A study published in Animal Cognition by Gnanadesikan, Hare, Snyder-Mackler, and MacLean (2020) explores how genetic relatedness among dog breeds shapes cognitive variation. While dogs have long served as a powerful model for understanding morphological and behavioral diversity, systematic comparisons of breed-level cognitive traits have remained limited.
Using data from more than 1500 adult dogs representing 36 breeds, the researchers combined results from 11 cognitive tasks on the Dognition.com platform with breed-averaged genomic data. A factor analysis revealed four core cognitive dimensions: inhibitory control, communication, memory, and physical reasoning. Mixed-model analyses were used to estimate narrow-sense heritability across breeds.
The results demonstrated exceptionally high heritability for inhibitory control (h2 = 0.70) and communication (h2 = 0.39), traits long hypothesized to have been shaped during domestication. Memory and physical reasoning exhibited far lower heritability estimates, suggesting a more limited genetic contribution to these skills across breeds. Even after controlling for breed-average body weight—a known correlate of cognitive performance—heritability for inhibitory control remained high (h2 = 0.50).
These findings indicate that cognitive phenotypes in dogs closely track breed relatedness and highlight that certain cognitive traits may have been strongly influenced by selective pressures during the formation of modern breeds. The study provides key evidence that cognitive abilities, like morphology and behavioral tendencies, can evolve rapidly under artificial selection and vary predictably between breed groups.
Source: Gnanadesikan, G. E., Hare, B., Snyder-Mackler, N., & MacLean, E. (2020). Estimating the heritability of cognitive traits across dog breeds reveals highly heritable inhibitory control and communication factors. Animal Cognition.
