This Is the Most Aggressive Dog Breed You Can Own

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
This Is the Most Aggressive Dog Breed You Can Own

© chris_leung / Flickr

Scientists in Finland researched aggression in dogs by breed. Of the 23 breeds were included, one was picked as the most aggressive, based on a large sample. The name of the study was “Aggressive behaviour is affected by demographic, environmental and behavioural factors in purebred dogs.”

“Aggressive” was defined in a spectrum from “biting people and other pets,” which can cause “medical or even lethal consequences for the victim” to “more common growling and barking.” The researchers pointed out that aggressive behavior among some breeds has caused them to be banned in certain countries. The study looked at over 9,270 dogs based on their reactions to humans. This was taken from a larger sample of data on 13,715 dogs. The data for the larger sample was gathered online. Only purebred dogs were included.

From the sample, 1,791 ended up in the “high aggressive behavior” group and 7,479 in the “low aggressive behavior” category. The mean age of the dogs was 4.6 years, out of a range of two months to 17 years. More than half (53%) of the dogs were female.

Among the common characteristics among aggressive dogs, beyond breed, were male dogs and older dogs. The number of dogs in a family and body size were other variables. Additionally, “The dog’s body size was also associated with aggressive behaviour; small dogs had a higher odds of aggressive behaviour than medium-sized and large dogs, but there was no difference between medium-sized and large dogs.” “Fearfulness” also was listed as a reason for aggressive behavior.
[nativounit]
The rough collie was the most aggressive breed, followed by the miniature poodle (toy, miniature and medium-sized) and miniature schnauzer. The breeds with the least percentage likelihood of aggressive behavior were the Labrador retriever, golden retriever and Lapponian herder.

The study has several drawbacks. Among them is that only 23 breeds were included. Among these were breeds often considered aggressive, such as Rottweilers, Dobermans and British bulldogs.

Click here to see how long America’s most popular dog breeds normally live.
[wallst_email_signup]

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

D Vol: 40,093,161
CTSH Vol: 15,305,850
NOW Vol: 51,219,247
EPAM Vol: 3,526,955
FICO Vol: 429,362

Top Losing Stocks

REGN Vol: 2,996,891
CTRA Vol: 73,319,495
GLW Vol: 16,928,378
STX Vol: 5,005,840
PWR Vol: 1,768,375