Nature vs Nurture

Have you ever tried to train your dog something that it just doesn’t grasp? It’s almost like they ‘just don’t get it’. You may have another dog of identical breed that can do a certain behaviour, but the other one just doesn’t have the desire or ability to carry out that behaviour. I see this often and the desperation in owners that believe they aren’t any good or that the dog is ’stubborn’. There’s a very good answer…

Nature versus nurture is a common cause for heated discussion: the classic “chicken and the egg” scenario is interesting when thinking about physicality or mere existence, but not when it comes to behaviour. I’ll explain why… What we know today as dogs took 15,000 years to change from what we know as wolves. Environment selects behaviours in real time (which is what we term ‘learning’) and those that work (IE not walking through fire because it is uncomfortably hot and causes pain), remain through breeding and through various genetic changes. A more direct dog/wolf example is that of aggression: Wolves are hunted and threatened by humans, therefore, they have learnt to avoid humans and where necessary, protect advances into their territory: anything outside of the wolf pack is a genuine threat to their very existence. Dogs, however, have, over time, learnt that food is provided by the humans and a number of positive life rewards including affection are provided by humans. Therefore, their aggression towards humans has - on the whole (aside from those humans who breed dogs to fear them and defend themselves) - not continued through genetic evolution because it has little need to be present - from a genetic point of view, it is a naturally pointless attribute to hold onto.

So, here it is; not big news for academics (we’ve been studying it and discussing it for a number of years) and certainly not really interesting news really, but for many dog trainers and for many dog owners it’s probably going to raise a few eyebrows (because for some reason, the research findings weren’t made very ‘public’ - this is my part to help change that). All behaviour is genetic (including the capacity to learn). The Nature versus Nature argument is a fallacy. There simply is no dichotomy because all behaviour is an adaptation and therefore, genetic. The capacity to learn, or flexibility in response to environmental contingencies, is itself genetic. Therefore, it is those behaviours which are genetic that survive when it comes to selective breeding. The old adage “Why can’t cows climb tress?” is answered very simply: because it’s not genetic. They can’t.

Why is this relevant to your dog? Well, if your dog won’t do a certain behaviour, you may well be fighting not against the dog’s free will but against something much more complex and resistant: genetics. In other words, the way that your dog is (its readiness to learn, its short temper or overly passive personality, its laziness or energy), is based on natural genetic selection of behaviours of its individual blood line.

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Posted in Research & Studies by admin