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01/29/2025
Good little read....
GENETIC FEAR
I sometimes see or hear of dog trainers that claim they can do well with “any dog, any breed, anywhere, any time.”
I always wonder if they have ever come across a dog with what I describe as having “genetic fear”.
This is not just a timid dog that needs slow-going, or a confused dog (most), or a previously abused dog that needs to learn confidence through routine and reliability.
Genetic fear is… something else.
In his book, ‘The Farmers Dog,’ John Holmes touches on the problem, which is always a deal breaker with me — the thing I think nearly impossible to tease out.
Holmes writes:
“It must be remembered, too, that not all the instincts of the wild dog have proved useful to mankind. On the contrary, there are some which man has had to breed out to the best of his ability.
“One of these is the instinct of fear, common to nearly all wild animals. A natural fear of man (the enemy), of gunfire and a strong desire to keep well within range of bushes or cover of some sort. When taken from the nest at an early age, many wild animals lose this fear. Our two badgers were more friendly with people (including strangers) than many dogs. They never attempted to run away on the several occasions they escaped from their run.
“This fact has enabled man to breed out this instinct to a great extent so today we find dogs that are far more courageous than the average person. Many wild animals, however, no matter how early they are taken from the nest, never lose their natural suspicion or fear of mankind. People have taken fox cubs and brought them up like puppies. A few will allow strangers to handle them, but some resent being handled, even by those who have reared them. Often, as they grow up, the urge to return to the wild, becomes more obvious and many succeed in doing so.
“These, no doubt, were problems which confronted the prehistoric men who first tamed the wild dog. By domestication, and even more by selective breeding, these problems were to a great extent overcome. But breeders of all animals and plants must always fight against the tendency to revert to Nature. That is why while anyone can breed scrub stock, the number of breeders like [Thomas] Booth, and [Robert] Bakewell, who will go down in history, is great improvers of our breeds of livestock, are few in number. I doubt very much, if, in the many aspects of livestock breeding, there is a stronger tendency to revert to nature than in the mentality of the domestic dog. One has only to consider the mean, cowardly, furtive collection of thoroughly unlikable creatures, from which ‘man’s best friend’ is descended to realize what that means.”
Right.
The number of reliably trained wild animal species is not open-ended, and those we have domesticated and bred for trust and bidability is finite.
There are no wolves at the circus.
We can breed animals away from their wild roots, but every once in a while the unwanted pentimento of a past incarnation will bleed into the foreground.
When that’s genetic fear, it’s a real problem.
