I’ve written before in this column how much I admire the work of Dr. Patricia McConnell. She has written many books and articles about canine behavior, the most noted of which is a book called “The Other End of the Leash,” a must for those of us who enjoy delving into the question, “Why do dogs act like dogs?”

In the May/June 2009 issues of “Bark” magazine, McConnell asks and tries to answer a question that, for all of it’s obviousness, doesn’t get asked very often: Which make a better pets — boy dogs or girl dogs? The article is titled “The Gender Gap.”

When I was calling Havanese breeders to inquire about the availability of puppies (a careful quest that yielded my wonderful companion, Higgly Piggly), the first question the first breeder asked me was, “Do you want a boy or a girl?” I answered without hesitation, “It doesn’t matter.” But does it?

According to McConnell, whose word I trust, surprisingly little research has gone into gender studies, which could be a fairly important question. Many people, of course, have their own preferences. I have friends for example, who will only adopt female puppies from shelters. (Actually, they will adopt only black-and-white female mixed-breed puppies from shelters, but we all have our little quirks, do we not?)

Their premise for this is that female pups are less likely to be adopted than males. Although I think most of the shelters in the greater Portland area have a 100 percent adoption rate for all puppies, so while this may have once been true, it’s not terribly relevant now.

My sister had a male corgi some 20 years ago that she never bonded with and she will only have female dogs now. But were Enchilada’s flaws more related to his inherent temperament and personality than to his gender?

And some of the most reputable breeders charge more for female pups than male, which has never made sense to me.

Perhaps at one time, the belief was that a female purebred dog would produce puppies that you could subsequently sell. But the practice exists even for pet-quality puppies now, which the breeder requires the buyer to spay or neuter anyway. So what difference does it make?

McConnell shares my quandary. She did a search of all research on dogs related to behavior and gender and concluded that there isn’t much, and what there is doesn’t yield any significant results. Then she queried certified animal behaviorists and veterinarians board certified in animal behavior, e-mailed experts in both sheep dog training and police and military dog training, and finally put the question up on her blog, www.theotherendoftheleash.com.

Here are a few results of her work:

“Males are softer.”

“Females are softer.”

“Males are more independent.”

“Females are more independent.”

“Males are easier to train than females.”

“Females are easier to train than males.”

Are you starting to see a pattern here?

McConnell did find that historically, male dogs perform better in certain competitions, specifically herding, Schutzhund (a kind of extreme guard competition) and retrieving. But even this, to her, was inconclusive.

Owners who compete in the above sports invest a huge amount of time and money in doing so, and for their purposes, males are just less trouble.

They don’t have to worry about when a dog will go into heat, they don’t lose the time necessitated by pregnancy and nursing puppies and, if they actually reach a point of making money, the profit from stud fees can be a lot quicker, easier and less risky than raising puppies for sale.

So it may just be that more male dogs win competitions because more male dogs are entered in those competitions.
So having read McConnell’s article, completing my own — albeit very random and unscientific — research, and finally reflecting on my own experience, here are my conclusions.

1. The breed’s history, and careful breeding for temperament, trump any influences gender might have. 2. The answer to the question, “Do you want a boy puppy or a girl puppy?” is still, “It doesn’t matter.”

Nancy Carlson uses her two therapy dogs, Menehune and Fezziwig, in her grade-school counseling program. She has an enduring interest in the bond between humans and animals.