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Colors dress up our world! They give distinguishing marks to everything.
For example, if you’re giving directions to your house, you’d say something like this: “Go down Highway Somewhere for five miles, turn right onto Anywhere Avenue, and look for the brown-bricked house with beige shutters. Oh, yeah … it’s on the left. And there’s a white Honda CRV parked in the driveway.”
But without those identifying colors, your visitors would be guessing which house belonged to you!
What if everyone had the same-colored hair? Think how weird that would be!
But thankfully, there’s a variety of colors in this wonderful universe we live in.
In fact, Google says that we can see about 10 million colors.
Let me explain…The color wheel contains one dozen hues. Now, these twelve colors magically turn into this massive count when mixed in various dribs and drabs.
Doesn’t that blow your mind?
But now let’s turn our thoughts to our canine buddies.
If every dog had the same color wouldn’t that pose some problems?
- We’d have difficulty identifying our own puppy. There wouldn’t be any identifying mark (regarding color) that’d help us find him if he got lost.
- If every dog wore the same-colored coat, our canine world wouldn’t be as “colorful” or exciting.
- It’d cut down on the names you’d select for your dog. Naming him “Spot,” “Snowflake,” or “Smokey,” would be out of the question!
How Many Colors Do Dogs Come in?
According to Better Pet, there are six primary colors that dogs come in: black, brown, gray, red, white, and yellow. However, there are dozens of shades within each primary color.
And remember that some dogs have markings or patterns of color due to their genetic variations.
But now to the matter at hand …
Is There a Link, Connection, or Correlation Between a Dog’s Color and His Behavior?
You’ve heard it before, “Red heads are hot-tempered,” or “Blondes have more fun.”
We stereotype hair color to a person’s behavior. We assume that all red heads are about to blow their stack and that all blondes are empty headed and just want to have fun!
I doubt that there’s any scientific proof of any connection between hair color and behavior in humans.
But is there any evidence to back up any perceptions we have about a dog’s color and his behavior?
I found an interesting article entitled “The Genetics of Behavior: What Color is Your Dog?” by Jim Ha, PhD, CAAB.
Dr. Ha contends that the color of a dog tells you about predispositions for behavior and not the behavior of a specific animal.
In his article he states that a recent study showed that Golden Labs demonstrated problem behaviors like barking, chewing, and digging. He asserts that this study supports a 2001 study by Cornell University’s Veterinary Hospital that showed that chocolate-colored Labs are not as likely to have as many behavior problems than their gold and yellow counterparts. He also referred to a 1996 study about red or golden English cocker spaniels having more aggression than black ones.
But he agrees that there is “very little scientific evidence of any relationships between coat color and behavior,” (except for the above referenced studies).
So, What’s the Bottom Line?
Is there a correlation?
Well, we can’t say that there is.
But a dog’s behavior is primarily influenced by factors like breed, training, and environment.
So, whatever color your dog is, love him and make your home his home!
After all, “dogs are man’s best friend.”
-Howell Bigham
