How do canine retrievers know how to fetch from birth? how can that ability be "in their blood",?

Answer 1

The term "in their blood" means the dog's instinct. It is in that dog's instict to "fetch". Am instict is the response to a stimulus. An example of an instict is to flinch when soming piches you. When the dog sees the toy or whatever is being thrown his/her mind tells him/her to chase it. Like, if you run away from a wolf the wolf will chase you that is why you should never run from a wolf, but walk. It is all entwined with history.

Answer 2

Many of the traits we see in dogs derive from wolves. If you watch a wolf pack hunt, you will see the traits of the border collie, the hounds, the pointers, and retrievers. We have bred these traits in or out of dogs. Essentially, we turn off the traits we don't want, and then breed only those dogs that do what we require, such as a retriever.
I have had retrievers all my life, and some are better than others. Sometimes, I have seen a light go off in a pup that would not retrieve, as if he just "remembered" how to retrieve, but it was there all the time. Hope this answers your question.

Answer 3

Not so.
Dogs have, as any other carnivorous animal, a hunting instinct, so they are naturally inclined to chase prey. But pure breed dogs are a result of human manipulation of genetic traits through cross breeding. So it's ability to "retrieve" prey instead of simply hunting it is an implanted ability.
But they are not all as good. A good retriever is hand picked from a litter and it must be trained. Otherwise he won't do what you ask him to. It is still a learned ability.

Answer 4

Retrievers have a genetic predisposition for fetching things. When these breeds were being created, the breeder selected parent dogs that liked to fetch. He perpetuated this tendency, only using the fetching animals to make the new generations. Finally, this tendency was part of the breed.

Answer 5

Basically, yes. It's instinct and they play it as a game. Poodles are excellant retrievers also, as well as the labrador breeds, and other hunting breeds. Best of luck to you........

Answer 6

its natural, its wat god give them, you train a tiger to be a veggie from birth , he will still eat meat..