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Environmental Influence On Nerves

This is an excerpt from the forums at molosserdogs.com where sbates made and excellent post.
on Wednesday 20 February 2008
by Gary Sicard author list print the content item create pdf file of the content item
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The effects of nature, nurture and external pressures on the development of temperament and nerves.

Depriving a dog of environmental stimulation may be viewed as cruel but it does not mean the dog will have weak nerves. There are numerous cases of dogs that are always kenneled (beagles and foxhounds come to mind, as well as some canine research colonies) and these animals are not barking at birds, aggressive to nonthreatening people or otherwise difficult to handle. Also normal canines, are energy conserving animals (even terriers!)

Likewise, for every GSD that panics during thunderstorms, exhibits immense barrier frustration, self mutilating behaviors, and attacks the meter man, there are numerous others that are content housepets. They don't attend herding, Schutzhund, obedience, doggie day care, or ballet lessons. They might not attain their 'full potential' but they are well mannered enjoyable pets nontheless. Furthermore, I know of several 'working' GSDs who have successfully transitioned to retirement homes. If what you state is true, retirement from Schutzhund III competition or daily apprehension of bad guys would not be possible.
Dogs of various breeds have been designed for vocation, but only a minority actually do any 'work' these days.

Again, kudos to Jean Donaldson for the following which I have abbreviated:
Dogs are domesticated. This makes them easier to socialize but does not guarantee against antisocial behavior. Think of selective pressure when striving to meet breed standards which state things such as "aloof and territorial", "discerning", "wary of strangers", "one-family dog" etc. Our nuture-based society is hell bent on denying any genetic influence on behavior, yet breed bans are supported (Even if a breed ban could be enforced successfully, it would not take anyone wanting aggressive dogs very many generations to corrupt another breed, and this assumes the problem is entirely genetic)!! The irony is baffling. People are also obsessed with "saving" dogs, when not all can be rehabilitated mentally or physically. Such dogs should not be recycled.

We are instructed that if a dog has unhelpful genetics, one must then compensate with extensive socialization. But, there are also two other considerations aside from external environment: One is prenatal environment and the other is maternal behavior. There is research (in rodents) that suggests that stress during pregnancy can lead to stress overresponsiveness in mature offspring. Might be true in other animals as well. Maternal behavior can influence the development of fear in puppies. Maternal influence is very obvious in animals such as horses that spend many months with their dams prior to weaning (obvious overlap with learning or mimicking behaviors here).

Animals are keenly aware of social distance and continually manipulate that distance. There are two ways to do this: Move yourself away or get the other dog to move away (function of aggression). If one doesn't work, they will switch to the other. Which plan an individual dog chooses first is a function of his genetic predisposition and learning history (do what was successful last time).
Bottom line: genetic predisposition makes one plan or the other more likely and influences how likely the individual dog is to spook in the first place (all other things like socialization level, being equal).

Though some may say that boredom is a dog's worst enemy, avoidance of novelty is the default setting for animals. Curious genes will not be passed on if dog is injured or dead. The ramification of spooking at something that is harmless/beneficial is is far preferable to NOT spooking at something that is dangerous.

For me, a weak nerved dog has no "bounce-back". I personally don't care if a young dog spooks as long as he/she RECOVERS. Incidentally, a major hang-up that many dog trainers and pet owners have, is that they fail to accept that THE DOG decides what is spooky or threatening. The more a young dog encounters novel situations in which it is initially reluctant/spooky and gets over it, the more the underlying trait of stability (bounce-back) is developed. Overall confidence is enhanced. Those are the two goals of socialization: to reduce the number of items in universe that puppy may spook about but ALSO repeatedly provide the experience of feeling fearful and then getting over it!! Flaky temperaments are those that are unforgiving or acquire phobias more readily.

To illustrate a problem with temperament tests: You've got six puppies and you individually test their reaction to a novel stimulus such as an umbrella opening suddenly.

Puppies one and two are not spooked in the slightest. They wag and investigate umbrella (Maybe they try to pee on it like Stacey's dog did LOL) Puppies three and four spook first and then investigate.
Puppies five and six spook and don't get around to investigating by the time the testing period is over.

What have you learned about the puppies?
Standard interpretation.

Puppies one and two are very stable.
Puppies three and four are a bit spooky.
Puppies five and six are definitely spooky.
Wrong...you haven't learned anything about puppies one and two. They haven't actually been tested yet. Puppies three and four are reactive but display excellent bouce-back .
Puppies five and six are reactive and some lack of bounce-back.

The test is to determine the reaction of the puppy to something that frightens it...not how the puppy feels about wet weather gear! You first have to supply a fearful stimulus to see how well puppies one and two respond to it. When they encounter something that scares them, they might react like puppies five and six...or worse.

Comments

Environmental Influence On Nerves Gary Sicard 20 Feb : 15:25 Reply to this
Comments: 5

 		Excellent article Sarah. It is so good that I had to move it from MD to caucasian.org where it has great application.


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