26/08/2024
NATURE VS NURTURE - INFLUENCES ON CANINE BEHAVIOUR
Introduction
It is a great debated topic between various professionals of any dog related industry as to whether nature or nurture is more important and how each affects the dog. Is the dog genetically predisposed to certain behaviours or are we, as owners causing these behaviours to occur? Below we will discuss how nurture and nature both play a part in influencing a dog’s later behaviour, along with other aspects that may affect it as the dog matures. It is very important to understand the meaning of each of these to be able to fully understand the impact they have on the dog. Nature refers to the genetic material of a dog, its ‘instincts’, this is something that has been passed down from sire and dam to help the puppy survive. Nurture is the dog’s upbringing and experiences, it refers to the learning that a puppy does as it grows and how it affects the overall actions in response to experiences and emotions later in life, this is not something genetic.
Genetics and Temperament
Each puppy is genetically 50% of the dam and 50% of the sire, however there is no way of defining which part of each parent that the puppy will get and therefore it is a ‘lucky dip’ of genetics. Each dog will be born with instinctive behaviour, these are behaviours that are meant to help in survival, they are performed without any need to learn them and are triggered by specific stimuli, when the instinct is activated the dog will act out some fixed action patterns which are predetermined to act without thought, these are often behaviours that have evolved over many generations via natural selection. Each breed of dog will have different behaviours that are instinctive, these are often defined by what the dog was bred for, pointers will point, collies will herd, greyhounds will chase. Further to this each puppy will be predisposed to act in a certain way to certain triggers, e.g. if the puppy gets scared, fight or flight may kick in, the genetics may take over allowing him to fight rather than run, this would be his reaction to the fear, how the dog reacts to the fear (e.g. fight) may not be trainable, however, what we can alter is WHEN the dog feels scared, if the dog does not feel fear, it will not be forced into fight or flight. Looking further at genetic behaviours would include eating, hunting and reproducing, these are all basic in survival needs.
Right from when the puppy is in the dams womb, the puppy will be exposed to various hormones, if the dam is left fearful during pregnancy, the puppy will be exposed to higher hormone levels than that of a normal pregnancy, this would make for a naturally reactive puppy as they may live at a higher level of hormones naturally and their threshold will be breached more often.
There are few medical conditions that genetically affect the temperament and behaviour of a dog, one of which is called idiopathic rage syndrome, affecting mostly spaniels, this creates an aggression within the pup for moments at a time where the dog may bite or attack, just as quickly as the rage attack comes on, the dog snaps out of it, with no idea as to what had just happened.
Environment and learning
From the moment a pup is born it is being exposed to different situations, experiences and different environments that it needs to learn to cope in, in order to grow to an emotionally healthy dog. It is the responsibility of the dam, the siblings, breeder and owner to help the dog learn how to correctly assess and react to the various situations, this is often known as socialisation and habituation. If this does not happen before 16 weeks of age, it will have a detrimental effect on later behaviour including increased aggression and anxiety. The first interactions that a puppy has with other dogs is with their siblings, when they are playing they begin to learn bite inhibition. At this age a puppy will also begin to learn about their world, this is why the quality of socialising is more important than the quantity. It is important to ensure that the puppy is happy and not overwhelmed with any new experiences, linking any potentially scary sounds/sights with lots of treats to encourage a positive outcome. Various training methods may also affect the puppy as it grows, by using positive punishment or negative reinforcement you may create a fear of the stimulus it is being exposed to or a fear of the owner. There are many families who do not agree on the same training methods for a pup or allow their own behaviours to take over, this may lead to smacking or shouting at the dog, if another owner is using different methods the dog may be confused as there is no consistency between the 2, therefore the dog will not feel confident in its own home increasing anxiety levels.
Conclusion
Puppys and dogs all have different personalities, they all have their own experiences, genetics and upbringings. It is important to remember that just because a puppy is of a certain breed it does not mean that it will act a certain way, yes it will have instincts, but if these instincts are never played out, it will not become a behaviour. The puppy may be genetically predisposed to fight over flight when scared, but if the puppy is socialised correctly and is kept within their comfortable zones, then he cannot act these out either and, allowing him to process each situation will allow him to stay below threshold. As seen above nature will tell the dog how to react when certain triggers are presented and particular emotions are felt (i.e. fear, anxiety), on the other hand nurture will teach the dog how to feel okay about these triggers and when the correct time to feel these emotions is, allowing the fight in the dog to only be acted out when it relates to the dogs own survival.
