Becoming
Nature vs Nurture—Nothing is “Common Sense” Anymore BY JACQUELYN FOGEL
T he arguments sur rounding the impacts of Nature vs Nurture on people, dogs cows and all things mammal have been around for centu- ries. There have been debates, scientific stud- ies, lots of anecdotal examples, and many conversations about which is more impor- tant than another in their impact on the final product. Mostly I have heard interesting con-
get another dog. The “breeder” told her that she was in luck because she had just bred the mother of the Goldendoodle to a Poodle male, and the lady could buy one of those Golden- doodle puppies. Please go back and carefully re-read what I just wrote. The “breeder” bred a female Poodle to a male Poo- dle and told the buyer the puppies would be Goldendoodles. Now in fairness, I don’t know if the Goldendoodle lady made up the following, or if she heard it from her “breeder”, but it goes something like this. Yes, the mother and father were both Poodles, but they carried a doodle factor, so when bred together by a breeder of Goldendoodles they would produce Goldendoodle puppies. So in this lady’s world her puppy is not a Poodle in spite of the fact that both parents are Poodles. It is the offspring of two doodle-factored Poodles, thereby making it a Goldendoodle. This made my head hurt. The second conversation was not near as extreme, but still significant. A woman called and asked if I had any older bedlingons that might be good at killing vermin. She lived on a lot of acreage that had been home to cattle, but was now home to mostly moles and gophers. She had heard Bed- lingtons were good vermin killers and she was interested in buying one. I was thinking this conversation was going to go in a really nice direction when she mentioned that she also had a somewhat submissive male Goldendoodle and wanted to know if an adult Bedlington would get along with her won- derful pet. Now it was getting complicated. I explained to the woman that the best vermin killer Bed- lingtons were likely to be the ones that had a lower threshold for kill mode. Though I have not bred specifically for vermin- killing, it is truly an instinct that has been bred into these dogs over centuries. She was on the right track looking for an effective vermin killer in Terriers, but then she wanted to be reassured that the dog that would surely kill vermin would also leave alone her submissive and probably annoying Gol- dendoodle. I could not guarantee that would be true. In my experience with Bedlingtons, it is never wise to leave them unattended with another dog because the same instinct that makes them great at their vermin-killing job, can also make them great at attacking another animal, humans excluded. Most of the Bedlingtons I have known and bred adore their people, but not always another animal in the same vicin- ity. I speculate that this is because the Terriers, like hunt- ing dogs, were bred to work for their people to make their lives better. Sporting dogs do what their people ask them in order to bring food to the table and Terriers do what their humans want in killing small mammals humans don’t want
versations that usually invoked some sort of informed dia- logue. Few people could actually cite research findings (Car- man Battaglia and Pat Trotter are notable exceptions), but there has almost always been a basic understanding about what the two concepts involved, and their relative contribu- tions in a breeding program. Even our mothers and fathers knew what we meant when we discussed the virtues and downfalls in nature vs nurture conversations. I usually found the conversations interesting, even if they lacked scientific support. How much of our dogs is a result of genetics, and how much is the result of how they are card for? Can genet- ics be transformed with enough positive training? Can great genetics inoculate a dog against the effects of poor socializa- tion? They are great questions, worthy of discussion. We are in a different world today. That became immediate- ly obvious to me in two ways this past week. Disclaimer first. I didn’t actually participate in the first conversation, so I am passing along hearsay. However, I have had similar conversa- tions to this one with several pet owners I have as boarding clients, so I do not doubt its authenticity. An AKC doggy person was at a park and remarked about the lovely Poodle another woman was walking. The woman huffed, and told our doggy lady that her dog was not a Poodle, but actually a Goldendoodle (as though that was somehow better—another story). Then she began to explain to our doggy lady that the breeder of this dog had bred a Poodle female to a Golden male to produce the previous Goldendoo- dle this lady owned, so she went back to the same breeder to
“EVEN OUR MOTHERS AND FATHERS KNEW WHAT WE MEANT WHEN WE DISCUSSED THE VIRTUES AND DOWNFALLS IN NATURE VS NURTURE CONVERSATIONS. I USUALLY FOUND THE CONVERSATIONS INTERESTING,
EVEN IF THEY LACKED SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT.”
84 • S how S ight M agazine , D ecember 2018
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