The most AGGRESSIVE dog breeds revealed – so is YOUR dog on the list?
- Researchers found that fighting dogs are the most aggressive
- This includes American Bulldogs, Pit Bull Terriers and Staffordshire Terriers
- Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers and Scenthounds are the least aggressive
Despite being called “man’s best friend,” many dogs have an aggressive side.
And now a new study has pinpointed exactly which breeds are most likely to be aggressive toward other dogs.
Somewhat surprisingly, researchers at the University of Helsinki found that fighting dogs are the most aggressive.
This group includes American Bulldogs, American Pit Bull Terriers, and American Staffordshire Terriers.
In contrast, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers and Scenthounds were found to be the least aggressive dogs.
Somewhat surprisingly, researchers at the University of Helsinki found that fighting dogs are the most aggressive. This group includes American Bulldogs (pictured), American Pit Bull Terriers, and American Staffordshire Terriers
In the study, the team looked for the personality differences between dog breeds.
“The breed of the dog is the most important determinant of personality differences,” said Dr Milla Salonen, lead author of the study.
“All dogs are individuals and all breeds have different traits, but breeds differ in what kind of personality most dogs within each breed have.”
The team collected a huge dataset of behavioral studies with information on 11,000 dogs from 300 different breeds.
These were then divided into 52 groups.
The data revealed a strong association between breed and seven personality traits: insecurity, training focus, aggressiveness/dominance, energy, canine sociability, human sociability, and perseverance.
“Dogs that score high on aggressiveness/dominance are aggressive towards other dogs, dominant and territorial,” Dr. Salonen told MailOnline.
“While low-scoring dogs are submissive, social with other dogs, and calm.”
Fighting dogs were revealed to be the group with the highest levels of aggression.
This group includes American Bulldog, American Bully, American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Cane Corso, Dogo Argentino and Presa Canario.
Golden Retrievers (pictured), Labrador Retrievers, Scenthounds and Shetland Sheepdogs were found to be the least aggressive groups
Also at the top of the list were German Shepherds, Parson-type terriers, and Asian primitive dogs.
At the other end of the scale, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, Scenthounds and Shetland Sheepdogs proved to be the least aggressive groups.
Aside from breed, several other factors have been found to be related to a dog’s aggression.
Males were found to be more aggressive than females, while dogs were most aggressive at age nine.
‘Based on our research, personality traits are extremely complex and have amazing similarities between dogs, humans and other animals,’ Dr Salonen added.