ArticleVeterinary sciences2026
Behavior in Australian Shepherd Dogs Assessed Using the C-BARQ: A Preliminary Study of Associations with Coat Color, Sex, and Neutering Status.
Article in Veterinary sciences, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Participation in Breed-Specific Cynological Activities Is Associated with Behavioral Variation in Terrier-Type Dogs: A C-BARQ Study.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Domestic dogs show substantial behavioral variability shaped by genetic, biological, and environmental factors. Although breed-specific behavioral profiles are documented, associations between coat color and behavior within individual breeds remain poorly understood. This preliminary study characterized the behavioral profile of Australian Shepherd dogs and exploratorily investigated associations between behavior, coat color, sex, and neuter status using the validated Italian C-BARQ. A total of 215 Australian Shepherds aged 1-8.5 years were included; behavioral responses were analyzed using ordinal logistic regression with sex, neuter status, and coat color as predictors. Overall, Australian Shepherds showed high trainability and low aggression and fear toward humans. Sex emerged as the most consistent predictor: females showed lower odds of high-intensity responses in attachment- and excitability-related behaviors (OR ~0.44-0.56), with context-dependent differences in dog-directed and environmental responses. Neuter status was selectively associated with increased fear-related reactions to noise and stranger approaches (OR ~1.9-2.2) and reduced restlessness during separation (OR ~0.45). Coat color was not associated with generalized behavioral tendencies; item-level exploratory analyses revealed only a limited number of suggestive, context-specific associations in merle-coated dogs, and most analyses did not yield significant effects. All coat-color findings should be regarded as preliminary and hypothesis-generating. These results underscore the context-dependent nature of behavioral variation in Australian Shepherds and highlight the need for confirmatory studies with larger, coat-color-stratified samples.
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Registered trials
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