Mothering matters: Maternal style predicts puppies’ future performance

Abstract

Bray et al. (2017, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(32), 9128–9133) recently showed that maternal interactions between service dog mothers and their puppies were predictive of puppies’ future success as a candidate service dog. These findings prompt questions into the role of genetics and early experiences and may provide useful selection tools for working dog breeding programs.