Nature vs. nurture?

Question

It's an age-old question for mankind. But what about dogs? When researching a dog breed for a pet, how much importance should I place on breed temperment information? Does it all depend on how the dog is raised? Are genetics important? What is the professional dog breeder's viewpoint?

More specifically, I got this guidebook to dog breeds. It has a rating on how good each breed is with children. But that "ruled out" some of my favourite breeds. Now what?

Answer 1

I said it once and I will say it again, if genetics were as important as some say, then why do breeders not guarrantee the temperments of the dogs they produce. Ed Frawley has this right in his guarrantee:
"We do not warrant the temperament of our puppies. Temperament is determined by genetics and environment. Too often, nice puppies develop temperament problems as a result of the way they were raised. We have no control over environment."
Some folks would lead you to believe that genetics are the end all be all of a dogs temperment, but if this was the case then a superiorly bred dog should overcome any environmental shortcomings it may be exposed to and be the perfect dog no matter how it was raised. This simply isn't the case. The reality is this: many abused dogs with crap genetics florish in an evironment where they are loved and can learn to trust their new owners. Poorly bred dogs are more the rule than the exception. The average person finds their dog in the pet store (and if you bought your dog at a pet store, it came from a puppy mill! No exceptions!), out of the newspaper or in the shelter. If one does buy a papered dog, they are not the outstanding example of the breed you may think, they are the pups the breeder already knows will not have a very successful show carreer and are sold as pets only. You see, breeding 2 genetically superior dogs will not always produce a litter of pups that will be as good as their parents in appearance or temperment. It will increase the chances, but personality fluctuates from dog to dog as it does from person to person. This should put it all in a nutshell:
"Variability in behaviour has a wider range within a breed than between breeds. Within the discipline of psychobiology and animal behaviour there is no data from empirically supported studies, published in refereed scientific literature, to support the idea that one breed of dog is `vicious.' The adult behaviour of a domestic dog is determined overwhelmingly by its experiential history, environmental management and training." - Dr. Mary Lee Nitschke, Ph.D.
Many breeders will argue this, but they usually have a narrow range of experience and a great deal of bias. They focus on making more dogs, rather than getting the big picture of dog behavior. Here you will also find a great deal of conjecture and emtionally based opinion rather than researched facts. :)
Breed temperment information is a broad, generalized desription of a breed of dog and if you look closely at any single breed and compare individual dogs, you can see how widely their behavior varies from one to the next.

Answer 2

Definately both! A stable puppy can be ruined by the owners and ill tempered parents tend to have ill tempered offspring.

All dogs are individuals, but they should have the temperament to do the job they were bred to do. Terriers will dig, Shelties will nip at the kids heels, Scenthounds will bark, Sighthounds are not as trainable, etc.

I wouldn't necessarily go by what someone says in a book. I have seen some books claim certain breeds were not good with kids, when that is not always true.

The best thing to do would be to go to a couple dog shows and talk to some breeders of the breeds you are interested in. They will know the breeds best and you are more likely to get a good puppy with a stable temperament from a show breeder. And then do things right, take it to Puppy Kindergarten and obedience classes, but not stupid furbaby classes like they have at Petsmart, go to a kennel or obedience club where the instructors know what they are doing.

Answer 3

you should place very much importance on temperment.
that is, high energy level and working breeds will require you to also be high energy, you can't train a dog to be lazy.
you work with what a dog presents you with to best accomidate it's nature. THey are both equally important is what I'm trying to say, but i think your (potential owner) lifestyle and temperment are even more important considerations.
you can train a pitbull to be nice and fun and not bite..but you have to train it a different way than you would train say, a black lab to be nice and fun and not bite..am I making sense??

Answer 4

Dog's temperment has alot to do with both. Which seems to be the answer with all nature nurture questions. Lets take a border collie for example, we have one and my grandma has one. They are suppose to be horrible with children, my grandmas is great with her grandchildren, while ours is horrible with children and attacks them. Probably because my grandma socialized hers more with children, so there environment has a factor. But with our dog his natural tendency to herd things that move quickly are in his nature, and thats what he does with unfamiliar things. Same with my Shiba inu. I'd say avoid dogs that are very tempermental around kids, but if you have a breed in mind that you like and isn't the worst around kids, make sure you get a young puppy and socialize it ASAP, but make sure you keep all interactions with young children positive! Good Luck :)

Answer 5

Genetics plays an enormous role...otherwise we would't spend the time and money on choosing the "right" dog to breed with.

The responsible or irresponsible owner is secondary....

Answer 6

Yes, it is all dependant on how you treat and train the dog.

Answer 7

i go with my favoite breeds. but then a again i dont get ur question.