This is something that is bothering me. I don't know the right answer.
Obviously breeds have characteristics or else breeds wouldn't make sense. but I feel like there is often a danger and a trap that people can fall into by labeling X breed as _____. Particularly after experience with just one dog.
How much is breed? How much is line? And how much is the individual dog? when can you start generalizing behaviors you see to the 'breed' level?
Example: Trey was super shy, super sensitive, and not very smart. My other two shelties were not like him at all. If someone only owned Trey I don't believe it is fair at all to the breed to take a dog like him as the average dog of the breed.
Mia's the 7th papillon I've lived with. I've known a lot. I was very sure going into getting her that I was very familiar with the breed. Well, Mia's a very different kind of papillon. Very different temperament (not in a bad way, I quite like her if you can't tell). How much of what I was familiar with prior to getting her was the breed or was it the line of papillons that Summer's breeder had going? All of her dogs are very similar and Mia sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the others we've owned. Or is it just her as an individual that is different instead of it being a difference in lines?
I have run into this a lot lately in a couple breeds hence the topic.
Obviously breeds have characteristics or else breeds wouldn't make sense. but I feel like there is often a danger and a trap that people can fall into by labeling X breed as _____. Particularly after experience with just one dog.
How much is breed? How much is line? And how much is the individual dog? when can you start generalizing behaviors you see to the 'breed' level?
Example: Trey was super shy, super sensitive, and not very smart. My other two shelties were not like him at all. If someone only owned Trey I don't believe it is fair at all to the breed to take a dog like him as the average dog of the breed.
Mia's the 7th papillon I've lived with. I've known a lot. I was very sure going into getting her that I was very familiar with the breed. Well, Mia's a very different kind of papillon. Very different temperament (not in a bad way, I quite like her if you can't tell). How much of what I was familiar with prior to getting her was the breed or was it the line of papillons that Summer's breeder had going? All of her dogs are very similar and Mia sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the others we've owned. Or is it just her as an individual that is different instead of it being a difference in lines?
I have run into this a lot lately in a couple breeds hence the topic.