed that’s not on the list is the Rajapalayam, a hound named after a town in Tamil Nadu and known to be aggressive towards strangers. It is roughly as tall as a rottweiler but weighs barely half as much.

Many dog attacks in India involve what are commonly described as “strays”, but they do not represent a single breed. Khan said the undomesticated dogs today have evolved from cross-breeding between Indian feral dogs and various domestic breeds that have stepped outdoors.

But what makes them aggressive? They are pack animals meant to scavenge for their own food, and Khan identified their pack instinct as one of the reasons.

Dog attacks are indeed a concern that needs to be addressed. Besides the dogs themselves, however, there is often a human factor behind the aggression.