Can you breed for aggression?

Hey. I don't usually post here but I am doing a speech about bsl and am looking into different things. But anyways, I would like ya'lls opinion about whether aggression is something that can be bred into a dog.

I at first thought so and was going to mention this in my speech about how lots of people are breeding the most aggressive dogs and that is messing up the breed, etc. But then I was looking at a few websites, namely www.goodpooch.com and they had some articles stating that aggression is not something that is a result of breeding.

I don't want to say the wrong thing during my speech so I would just like other's opinions on the matter.

And while I'm at it, I didn't post this on this forum but if you would have any good bsl links/info/points to make for my speech that would be cool too.

 

Yes you can breed for aggression, I didn't look at the article but if it stated aggression isn't a result of breeding then that article is way off. Not all aggression is the result of breeding, but it can be. You can breed for this trait and protective traits, you can breed for dogs that are leary of strangers, just like Bull Mastiffs (most) natural pen strangers and hold them, barking and physically restraining them. That trait has been bred in them. You can breed for almost any trait by selectivly breeding, this includes negative traits like fear or dominance aggression. I know of two "breeders" that have fear aggressive dogs (Cane Corsos and APBTs) this is IN the dogs, its not from environment or training. In some it shows up very, very young and others they may be a little older but the owners haven't abused them or exposed them to a bad environment. One of these (the APBT) went on to produce her own litter of pups and some of the pups showed the SAME shy/fearful displays. If you continue to breed aggressive, unbalanced dogs (who have mental-physical issues) these are heretitary and will be passed on to offspring. How do these people account for overbreeding leading to so much aggression? Dogs with bad temperaments are bred and go on to produce more dogs with bad temperaments even in good homes.

 

While I think the folks at goodpooch.com have their hearts in the right place, I don't think they've done much research on the breed, or maybe don't believe that aggression can be influenced by genetics. Many people believe that a dog is exactly what you make of them, but it's not true. Otherwise, herding dogs wouldn't show herding ability their first time seeing sheep, retrievers wouldn't teach themselves so easily to bring toys and things to their owners, greyhounds would have to be taught to chase a fake bunny with all their heart. Yes, you can breed for or against aggression, just like you can any other trait. It takes many generations and hard culling to set a trait in place, but through selective breeding, it can be done, for good or for bad. Luckily, APBT breeders selected for human friendly temperaments during the breed's formative years, and that has stuck through well, despite some breeders not giving as much consideration to temperament as they should. With any breed though, especially one as overbred as APBTs, you will get bad apples, and people breeding for unstable temperaments do not help matters.