Are golden cocker spaniels REALLY born to be angry?

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]The possible relationship between coat color and behavior in domestic dogs has long been a subject of both scientific inquiry and anecdotal speculation. I remember when I was a small child back in the 1970s and I've always loved dogs more than people. I would gravitate to dogs. When I was a toddler I would try to stroke dogs and my granddad used to tell me, "Don't stroke golden cocker spaniels because they'll bite you." "They're naughty." He used to say, which means they're mean and angry. Naughty. It's a good Lancashire word is naughty. So, I thought I'd do a video about whether it's true that golden cocker spaniels are really more aggressive than any other color of cocker spaniel. Are they a dangerous dog? Let's discuss.

[00:00:51]>> [music] >> Among the most widely discussed examples in the scientific literature is the observation that golden cocker spaniels and we're talking about English cocker spaniels here, not American cocker spaniels, do indeed exhibit higher rates of aggressive behavior compared to individuals of other coat colors within the same breed. Importantly, this pattern though is not observed universally across different dog breeds that have red or golden coats. We don't see the same thing in yellow or fox red Labradors, for example.

[00:01:40]We it in golden retrievers. We don't see it in cream or apricot poodles.

[00:01:47]So, what is it about golden cocker spaniels that might be triggering some of these scientific results? Let's look at some of these studies. A large-scale veterinary study in the UK in 2023.

[00:02:02]This is the study. The study was looking at illness mainly and causes of death, but the finding down here prevalence of aggression was higher in males, 4.95% than in females, 2.87% and in solid colored than bi-colored dogs. And then you have to dig into the results to get the breakdown. And the highest was in golden individuals with a prevalence of approximately 12%.

[00:02:31]Other colors showed lower aggression rates. Red was around 6.5%, black around 6.3% and liver about 4.3%, but golden cocker spaniels, around 12% of them were deemed aggressive. What's going on here? Well, the same year there was an article about this study on one of the gun dog sites, Shooting UK. Are golden cocker spaniels really more aggressive? So, it reads here. VetCompass came into the news last month following a publication of its study on cocker spaniels. The study was wide-ranging. It found that most common health problems in cockers included dental disease, ear infections, obesity and aggression.

[00:03:18]But it was the latter that caught the attention of the popular press. Lurid headlines about golden cocker rage followed with warnings that such dogs could be more aggressive than a Rottweiler.

[00:03:29]The study noted that cockers have long been one of the most popular family dogs in the UK and that the breed is generally considered to be fairly healthy. However, the Kennel Club recommends that breeders should screen their dogs for several conditions including eye problems, hip dysplasia, etc., etc. But what about aggression?

[00:03:48]Well, some critical points here that I think are important to note. The study didn't make any distinction between working type cocker spaniels and show type cocker spaniels. And the golden color is popular in both the working type and in the show type. So, I think they could have made the distinction.

[00:04:11]You know, out of the 10,300 cocker spaniels that they tested, like in Springer spaniels, working types and show types diverge long ago. Certainly in Springer spaniels, I know this because I've got Springers, virtually see no overlap in pedigrees in the biggest winners in field trials and the biggest winners in conformation shows.

[00:04:36]They are really quite distinct now and they have been for many years. And I dare say it's the same in cocker spaniels as well. Show types and the working types really do look quite different. Anyhow, they didn't split them. They didn't make any distinction between the show types and the working types. So, anywhere that they could try and tease out whether it was a problem in show types, working types or both.

[00:05:02]Likewise, we don't know how many of these dogs were working at all. You know, they might be working type, but in a pet home, working type who go out on shoots regularly. There's nothing about the context of the lives of these dogs. So, the article goes on here. Though I may be wrong, I suspect that aggression is more of a problem in pet type cockers than workers as I rarely have come across an aggressive working cocker.

[00:05:30]According to the study, the frequency of aggression differed depending on the sex and coat color of the spaniels.

[00:05:35]Aggression was more common in dogs than and in solid colors than multi-colored dogs. Intriguingly, the risk of aggression varied between the different colors, golden showing the highest frequency. Now, there's another study as well, an older study, 2006.

[00:05:55]Heritability of dominant aggressive behavior in English cocker spaniels.

[00:06:01]So, this was looking at seven-week-old English cocker spaniel puppies. These should still be with their mother and their siblings. They should not have left for individual homes yet. You're looking at very, very young puppies. You know, their influences on their lives, the learning that they've experienced is [laughter] only seven weeks worth. The rest is genetics. So, it was only a small-scale study though, a total of 51 seven-week-old English cocker spaniel puppies were measured for dominant aggressive behavior using the Campbell test, which I'm not familiar with, but I don't know how good a gauge you can get for dominant aggression in seven-week-old puppies. So, these were either full siblings or half siblings from matings of four sires and 10 dams.

[00:06:51]The purpose of this study was to determine if the variability observed in this behavioral characteristic had an additive genetic component and if so, to estimate heritability. These were the findings. There were highly significant differences between sexes with males being more dominant than females regardless of coat color.

[00:07:12]Two, there was a highly significant difference in aggressive behavior depending on coat color with greater to lesser dominance found in goldens, black and then parti-colors in that order. So, golden cockers at seven weeks old are more likely to show dominant behavior.

[00:07:30]No interaction between sex and color.

[00:07:33]So, [snorts] males overall are more dominant and goldens overall are more dominant.

[00:07:37]There's no interaction between them. And then heritability estimates on sire components is.2, indicating that the variability observed in dominant aggressive behavior is in part due to genetic factors. And five, heritability estimates on dam components is.46, which implies that the maternal effect, genetic and environmental, is an important factor in this type of behavior. That makes absolute sense, doesn't it? Look guys, guys, I've got a problem with this. I mean, look, just because a dog is showing quote-unquote aggression at seven weeks doesn't mean to say that they're going to go on to be a dangerous dog.

[00:08:17]Even showing dominance at seven weeks doesn't mean they're going to go on to be a dangerous dog. Let's critique this.

[00:08:25]Let's consider the problems here. To understand any possible link between coat color and behavior, whatever that might be, it's necessary to examine the genetics of pigmentation. Coat coloring in dogs is determined by multiple gene loci including what is known as the E locus. It's a genetic area on the MC1R gene, which controls the production of black and brown pigment versus red or yellow pigment. The strength of that pigment, so whether it appears to be more intensely red or it appears to be very light cream or anything in between, is determined by a number of modifier genes. If your dog is capital E on this locus, they will be black unless that's reduced down to chocolate or liver by the impact of another gene. If they are small e small e, then they're not able to produce any black or brown pigment at all except for in the eyes and the nose and they will appear yellow. That could be a dark red like in a a red cocker spaniel or a fox red Labrador or it could be all the way down to a really light cream, almost white. So, when we find in the VetCompass study there's a difference in aggression between golden cockers and red cockers, well, it's the same gene. They've got the same gene variant where they can't produce black or brown pigment. There might be modifier genes in there to make the goldens lighter, but are we really saying that that's the reason why these dogs are more aggressive? Given that it's the same gene that controls color in Labradors, we don't see any coat color variation in aggression. In Poodles, we don't see any coat color variation in them, either. Noodle is a Cockapoo. He's a first cross between a working type Cocker Spaniel and a miniature poodle. He's cream. He will be at this gene loci little e little e.

[00:10:48]That's the type color that we're talking about, right? There is another way to make red and that's on the A locus, which belongs to the ASIP gene, which is the gene that controls agouti and its variations. If a dog is ay ay ay ay at that locus, it will produce a sable color. It reduces the black pigment right down to minimal in the coat, but it's the type that produces sable in Shetland Sheepdog and Collies. It's also the same gene that produces sable in Cocker Spaniels.

[00:11:25]There is a possibility for a sable color in Cocker Spaniels, but we're not suggesting here that it's the sable cockers that are the aggressive. It's the golden cockers that are aggressive, which makes no sense when we understand color genetics in dogs overall. It makes no sense. Even [snorts] when you think about possible ways that it could happen. Let's say for example, hypothetically, it could be possible that a gene near that locus also moves with it. So, if you mutated in one gene, then you might have a mutation in another gene, but that's never been documented.

[00:12:05]And if it happened in Cocker Spaniels, why would it not happen in other breeds?

[00:12:10]Is it something that happens during embryonic development and the development of that color? Again, not reported at all. Those possibilities don't explain why this effect in Cocker Spaniels and not in other breeds that have the same color mutation. What about breed specific selection and the population structure overall in English Cocker Spaniels? We've already said that there are two distinct types in Cocker Spaniels. So, the article from Shooting UK was absolutely right when they said they'd like to see the distinction between working type and show type. Is it one, the other, or both?

[00:12:57]Is it those working types in pet homes?

[00:13:01]So, are we seeing aggression because of increased frustration, not having their genetic needs met, those kinds of things? But, why would that just be a thing in goldens and not in other colors? So, that doesn't make sense, either.

[00:13:15]Could we consider a popular sire type effect? I did a recent video about the popular sire effect focusing on Springer Spaniels, but relevant across many different breeds. Could it be that there have been some popular sires that happen to be gold that just happen to be aggressive and somewhere somewhere an undisclosed genetic link is being passed down that we don't know about. We don't know the gene, but it's being passed down into golden puppies, but that doesn't make sense, either. If he's a popular sire, I bet he's having puppies of many different colors. So, it doesn't make sense. Genetics alone can't explain it.

[00:14:02]One of the biggest weaknesses in these studies is that correlation doesn't equal causation. Although we appear to see in both scientific and in anecdotal reports that golden Cocker Spaniels tend to be more aggressive than Cocker Spaniels of other colors, but there's no mechanism that explains the causes of why the gold color increases aggression, especially when we don't see that increase in aggression in reds. It doesn't make sense. Without full genomic mapping that links directly with pigmentation genes to behavioral phenotypes, there can be no causal claim at all.

[00:14:52]It remains completely unproven that gold causes aggression. That's the gap that needs to be filled if people really want to think about genetics and coat color in Cocker Spaniels or in any other breed. There's just a complete absence of a direct genetic linkage in studies relation to aggression in English Cocker Spaniels and coat color. And alongside that, what future studies need to do is try to tease apart the working lines with the show lines and with the context of pet homes versus working homes. If it works out that golden dogs are disproportionately drawn from certain lines that do have different temperaments, then coat color may be acting as a proxy for certain lineages that have had a problem with temperament going back possibly many generations.

[00:15:54]Could it be that golden Cocker Spaniels are chosen more than other colors? Are they very desirable for pet homes and then those pet homes can't fulfill their genetic needs?

[00:16:08]Could it be that?

[00:16:10]There's lots of explanations of what it might be, but what I don't see is any firm and concrete causal mechanisms because, as I said, it can't just be the genes for coat color alone. That makes no sense given that we know a lot about the E locus in many breeds.

[00:16:33]So, I want to see a genetic mechanism.

[00:16:37]I want to understand the context of the dogs in the studies. Are golden cockers chosen for pet homes that are unsuitable more than other colors and that's why we're seeing the problem? If we don't see it in working dogs, but we see it in pet dogs, is it that there's more goldens who are in unsuitable pet homes?

[00:16:57]I'd like to see better measures. I don't think it's really accurate to study 7-week-old puppies and measure them for aggression and then assume anything further from them. And the main thing is, if people insist that golden cockers are really red fueled and born to be angry, then I want to know why.

[00:17:20]And at the moment, I don't see a why explained to me in the science. So, the question mark. What do you think?

[00:17:29]Let me know in the comments and I'll see you in the next video. Oh, George.

[00:17:35]In it.

[00:17:38]Aw.

[00:17:46]Aw, good George.