[Genetic influences on the outcome of the progeny tests for behaviour traits in Hovawart dogs].

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the importance of genetic and environmental sources of variation for results of behaviour tests in young dogs being used for progeny evaluations in the Hovawart dog. In total, 4,113 dogs born in 1995 to 2000 have been available for these analyses. Traits used were appearance, hunting affinity, group of people, acoustical and optical influences and temperament. Variance components were estimated using multivariat linear animal models and Restricted Maximum Likelihood (REML). The models included test-year-season, sex, litter size, age and inbreeding coefficient of the animal as fixed effects. Additive genetic effects of the animal, permanent environmental effect of the litter and the effect of the kennel were considered as random factors. The sex of the dog was significant for all traits. The age of the dog at the test significantly influenced the traits temperament and appearance. Test-year-season was significant for all traits except for appearance, whereas the inbreeding coefficient of the animal was significant for acoustical influences and temperament. Litter size did not influence any of the traits significantly. The estimated heritabilities of the behaviour traits analysed here ranged from h2 = 0.03 to h2 = 0.11 with standard errors of up to 0.03. The additive genetic correlations between most of the traits were moderately to highly positive (rg = 0.16 to rg = 0.91). The traits hunting affinity and appearance showed an additive genetic correlation close to zero (rg = 0.03). Negative additive genetic correlations were found between temperament and appearance as well as acoustical and optical influences (rg = -0.14 to rg = -0.4).