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Do any dogs fear the smell of cooked lamb meat?

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Darwin123

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Aug 13, 2013, 8:55:23 PM8/13/13
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First, the anecdotal background. There are stories on the
internet claiming that dogs are afraid of the smell of lamb meat. There
are even videos on the web where owners show their dogs turning away
lamb meat and gobbling down other types of meat.

I was in a discussion where some dog owners claimed that their dogs
were afraid of the smell of lamb meat. Other dog owners had dogs which
liked lamb meat. One dog owner claimed that he had one dog that was
afraid of the smell of cooked lamb and another dog that liked the smell
of lamb meat. Several breeds of dogs were discussed.

This could be a matter of individual variation, having nothing to
do with breed. However, the dogs discussed were of different breeds. So
this could be a variation between breeds. So the question is really
whether this is a variation between breeds, or some a polygenetic
variation between individuals.

One participant suggested that it was only the sheep dogs which
were afraid of lamb meat. This sounded plausible to me. However, the
participant did not distinguish between breeds of sheep dogs. Some
dogs were bred to guard sheep, and some dogs were bred to herd
sheep. There are separate phenotypic differences characteristic of
these two breeds of sheep dogs.

I haven't found any scientific articles on the web on this topic. Lots
of anecdotes, but no analysis.

I figure that this is relevant to evolution. The question is one
of selection and genetics.

So my questions are:

1) Has any s documented a particular aversion to lamb meat among dogs?

2) If there is such an aversion, would it characterize individual dogs or
some breeds of dogs.

3) What taste differences are there in between non sheep dogs, guardian sheep dogs or herding sheep dogs?



It seems to me that scientists working for dog food manufacturers would probably have researched the tastes of different breeds. I can't find any
scientific publications. If a scientist or student is looking for
an interesting topic in evolution, with clear applications in the real
world, then this would be a good one.
work on, with practical applications,

kaps...@gmail.com

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Jan 8, 2015, 6:07:47 PM1/8/15
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I just experienced this with my dog, my father cooked lamb meat balls last night and my dog became restless and scared. Even the next day when he went to eat it for lunch my dog began to become restless and frightened and started shaking very badly. He also would not eat it. He is an Italian greyhound, I also have another Italian greyhound who is not scared at all and acts just like she normally would around any other food.


RSNorman

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Jan 12, 2015, 12:17:37 AM1/12/15
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Possibly your father is a very bad cook?

[moderator's note: Oh, now. Be nice. I will say, all of my dogs, some of
which have herding breed ancestry, happily ate lamb-meal based chow for
years. -JAH]



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