Observations on Why Mongrels May Make Effective Livestock Protecting Dogs

In Canid ontogeny from puppies to adults there is a very young phase before any speciesspecific predatory behavior has been expressed. This phase has been ontogenetically selected as a breed of neotenic adults which are ideal for protecting sheep. At a more advanced phase of canid ontogeny older puppies have begun to express separate pieces of species-specific predatory behavior, such as eye, stalk and chase but not the complete adult sequence so that crush bite kill and consume is as yet unexpressed. This intermediate phase was also ontogenetically selected as a breed such as border collies used in Britain to herd or conduct sheep. These two different neotenic breeds behave very differently toward sheep and will be unsuited to the same task. But producing hybrids or mongrels is another way to disrupt adult species-specific behavior systems including predatory behavior. The disrupted predatory behavior of mongrels can result in a near facsimile of the very neotenic protecting breed, because the hybrid predatory sequence can be so disrupted it will remain unexpressed. Thus, hybridization may quickly create a dog potentially useful for protecting sheep.