Behaviour Learnt Or Genetic?

[littleminx]

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I have been thinking long and hard about animal behaviour. Do you think a puppy learns his behaviour mainly from his mum or do you think it is genetic?

Sandro plays with the hose same as his mother does yet he had never seen her do it before when he started? He also has a natural flair for sleeve work which his mum has never done but his farther has.

Tweed likes to nugde into you and her son Joe who i ran on for 6 moths did the very same thing.

My young horse Spirit was seperated form his mum Molly at 11 months old but he has so many of her habits it is unreal and these were not all learnt in those early days as they lived out in the feild with mimimal handling. When Molly has a headcollar on she nugdes and pushes you constanly, Spirit now does the same thing. Molly will stand licking your hand for hours and Spirit will do the same.

I have also met dogs that have strange quirks when working and their ofspring have the very same habits but have never seen it's parent work. For example one bitch always jumps up barks and nips her owner before fetching a ball and her female puppy is doing the same but has never seen her mum do this.

I belive behaviour is genetic not just learned what are your views.

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[TC]

Hi Littleminx,

I think that it is a mix of the two. They learn a lot of behaviour from observation, but there are those "built in" traits that are most definitely there.

Jake's breeder had both the sire and dam and whilst we met both she was telling us stories about their different personalities.

Jake had never been housed in the same building, let alone kennel, as his dad yet it became apparent within a matter of days that they both have an overwhelming desire to burrow. She told us how Duke (the sire) went completely inside the duvet cover in his crate, and Jake is exactly the same (much to Ollie's annoyance who like to lay ontop of the bed/covers :- " )

Like Molly and Spirit, Ollie is an obsessive licker of any human flesh, and whilst I was at his breeders his dam didn't stop licking my hand (w00t)

It's an interesting topic, and will be good to hear what others think........

 

[*Lesley*]

I was having flashbacks then about the child psychology course I've just done, we spent weeks talking about Nature v Nurture and came to the same conclusion as Tracy, I should imagine that it will be the same with puppies as children really in that sense,they know things that we as humans could not teach them so must be already there but then we take over as parent and teach/train them instead of their mother

 

[BeeJay]

What's amazing is how puppies are like the sire that they've never met.

I spent a wonderful evening at Lydia's. When my Mouse met his grandsire Guy for the first time. Inititally he was afraid of grampy but then Guy did something and Mouse's face was a picture he got it straight away.

Dessie will understand this 'cause her Frankie does it too. The rush over to the other dog on their toes. Head's up, tails high and wagging and then the launch at each other where they hit their chests together and kinda hug each other.

The first time that I saw it was a meeting of Guy and Frankie I thought oh my god they are going to fight. But no they knew that it was an invitation to play. Frankie, Guy, Bean and Mouse all do it.

 

[jue332]

What's amazing is how puppies are like the sire that they've never met.
I spent a wonderful evening at Lydia's.  When my Mouse met his grandsire Guy for the first time.  Inititally he was afraid of grampy but then Guy did something and Mouse's face was a picture he got it straight away.

Dessie will understand this 'cause her Frankie does it too.  The rush over to the other dog on their toes.  Head's up, tails high and wagging and then the launch at each other where they hit their chests together and kinda hug each other. 

The first time that I saw it was a meeting of Guy and Frankie I thought oh my god they are going to fight.  But no they knew that it was an invitation to play.  Frankie, Guy, Bean and Mouse all do it.

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Wow that must have been an amazing sight to see

Julie

 

[Vicky]

Yeh it's quite interesting

My old girl kit kneels down, she has her front end completely on the floor and her back end standing up, she'll stay like that for an hour easily, some of her pups have done that too.

The my last litter, the stud stayed at my house for a week and ater he'd emptied he scratch up, but not just a little bit, it was a really really exaggerated and Jude a pup off him does the same, i mean we're talking divets of mud being scratched up and flying over the fence! lol

 

[Seraphina]

From my observation over many years I feel there is lot of inheritance in the temperament of each puppy (and other living creatures, us including). I have also noticed habits of the sire in my pups, although they never met. However there is lot you can change. If a puppy is for instance very timid you can either help it to gain confidence or you can make it even more frightened. So the nurture bit can be extremely important.

 

[dessie]

I would say it is a mixture of both, most definitely.

 

[Tesa]

What's amazing is how puppies are like the sire that they've never met.
I spent a wonderful evening at Lydia's.  When my Mouse met his grandsire Guy for the first time.  Inititally he was afraid of grampy but then Guy did something and Mouse's face was a picture he got it straight away.

Dessie will understand this 'cause her Frankie does it too.  The rush over to the other dog on their toes.  Head's up, tails high and wagging and then the launch at each other where they hit their chests together and kinda hug each other. 

The first time that I saw it was a meeting of Guy and Frankie I thought oh my god they are going to fight.  But no they knew that it was an invitation to play.  Frankie, Guy, Bean and Mouse all do it.

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Wow that must have been an amazing sight to see

Julie

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Did it look something like this. This is Beau with his brother Dobby. They hadn't seen each other for months and it was the first time since they had left the breeder, that they had been given an opportunity to actually play. I have never seen him react like this to any other dog. They had an absolute ball.

 

[dessie]

Yep! Something like that!! Although Frankie doesn't go in for too much contact sport nowadays!

I have only just read the previous posts properly and concur with Beejay!! I did not get Frankie until he was a year old, he had lived in kennels on his own, although he could see all the others and I thought his behaviour was a very mixed message one, as though he had never learnt to socialise. But no other dog has EVER taken it as a sign of aggression or stood up to him and, as Beejay has pointed out, his son and great grandson both do it as well so it must be just an inherited trait!

Silly old black dog, Dante, who came from the same breeder but, although related to Frankie is slightly different lines, does not do this kind of greeting! Strange, isn't it.

 

[kris]

when i studied human psychology we were taught that behaviour is either nature or nurture.(in other words we have a bit of both and im sure a dog is the same some is learned some is inheirited)inheirant things are such as a baby crying whereas a learned behaviour is such as a baby smiling.but we had an argument over this cos a blind baby will smile too.and if the baby cant see then how does it learn to smile?

 

[littleminx]

That is a very good point Kris, also blind puppies?

Does a smile not come from emotions????

 

[kris]

yes,but my first psychology lecturer asked us a question one day.she said whats the first thing a baby learns?so everyone said what they thought it was and they were all wrong.so i then said' to smile' and she said yes.but since then we were told that a baby who is blind from birth will still smile.so it isnt learned behaviour or else a blind baby couldnt do it.and yes i think its emotive so its inheirant