A plethora of traits are linked to the viability of guide dogs, M.E Goddard states in his article regarding this topic that many dogs need to have a score of at least 17. This score is made by a variety of factors and tests ran to assess the dogs. Further findings showed that the score would have very little impact on dogs early on in life however it would have a larger factor later into their lifetime.
Along with this in another one of Goddard's articles this one regarding how innate fear could play a role in the overall effectiveness of a guide dog. In this article, he states that under 4 breeds of dogs: Labrador, German Shepard, Boxer, and Kelpie. 38 separate measures were taken to assess the overall 'fearfulness of these breeds. Once the tests were taken it was found that overall the least fearful dogs were the labradors.
These articles give a good understanding of how the optimum guide dog is chosen
Genetics of traits which determine the suitability of dogs as guide-dogs for the blind
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/030437628390010X
A multivariate analysis of the genetics of fearfulness in potential guide dogs
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01071933
This was very interesting to read. I don't know too much about dogs, but I always have heard about guide dogs. I never knew that they were selected by their fearlessness and that there were so many ways to measure this.
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